January 23,2018
Notched aft gussets around rudder hinges and riveted. Installed upper and lower longeron triangle gussets. FUSELAGE IS COMPLETE.

Total Time 3 hours

January 22, 2018

Leveled and installed diagonal tubes from upper to lower longerons in aft fuselage.  

Total time 4 hours

January 21, 2018

As a side project, I began working on one of the machine guns for the plane.  The machine gun is a replicated 1915 Spandau MG08/15 gun created from a 3D printer at 80% scale.  I sanded and painted the gun to give it an authentic look.  

December 4, 2017

PLEASE READ:  I decided to check the squaring of the fuselage down the entire length and discovered that the it was square at the front and rear, but that the center of the fuselage was not accurately square in the middle of the fuselage.  I flipped the fuselage frame to check both the top and bottom for squaring and was very disappointed to realize that the fuselage squaring was off by as much as a 1/2  inch.

Hind sight 20/20, I should have measured and secured the fuselage at every 12 inch mark to guarantee that it was consistently square along the entire length of the body (which was eventually accomplished).

I deconstructed the fuselage bottom cross members until I was back to only the l/h and r/h sides.

Reconstructing the fuselage in this third dimension was done to be sure all was square, the .090 gussets with 3/16" rivets were drilled out. The .032 gussets with 1/8" rivets were drilled out. I was able to use new 3/16" rivets in the .090 gussets. I cut and coped all new tubes. The 1/8" rivets in the .032 gussets were drilled and rebuilt with oversized 5/32" rivets along with all new tubing.

Constructing this fuselage with all tubes and keeping everything square was quite the challenge. New builders keep a close eye on this phase of the construction. As many other DVII builders have said in various blogs, "just looking at the assembly of tubes seems to make them go out of square". I agree 100%

Very disappointing, yet good lesson to learn early in this build.

December 3, 2017

Completed forward fuselage top cross members, angle ribs and gusset riveting.
Total time 4.5 hours

November 27 2017 - Finished lower forward fuselage cross and angle brace rib riveting. Turned fuselage over, re- jigged to begin top ribs/angle brace installation. Total build 5 hours

 

Fuselage is flipped and now begin working on top side of the fuselage...

November 26 2017 – Constructed vertical jigs, to level and hold fuselage sides. Coped 10 fuselage cross ribs. Cut and coped angle brace. Began installation/riveting of lower fuselage cross ribs and angle brace at forward bottom of fuselage. Total build 8 hours