Page 10-04 Build Time: 216 hrs

Finally got to put some parts together. I finished off the tail cone frames and the rear bulkhead. All the skins are scuffed, cleaned and ready for primer. It's pretty cool to see these parts go together. I've been staring at them for nearly two months. In a couple weeks I'll be hanging the skins on the frames and making big parts out of little parts.

Ready to spray primer

Rear bulkhead with the main squeeze

Everything goes pretty quick once the parts are ready to assemble

Rear bulkhead ready to dry fit to the stabilizer

Page 10-04 Build Time: 196 hrs

Managed to get in a solid 8 hours this weekend. I have all the parts for the tail cone ready for the final cleaning and then into primer. I still need to scuff and clean the skins but I've decided to go ahead and prime everything but the skins in the next session. Between final cleaning, setting up and cleanup afterward that will take most of a day. Once those parts are done I'll assemble the frames and rear bulkhead and then move to the skins.

It's hard to believe I started this section in Jan and now we're looking at the backend of March but the Cessna's annual and school took up a lot of weekends. Pretty much every weekend I've found time for both the RV and the Cessna (there's always something to work on) but both have to take a back seat to studying or there's no point to going to school.

It's bee a long haul to get to this point. The skins were a lot of work until I finally got the die grinder and some red scotch brit 2 inch pads - that knocked it down quite a bit. Once these parts are primed and assembled as far as can be I'll get back the final scuff and cleaning of the skins.

Page 10-02 Build Time: 182 hrs

Still working on the tail cone. I have all the skins ready for scuff and prime. They've been fitted I used the teflon roller tool to break the edges. I'll finish the frames this weekend and the rear bulkhead will get me back to fab and ready for primer. February was a slow month as the annual is due on the Cessna and that took a couple weekends to iron out the squawks and complete. 

The parts in the foreground are done, the ones at the other end are all that's left to deburr. I'm making good use of the right angle die grinder and accessories. I would recommend this as the first purchase for deburring but all of the tools see a fair amount of use. 

This is the result of too much money and not enough time. But it makes getting through deburring much faster. I started out with just the files and the edge tool. Those rarely get used now. I'm still using the small files around the small areas on the edges. If you can see it, there's a drill bit meant for a CNC machine that I use for deburring drilled holes. It works much better than the deburr tool I bought (I use that to finish off counter sinks now) and then nice thing about this bit is it stays sharp and the shank is smooth. Using a bit with it's flutes is pretty hard on the fingers.