Fusolage jigs ready

Spending some time on building fusolage jigs.

I made about fifty blocks of white pine to accomodate tubes in place during first stage building of top and bottom ladder. Measures are 70mm long, 35mm wide, 20mm high.
They are all pre-drilled and screws are partially threaded, this to avoid block lifting while i'm installing.
I bought some shims to keep tubes at correct height.

Small soldiers!... ready to keep in place top ladder when will be installed on top jigs.

top ladder test fitting!

 jig supporting tube at station 3/8 (Bottom ladder)

 Cross tube support (Bottom Ladder)

 Tail post jig

More exercise on cluster building

Spending some time building clusters, to improve my skill on it. I disassembled the tube notcher from drill-press because i've seen that i could not cut angles greater than 30°. Now i'm using drill to power notcher, that is bolted on a workbench.
Next week i'll go to my local JAA examiner to show him my works...if he likes my results, i'll place my tubing order from ACS!

Welding practice, practice and.. i've already said practice?

I'm working on welding task! not easy...but i'm improving every time. I started with easy things passing gradually on those difficult. What i'm learning?...we need some practice before start building!

Here i've just melted steel whithout add material to see how my welder work!

Adding material!

Tack weld... note the affected area by heat.

First round weld... my second was worst!

Tube Notch Practice

I'm doing some tubing notching practice before start building a fuse to see which method works best for me. I've done some whit my cheapy Harbor Freight tube notcher tool and some manually with a bench grinder. Result is the same! During progress i will post you how i do!
First of all i clean tubes, where cuts and welds are supposed to be, with a sandpaper. I use that has fabric on the back side and 180 grit. I use these sandpaper only for steel tubes and not with other materials to avoid contaminations. Than i do a mirror finish, with a dremel steel brush.

Anti-Rust Test

Before starting work on the fuse project, i tried to figure out, before final painting, how to preserve it from rust! Tube and steel sheet are coated with oil  that protects them from rust, but when we work on them, we need to clean some areas, and than steel is completely exposed to moisture. 
To prevent rust forming some precaution should be taken. There are many products out there that can be used, i've tried some...and these is my upshot!
The best result about rust prevention respect money saved was obtained whit a WD40 can. After two years of exposure to moisture, here we are..I've generously done only two application! of course, only on the upper surface of good piece.