The instructions tell you to make two tube spacers from aluminium tube but don’t tell you which stock to use it from so I sifted through the entire inventory of fuselage parts to check which stock I was supposed to use. It turns out there are only 2 suitable stock tubes I could use and they were both the same length.
I marked the length required on the first tube and made the cut using the chop saw. Unfortunately I didn’t account for the width of the blade and cut the first tube too short. Grrr. Luckily I had a spare tube so I used that and made two good parts. The plans call for the parts to be precisely 1.4375″ long and I used the lathe to get a very nice flat face and a precise length.
In the end I had two identically sized aluminium tube spacers.
The next instruction was a surprise. Van’s asks for 4 solid wood blocks the exact same size as the spacers. Hmm, that was going to be a challenge as my woodworking skills have never been as accurate as that before. Luckily I had some hardwood stock lying around so I set up the chop saw to cut 1 7/16″ block. They were a touch oversized so I used the belt sander to bring them to the precise measurement.
After that I needed to drill a hole in the centre of the wooden spacers so I set up the pillar drill to get as straight a hole as possible.
After the most meticulous woodwork I’ve ever done, I’m really pleased with how they turned out.
To make sure that I’ve done it right Van’s instructions say to trial fit everything which I duly did.
That’s as much as I can do with the F-704 bulkhead for now. I will need to prime the parts before I can rivet everything together which I will do in one large batch with all the other parts.