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Just for fun, I dug out the fiberglass tips and set them in place for this picture. As you can see from these two additional pieces, the front one will fit in snug, while the longer rear one has a space between it and the HS, plus its longer. This is because we still have to assemple the elevators which will have a hinging tab come up around the HS and fit snuggly in that opening. I'm stating the obvious to some of you, but for those that don't know, it is this missing piece (the elevator) that will make the airplane pitch up or down. Looks like an airplane! Well.... now we are feeling quite pressured to get our garage re-wired (electrical) and put some drywall up. Once we do that and some minor repairs to insulate and keep moisture out (since I'm sure we'll be working well through the winter), then we'll move our workshop in there. It's a bigger space, plus, we have less of a chance to accidentally build the airplane too big and not be able to get it out of the basement unless we demolish a wall (that would be bad). We have since taken everything apart and are in the process of deburring. As soon as we get a new set of Hand Squeezers (for driving rivets and "dimpling"), then we'll beging the dimpling process.
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We are slowly discovering that building a kit plane requires just as much woodworking skills as sheet metal skills. Shannon built this table for the dimpling process, specifically for the skins. because lumber doesn't come in the increments that would have made this job easier, we attached adjustible feet. This has worked out really well. We would recommend anyone working with a C-frame dimpler to build a table to keep the skins level. Even the slightest tilt can cause the dimple to come out uneven and the rivet doesn't sit flush as it should.
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Here is a good shot showing how level the table is to the dimple dies. We covered the plywood with felt to keep from scratching the skins and even took into account it's thickness when adjusting the hight. We are very happy with how it turned out.
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Here's an expanded view.
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This is a shot of a rib that we have dimpled. Ultimately, when we put it all back together, the skins, which have also been dimpled, will nestle into these dimples to make for nice flush riveting later.
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Here's all the ribs and spars dimpled. These were all done with the hand-squeezers.
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Here's the left horizontal stab finally dimpled. We have discovered that it is this step that is the most tedious and time consuming. Because the dimpling is done with a mallet on the table we just built, it is a tedious process to hit it just right, once or twice, take it out, check the depth (too shallow and the rivet with not sit flush, too deep and you and creating a place for moisture and corrosion to form later). So then you carefully put it in... hit... carefully pull it out... check... repeat. For those of you who may be building your own RV's, even though the dimple dies are rounded-off and smooth, they will still put nasty scratches in your skins. Take precaution. This was a little easier with the two of us working on it.
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Here's a close-up of the dimpled skin.
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