Frame Glued Up(!), Started Skin Attachment

Mike Senna was kind enough to let me come by again, so I could receive much needed guidance and assistance on the big frame glue-up, and the start of the skin attachment.

We both worked the glue bottles and got the frame glued up lickety-split. I thought this would be an iterative process, using clamps and grips to hold parts of the frame together. Instead, we just worked through the entire frame in one shot, glueing up pretty much everything except the tall wooden shoulder planks, and the pie wedges that help hold them in place. (The shoulder planks will be glued after the shoulder hole has been cut, the pie wedges won't even be glued at all, believe it or not.)

After gluing, we used some of that really strong tape with the threads in it, and stuck it at the top-, middle-, and bottom-side areas of the skins on each side, and stretched the skins as tight as possible around the frame. We pretty much got a perfect fit, and we let the glue set for a couple of hours.



Next, we ensured the alignment of the skins to the frame was as good as possible, and then Mike showed me how to drill and countersink the holes for the screws that attach the skins. Only two holes on the front inner skin so far, but that's enough to get me started.




If that wasn't enough good R2 news for the day, Dave Everett's center internal vents arrived today too.

I'm on vacation until the New Year, so I'd like to get the skins all attached and painted, and the legs attached as well before vacation ends. Here's hoping, anyway.