Step 8.6, Tail cone assembly

Now for the fun part:

And so the aft fuselage assembly begins...  The tail cone is the tapering part of the fuselage between the rear of the cockpit going all the way back to the rudder.  The frame for the tail cone is made from the bulkheads previously constructed, the longerons, and J stringers which are a kind of longeron that are shorter.  Here's a look at the end of a J stringer.  

Before getting too far along on the assembly we are instructed to setup three saw horses.  I didn't want to use my ratty old saw horses for my new plane so I found these in the Home Depot aviation department.  I added the pine feet to preserve my floor. Notches in the wood and a screw in each leg will help prevent an accidental fold up.  Although the horses are rated for 500 pounds each, I wouldn't trust them with more than a couple hundred.

The first part of the assembly is the test fitting and match drilling.

At right the F779 tail cone skin is mated to the F711 and F712 bulkheads.  This skin is very thick and doesn't bend easily.  Unfortunately it doesn't exactly fit either.  It takes considerable muscle to massage it into a shape that approximates the rounded bottom of the bulkheads.  Fortunately, I ate my Wheaties.  Care must be taken here or the resulting holes from the match drilling will not be placed properly or may be elongated if the drill goes through at an angle.

Eventually, the fit is sufficiently good that move on the the big stuff.

Here the bottom skin is set on the horses and some of the J stringers are in place.  The fore and aft bulkheads are checked with plumb bobs to guard against twist in the fuselage before the stringers are and  side skins are clecoed.   

At this point the tail cone is assembled and the match drilling can begin.

Hey where did that blood come from?

Note to self:  Remember to keep fingers clear of drill bit on back side of skins whilst drilling.

There are a lot of holes to debur and dimple.  While I see to that chore, here is my puppy Trina who is more interested in chewing than aviation.

I'm using the angle drill and a piloted counter sink for most of the deburing.

Along the overlapping edges the skin is given a slight bend downward using this tool.  The sheet is clamped between these two roller dies and then pulled along the edge to be treated.  

 Here the treated edge is visible at right.  One can just see the downward bend at the edge of the sheet that keeps the seam tight with the underlapping sheet.

When all the holes are deburred the dimpling begins.  Most of the dimples are made with the DRDT-2 machine below.

Here is a finished dimple.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than a thousand holes to be dimpled on the just the tail cone.  Eventually, the last hole is deburred and dimple.  Hooray!  Here are the skins ready to be assembled after I've primed those areas that will come into contact with the structure.

All that remains is to reassemble the pieces and rivet.  Lots and lots of rivets to drive.

Self portrait.  I hope it makes a better airplane than a mirror.  Before calling it good, I go back and inspect each rivet.  I find six or eight that are voted off of the airplane.  Out comes the drill and punch and very soon these structurally sound, but aesthetically unappealing little boogers are gone.

And with no fanfare whatsoever, the last replacement rivet is driven and the tail cone assembled.  Next, we move on to the center section.