More work on the F-796B angles - 9 hours

Big long day in the garage. I'm motivated to get these F-796B angles done. They are not easy to knock off. Long story short I believe I made about 6 or 7 angles total in the end. And only 2 are needed. That goes to tell you that these are a bit tricky to get perfect.

I'll try my best to explain the pitfalls so you only need to make two.

When cutting the angles initially...Be sure to start trimming the 45deg cuts before you do final trimming and shape the ends to fit the inside radius of the longerons/stiffners. This is due to the fact that the longerons/stiffners have a twist in them and they need to be a tad longer once they sit back inside of the longerons. I cut 2 angle just a tad too short because of this.


No question that edge distance is horrible in this area. And ultimately you will not make proper edge distance on those 3/16" holes...as everyone talks about (and Van's tech support confirms) in this particular case, its ok. I drilled one angle with the F-902 bulkhead in place, but the holes do not end up in the right location as per plans I have smaller edge distances than I would prefer. New parts....Again.

I tried my very best to maximize edge distance wherever I could. I want to follow dimensions on the plans as much as possible. So to drill the first hole, I now removed the F-902 bulkhead. Using the lines drawn on the back of the angle I was able to located the first #30 pilot hole.

Then I was able to align the angle and drill the second #30 pilot hole. Perfect! But when I reinstalled the F-902 bulkhead and then went to install the F-796 angle...The fit is really tight and the web of F-907 interferes with the angle.

A bit of head scratching here. But I figure it is best to remove the portion of the angle that interferes with the web of the bulkhead. I still can maintain decent edge distance around the 3/16" holes. So I went to work with the file to take down some of the interference.

In the end, this is all I needed to do to get a really nice fit.

To complete the #40 holes in the F-796 shims, I simply followed the instructions and used the center line drawn on the shims. I used keeper rivets to help keep it all aligned while fitting and drilling. I find they are more accurate than cleco's


Once the shims were in place....I was then ready to install the Angle and complete the remaining #40 holes.

The final fit is excellent