Welcome to http://www.edge540.com

A sub web site of http://www.rcflier.com

This web site is hosted by Bob Hudson.

I am by no means a professional or "master" builder and these procedures may not be the best methods for you.

Carden provides a nice construction guideline and color photos as an aid to building their kits.

I have chosen to build things in a little bit different order than they lay out in their manual

Part 3 - The Fuselage Part 2

During construction of the motor box I used small lengths of 3/8” square balsa pinned to the building board to hold the pieces in place. I did the same thing while gluing the sides in place.

  I pin small balsa blocks to the top view of the plans in line with the inside edge of the longerons.

Put them in about five places along the longerons between the horizontal joiners.

The sides are then place in position. Slide the wing phenolic through the sides and in turn through the motor box.

This automatically positions the sides to the motor box.

Place the tail post F5 in position. Clamp it if you like.

Check the alignment of the sides over the plans. Slide the wing tube through its phenolic tube and center it from side to side measuring it to the motor box. Slide the stab phenolic tube in place and center it on the fuse. Measure from the tips of the wing tube to the stab tube, and also from the wing tube to the rear of the fuse to be sure the dimensions are equal. This ensures the entire motor box and side panel assemblies are going to be true when glued.

Glue the sides the motor box at F2, F3, and F4. You should be using epoxy at these joints. Again put the tubes back in and re-measure before the glue dries.

  Glue in the tail post at this time

I put some of the small blocks on the outside of the fuse pressing the fuse against the inner blocks.

  I use a few cheap tri-squares (from Home Depot) clamped to the fuse sides and pinned to the work bench to assure the fuse sides are square to the bench.

  Another view of the tri-squares

  Another view of the tri-squares showing how I pin them to the bench

  The horizontal and diagonal braces can be cut and glued in place.

I cut the top and bottom ones at the same time and ensure they are “exactly” the same length. This helps to ensure the fuse sides stay square to the bench and square to each other. Be sure to glue in the diagonal braces opposite each other on the top and bottom of the fuse.

Well, congratulate yourself, you now have the fuse basically framed up. Doesn’t it look GREAT. It’s big too!!

After the fuse is framed up we can test the fit of the bottom foam pieces. These foam pieces can be sheeted (in your favorite method). I am not going to glue the rear main foam block in place until I install the servo wire tubes and hopefully locate the rudder pull – pull cables.