Starting the big bend! - 9 hours

Again, I spent some time reading up on other build logs on bending the longerons before I started in. I figured out that I didn't really need to make the cuts at this exact time. But it was very important to mark things out. My reasoning is (that the fuselage up to this point is reminding me) that pieces are more exact when you can fit, check, and then cut rather than blindly cut....more so around the horizontal stabilizer. I So, I dug out my thin sharpie and went to work.





I then dug out my longeron bending dies that I have bought some time ago. One of the items everyone talks about is protecting the angle from marring so I used some gorrilla tape and lubed the dies with WD-40. That works well but a pain in the butt as it wants to remove your sharpie marks.

I drew a reference line on the dies

First pass, you will notice the gentle bend.

Second pass, Third pass. Ugh... I am being careful not to overbend as the longeron dies mention but this is painful. I've been at it for hours and only small steps. I decide I can then become a bit more aggressive with the bending. Yup, bends going well now, but there is a noticeable curl up in the longeron 90deg perpendicular to the bend i'm making, which is to be expected. I went to work taking that bend out and trying get it to lay flat on the table again. Interesting, by taking the vertical bend out is relaxes the horizontal bend i'm trying to get. Hmmm, You purposely want to overbend the longeron a bit on the horizontal. Well after a few hours, of working with the longeron. I had both the horizontal curve matching the plans and laying flat on the table.

I am the aluminum whisperer.

Now...next concern was bending the other longeron and matching it up to the plans.