Well, I have pretty much digested the plans an made some notes and have ideas for what I want to do. I took a few pieces home to play with last night and they have "seen the light" so to speak. I did not cut new parts, just lightened them a little with some extra laser work. Some will be a compromise since I took wood out of the gear plate but will be adding some aluminum "L" to support the gear plate to engine box. I just don't trust a box joint, even with pins since it is just lite ply. Harrier landings and grass runway can take it's toll. I also took some out of the FW backer, but will be adding some carbon or fiberglass to the engine box. Either way, with the carbon gear I ordered this morning, I'm down about 14 ounces before even starting to assemble, so that's not bad.

Maybe later to day, but for sure tomorrow we'll get the glue bottle out and start putting the box together.

Looks great!!

Sweet...I would like to have a laser beam.

Luckily my slick already had a bit of that done.

Originally Posted by husker

Sweet...I would like to have a laser beam.

Some guys just have all the cool tools !

my wife sais I have a cool tool

Originally Posted by robbinsp

my wife sais I have a cool tool

There's always a joker here

Originally Posted by robbinsp

my wife sais I have a cool tool

Too bad you don't get to use it.

Well, I got a start today and all of my sheeting showed up in the mail. Looks like nice 48" stuff from Balsa USA, so that is nice. Spent a fair amount of time trimming the lightening and tab holes out of the laser cut pcs. and sanding the parts.

I started gluing the box together without much issue. The bottom fuse plate is a little short, but only a little more than 1/32", so I'll add some tri-stock there. Not worth re-cutting a new one. There was notches for a 1/2" x 1/2" hardwood block above the landing gear plate, but there was no hardwood included. I was going to add aluminum angle anyway, so I filled the notches....just for fun I cut some 1/2 x 1/2 hardwood to get a weight comparison between that and the angle. I think the slight weight deficit will be more than made up for in strength. After I epoxied the gear plate in, I scuffed the aluminum angle with 100 grit sandpaper and epoxied that in as well (it will also be screwed in later, but epoxy sticks really well to roughly scuffed aluminum and will add more strength).

Last thing I did was cut carbon fiber plate to fit the inset firewall, partly for bling, and partly for strength. I then spread a thin layer of epoxy on the back of the carbon and epoxy on the firewall backer and clamped them in place. Let this dry overnight and we'll see if I can get something done tomorrow as well. I have work-work to do tomorrow as well, so not sure what I'll get done. I do know that I will be re-cutting all the formers from this assembly on back, so I'll probably lay those out and make up my plan tomorrow.

Did not make much progress today, work got in the way. The engine box sticking out that far with no gusset under it was bothering me, so I lasered a gusset and glued it in and got the upper engine box rail glued in.......that's about it for today

Looks good.

I put some 3/8 balsa under the fuel tank trey. It made it a lot stronger.

Originally Posted by husker

I put some 3/8 balsa under the fuel tank trey. It made it a lot stronger.

Thanks, I'm thinking the same thing, but am waiting for some Texalium to show up and I'll play with that as well.

I used texalium as well

It sounds like something that is coming from the Gamma Sector, quadrant 9.