This post covers the past few days, given we had quite a busy day on the 4th of July, or Independence Day for us ungrateful colonists.
The day before I spent about 4 hours getting the boat ready to take out on the 4th, since I had promised my new bride, Jess, that we could take the boat out for the first half of the day on the 4th. Then, for fireworks in the evening we had a cookout on a nearby beach and enjoyed those with friends. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
As for the build, yes, I’m still trying to finish up these niggling wing root forward heat shields, although I think I’m very close to plasma cutting them and getting them installed.
My tasks the last few days were all about the same ITERATIVE process for both left and right wing root forward heat shields:
I plotted out the initial right heat shield thick paper template along with the second left side template.
I’ll note that I missed some major dimensions somewhere on the right side when inputting it into CAD, because it had issues. I simply annotated it compared with the original cardboard template and updated the CAD model… no use wasting time attempting to test fit.
On the left side template, my top and bottom edges were still too big, causing some buckling in the middle areas of the heat shield mockup. I had a number of tweaks to do on this guy, so back to CAD I went on this side as well.
Which led to the next plotting session, round 2 for the right side (after my initial misfire) and round 3 for the left side…
The left side is VERY close, so much so that I’m not going to remake any more cardboard mockups… a few very minor tweaks in CAD and its ready for plasma cutting (pic 1).
As for the right heat shield mockup, I had a number of significant tweaks that are required (pic 2). So back to the CAD drawing.
And replot #3 for the right side . . .
And a much better fit this round, but still a few minor tweaks required to dial it in completely.
I updated those needed tweaks in the CAD file, and will plot out another final (hopefully!) thick paper template tomorrow, test fit it and then go from there.
Yes… these darn heat shields (in part due to time off for celebrating Independence Day) are taking way too long. I really want them done and installed tomorrow.
Rocking on!