RE: Charlie Kellogg's TBM Avenger Build
Chic, Frank, Charlie, and all other Avenger fans.
I have some more updates.
I finally received the piano hinges for the bomb bay doors last week, so it's back to the Avenger tomorrow. In the meantime, here's what I have accomplished since the last update:
Last time I posted I was just about to install the stringers on the bottom of the fuse. This was all pretty straight forward. Although, as I found on the top-side, a few of the notches needed to be re-cut. Again, not hard to do with a razor saw and a knife.
After the rear stringers were in place, I started installing the 1/4x1/4 hardwood that delineates the bomb bay area. This installation went rather slowly, because accurately setting the hardwood stringers is critically important to ensure that the bomb bay doors will pivot nice and smoothly.
The first thing I did was to install the formers on the bottom surface of the wing, spacing them as drawn on the plans. Then I used a long straight edge to verify that the top (bottom) of the formers were even with F-3 and F-9. I also used some brass wire stretched tightly to check the alignment of the notches for the hardwood stringers. The1/4x1/4 hardwood stringersare where the bombbay doors are hinged, so getting them appropriately spaced and perfectly in line (in both the vertical and horizontal planes) is very important. I spent some time adjusting a few of the formers, but it was not too bad overall. Those hardwood stringers were then glued to the airframe using methacrylate (no CA here!). Once the hardwood was in place, the tops of the formers were cut out with a razor saw. I cut them off becase I have a fiberglass lay-up of the bomb bay doors (normally the wood that gets cut away serves as the framework for the doors).