The new parts on the HS front spar arrive - 6.5 hours

I got home early from work around noon and low and behold my new HS front spar parts had arrived. I didn't waste much time to get things started. I big difference between this set up and the last is that I was very careful to mark out as many centre lines as possible on each part. Taking a tip from the horrible build DVDs that you can buy from vans is ensuring that the center line down the front spar is maintained. After measuring my old spar, it wasn't quite straight as I would like it to be. So this redo allowed me to fix that too.

I drew out and centreline on a long piece of MDF and had everything squared up. I then worked on the relief holes. I then worked on the stiffeners and the angles. In order to get things to line up perfectly, I found that I had to ever so slightly file the edge where the two front spars met. Now everything was straight and true. I drilled as many holes with the drill press as I could. Perfection! I was so happy with how clean and nice it all turned out. Big improvement from my last attempt.

Then I trimmed the angles....oh crap!! The band saw cuts were a tad close to my lines, but the real kicker was how easily the 3m wheel cuts through the soft angle aluminum...much easier then the much thinner alloy pieces. I ended up rounding one angle much too close to the hole and compromising the edge distance. A very common problem...but annoying nonethess. I've already decided to order the angles again. Just a huge warning... Treat this part carefully as it is very easy to cut too much, even though it's thickness makes it look hard to cut!

I'm sitting writing this blog at the local pub drinking a beer severely questioning what have I got myself into screwing things up so often!....I suppose this is one of the rights of passage that I must
go through.