Seat ribs and baggage ribs

I have been working on the seat and baggage ribs that past month. Slowly, I am getting these installed. I have one side of the baggage area left to fab up, then I can paint the baggage ribs and permantely rivet them in place. I have also fabbed up the baggage side bulkheads. There is a intersection of a bulkhead and rib in the baggage area. It's a PITA to get this cut just right so you don't have a big ugly eye sore sticking out of your baggage area for all to see.

I also was delayed in the seat rib area when I found out that I did not get the seat ribs F-616 seat ribs with my kit. I got two sets of F-617, one of being labeled F-616 L/R. SO they got deburred and primed long ago, waiting for the day to put into place. That day, I got to the location and these ribs would not fit in place. So I started measuring the ribs and found out that they were F-617 ribs, that are slightly larger and fit in the next bay over towards the center of the fuselage. A call to Vans and they sent me a new set (free of charge) the next day. This is why I do business with Van's. That is why they are the leading kit producer of all time. HAPPY CUSTOMERS buy airplane kits. Unhapppy custormers take their business (money) elsewhere. Maybe some of our major companies in America selling products to us should review this lesson.

Anyways, I got the seat ribs all in place and I will have the baggage area wrapped up in several days. Then I can get into the tail cone.

I did spend a lot of time getting the F-607 bulkhead in place. I could not get the bulkhead to center on my centerline with the measurements from the plans. I had my longerons centered and when I put the bulkhead in place, my centerline on the bulkhead was off 1/8 of an inch. I had to back up and start looking at the bulkhead. I found the tooling holes on the bottom of the bulkead where not what the plans said for distance between them. I measured off of one side during constuction and made my centerline, instead of measuring the centers between the two holes and then making a center line. I re centered my mark and now I am within a stringline width (1/16th") from the centerline. I can live with that. If you can see that on the airplane at 200 mph at 8000ft then you are a better man than me.....

Installing F-606 rear spar bulkhead

I have been working on the rear spar bulkhead and getting the side seat rib installed. I have measured this distance several hundred times to make sure that it is the same distance as the wing spars. Getting it correct means that when it comes time to install a wing, they will slide right in place with no interference with the rear spar bulkhead.

I have also installed the arm rests as well. I install angles at both ends since your will be putting your weight on these, it pays to have both ends secured so the front doesn't flex. Next will come the installation of all the seat ribs. Once this is done, I can pull all the parts apart and debur, dimple, countersink and prime, then rivet it all back together and move on down the line.

Constructing the forward fuselage

I have been at it for several days, working on the forward section of the fuselage. I have set the angle of incidence, which from all my smart levels, tell me it's at 1 degree.  I have measured that distance about a 100 times to make sure it's correct and everything is in it's place. There is a ton of work in the fuselage and being a side by side, there is even more. The RV-6 has some many little brackets, gussets and angle pieces to tie everything together. Once it in place, it's very strong, however, it is a lot of parts to make and fit.

I have one side of the forward fuselage together now and will get the rest fabbed up today or tomorrow. Then it's off to deburring and priming land. After that I can rivet it all back together-for good.

The next big obstacle is to get the rear spar bulkhead centered, leveled and to height in the jig. Then I have to get the correct distancce between the rear spar and main spar. If you don't, and you go to put on your wings, your rear spar attach won't line up with the wing rear spar. I have seen people get big hammers out and try to bend the rear spar over to line up. We won't be doing that here. I will make a small jig out of some angle stock that will be the exact distance between the two spars. Then I will attach this jig to the false spar I have fabricated (see photos) and to the rear spar attach point. Then I can drill the two side seat ribs in place and that will lock it all together.

Priming longeron parts

I've spent the better part of one day priming the longerons. No easy task since these things are over 14 feet long and have a curve in them. I cleaned them with acid etch and then alodined them too.
I wanted these parts primed with epoxy primer so it took a little longer to mix up the paint and spray them out. I also primed several of the gussets that go up against the firewall mounts.

Now I can start riveting some pieces together and set the longerons in the jig for good. I will then start fabricating all of the pieces that go in the forward fuselage and set the angle of incidence for the wing.

Longerons are bent and now it's time to drill!

The past several days I have spent bending the main fuselage longerons. This is no easy task on the RV-6 as there is a nice curve to the side of the fuselage. There is a template on one of the plans that gives you the outline of the side of the aircraft. What I do is cut the template out and tape it down to my benchtop. I make sure I have plenty of room all the way around the benchtop, then I start clamping down the longeron over the top of the first station on the fuselage. I align the outside of the longeron with the outline of the template and keep clamping it down. When I start reaching the areas that have the curve, I start bending the longeron over the top of the benchtop. Now the longeron will want to twist as you bend it. I made a special tool that clamps down on the longeron and I can bend the longeron in the opposite direction of the twisting. Once I get the longeron to curve with the template, I clamp down the area with another C-clamp. I keep doing this until all of the longeron is bent and its laying relatively flat on the benchtop. It should follow the outline of the template without having to force it into place.

Once one longeron is bent, then you have to flip the template over and bend a mirror image of the first longeron.

It took me about 3 hours to just bend both longerons and get the proper twist in the first part to line up with the firewall mounts and for the rest of the longeron to lay flat on the jig. You want the longeron to have all of the proper curves, bend and alignment without having to force it in place.

Today, I have drilled one of the longerons to the firewall and also drilled the top gusset in place as well. I will do the other side tomorrow.

Setting up the fuselage jig

I have been working on getting the fuselage jig set up. It takes a while to get the thing level, plumb and square. It can be quite frustrating so I would get a couple of measurements a day done and bolt the thing in place. I finally have completed that task and now I am starting to put the parts on the jig.

This too is no easy thing to do. Now I understand why people get the quick build kit. I guess I was just more enthusiastic about building when I built the first RV-6. Now it's just mundane but it has to be done. I have gotten the firewall mounted in the jig and it's probably the most complicated part to install since it has to be exact in height, plumb, square and center to the jig. If I get this thing on there crooked, then everything else, including the engine will be off.

You will see a machinist level is one of the pictures that is gnat's ass on the money. This was no easy task but that firewall is on there perfectly and I am happy with the setup. Next I will start with the centersection but I first have to bend the main longeron. This takes time and A LOT of clamps.

It took me several hours to find the layout of the longeron. My wife was asking me why I was digging around in the closet. It wasn't looking for hidden Chirstmas gifts I can tell you that......
I found it on the main layout of the fuselage and it even shows all the other dimensions too. Imagine that. Progress. Now off to the toolbox to get out every C-clamp I own so I can bend this damn longeron.

Building the fuselage jig

It's been over a month since I have purchased the wood for my jig. I let it acclimate to my garage temp/moisture so it did not warp after I purchased it. I stacked it up and let it sit. Over the weekend I started working on it, cutting all of the pieces for it. These past couple of days I have been assembling the jig and making sure it's all straight, plumb and square. While I was piecing together the ladder section, I had my wife help me level it up with a transit. I shot 6 points on the floor and made them all level so the side rails did not have any twist or crown in them when I screwed it all together. I used all wood/deck screws so this thing should not move at all once it's in place. Now I have to move it over to the other bay in my garage and relevel the jig, anchor it in place. Once its perfectly level and plumb, I will start putting some of the bulkheads in place.