Match Drill Center Section

[JonJay]

Talk with Wayne at Phlogiston. He may be able to help.

[vfrazier]

Originally Posted by JonJay

Talk with Wayne at Phlogiston. He may be able to help.

Wayne has retired and closed his shop. Sold the equipment too, unless I'm mistaken. Probably at least 18 months ago.

[vfrazier]

Originally Posted by Capflyer

I am building a HRII and just started the center section. Trying to figure out the best way to match drill the already drilled spars and W-420 spar splice plates to the center section F-404's. Open to hearing all suggestions.

The other suggestions from Scott and David are certainly options. Another one is to NOT drill any of those close tolerance holes, but simply extend the outboard portions of your existing RV-4 parts, i.e. the #3 and #4 bulkheads.

Here's a PDF with photos of how to do this. It's probably the easiest of the options presented here.

Be sure to maintain the fore and aft relationship to the spar, probably by inserting the spar, before drilling the "U" shaped side plates. Same for the bottom plate. Afterall, the spars must fit inside when you're done... and the bolts must go in the holes!

Even if it's not your final choice on how to do this, I think you'll find the info useful.

(Note: #3 is the forward face of the 404 bulkhead.)

(Note also... the HR2 uprights are parallel to each other, while the F1 parts are staggered a bit. IOW, the rear uprights are as bit closer together, L&R. That change was made to help the one piece F1 side skins lay down better.)

[JonJay]

Originally Posted by vfrazier

Wayne has retired and closed his shop. Sold the equipment too, unless I'm mistaken. Probably at least 18 months ago.

Thx Vince. Haven’t spoke to him in a while.

[Capflyer]

Thank you Vince. I actually found this on the DB link you sent me last year which I had forgotten about until reminded. Extending the RV4 pieces seems like the easiest and most accurate way to proceed. They were already assembled but it should be easy enough to drill out a few rivets.

[Freemasm]

Of course, my match marking/template approach for mod'ing the 404 is better.

I truly have no idea if anyone else build theirs that way.