Started F-706/F-707 and F-708 Bulkheads - 7 hours

I started the day with digging out the F-706, 707 and 708 bulkhead parts. I began the work by fluting and trying to straighten all the pieces. The F-706 pieces are the worst offenders and are very warped and difficult to straighten. They are not perfectly flat, and at the advice of some local builders, there is little point in trying to make them perfect now as they will likely need more adjustment later when fitting the skins.



The tight corners need a fair amount of work as the tabs either touch or overlap. In the case of the 706 bulkhead they overlapped during forming so they really need work.






I see that some chose to cut these tabs down, while I choose to file them in order to preserve as much material as I could. I have a very small and thin file which I used to remove the conflicting material. I then re-rounded the tab corners and fixed what needed it. I broke all the edges and they are ready to 3M. Lots of time went into cleaning these up.
I drilled all the openings with the unibit for the rudder cables as well. I focused on the F-706B bulkhead. I see from everyone's build logs that the 5/8" holes in the center end up causing quite the issue with edge distances from the holes. After a bit of head scratching. I decided to reduce the hole size to 7/16". Since I am going with electric trim, there is no reason I see at this time to open up the holes to the maximum opening....so why do it. At 7/16" I can fit a smaller grommet for wiring and have tons of room for edge distance.



I really took my time and didn't rush the job and It turned out extremely well.
Next I moved onto the F-729A,B and C pieces. I soon found out that I must have cut too much of my 6' length of 0.63 angle so I don't have a 36" piece for 728B. Oh well, minor and its cheap to order more. I went to work on F-729C. Getting it bent to 88.5deg was quite easy. Just a light tap with the rubber mallet in the vice and it was enough.

Next I set up the pieces so I could fit and drill the 1/8" hole.


Looking good here. 

 I realized after the fact that the F-729B has edge distance issues on the aft end when I cut it per the dimensions in the plans. The angle needs to be a fair amount longer. I will have to re-do this piece as well. Not so good here. Edge distance on the last hole becomes a problem and there is lots of room till the flange. I will consider making the piece longer, and then rounding the end of the angle to fit the bend in the flange.