08OCT2022 & 09OCT2022
Yesterday (08OCT2022), I spent about an hour trying to deburr and open up the fuel sender hole in the right tank (hole was cut on top of tank). I also cut the wing root angle into two pieces and started crimping the rear piece. I started the crimping on the rear end (flattest end) instead of the front end (curved end). I didn't quite understand how the crimping worked and I thought I was doing it wrong when the flat end started bending upwards. So I tried to flatten the crimp and crimp it the other direction, but that wasn't right either, lol. I kept messing with it and ended up overworking the metal; so that became a scrap/practice piece.
Today (09OCT2022), Tom came over to help me out. I finished opening up the hole in the right tank and Tom drilled the hole in the left tank ( hole is in the top of the tank). We used a hole saw this time and it was way easier, lol. (I'm also using the fuel sender weld in kit from Viking Aircraft) Tom will drop the tanks off with his friend to have them welded up.
Tom explained the crimping and helped me get the front nose wing root angle piece crimped. There's a little bit of trimming I still need to do, but overall I think it came out really well. I pulled the second angle out and measured where to cut and also measured were it needed to be flattened to. I went to remove the label from the part and accidentally wiped off one of my lines. I thought I wiped away the flatten to line (40mm), but I had actually wiped away the cut to line (67mm). So of course, after I cut the piece and I held it up and it was too short! I totally goofed up on that, lol. I'm not sure why I didn't double check the measurements; just one of those days I guess. So I have two more of those angles on order.
I was also test fitting the tank and found that the tank will not fit when the rear tank support is installed. After looking at it, we decided that the support needed to be trimmed so that it would sit back farther. I had already drilled the holes in it and trimming would have left zero hole clearance, so I also order another one of those.
(No video today)
Nose Wing Root Angle
Build Time: 5 hours, 15 minutes