I am currently working on a Sig Something Extra and am confused about how they say to mount the rails on to the hatch base. it says something about a 1/16" spacer bat it shows a picture of a small pice of wood on the to of the fuslage side. If any one can explain this process in more detail I would really appreciate this

I don't have the manual in front of me, but if I remember correctly, the 1/16" spacer is to space the rail that is mounted on the bottom of the hatch from the outside edge so the hatch seats completely yet not let the hatch slop around from side to side. Like I said, I don't have the manual in front of me, but if you don't get any responses I'll post a more knowledgable answer when I get home.

Dusty-

I hope that I can explain this. I think that this is the part that you are talking about (Step 60). Take a piece of 1/16" sheeting and pin it to the fuse sides. Then put the hatch rails on the top of the 1/16" sheeting (use the pins to hold the rails in place) and line them up so the outside edge of the rail is just inside the inside edge of the fuse. Make sure that the sheeting and rails stay perpendicular to the fuse sides. Then put the ply hatch base on the rails and make sure that everything is still lined up. Tack glue with CA the rails to the hatch ply base. Remove the pins and the hatch and finish gluing the rails to the under side of the hatch base.

What it comes down to is the 1/16" sheeting is just a spacer to keep the rails in view so that you can glue the rails to the under side of the ply hatch base.

Hope this helps.

James

The above reply is correct except that the spacers are 3/16, not 1/16.

They are fitted on each side of the bottom of the hatch in such a position as to just locate inside the fuse sides. As above, their purpose is to stop the hatch moving from side to side.


Terry

Actually, as I stated before the scrap piece of sheeting that you use is 1/16", and the rail is 3/16" (just never stated the rail size).

The following is straight from the manual:

If you wanted to you could put a piece of scrap all the way across the fuse and set the rails on top.

The point here is that it doesn't matter what size of scrap sheeting you use since the only purpose that is serves is to elevate the rails so that they can be aligned properly and glued to the hatch. Once this is done they are removed and thrown back into the scrap pile.

IMHO they really overcomplicated that step....
I simple measured and marked the hatch cover,
then tack glued the rails for a test fit.

I think that I ended up doing the same thing. It was much easier to just measure. Another trick might be to rub chalk on the inside edges of the fuse. Line up the hatch and press down. It'll give you a chalk line for the outer edge of the rail.

Sorry guys, promise to read posts more carefully in future

Terry

That step kind of confussed me too.

It's for deck and has nothing to do with holding the hatch in place
Thats the way I understood it, after I guled.

Glue the top deck former first, then the rails to the side, top sheeting
and sand it flush to the fuselage.

I glued the rails in place like the instruction and had to cut them off or out.
I found out when the precut sheeting piece wasn't wide enough.
And those formers has a slight angle, so it can't just be drop in.

Think about it, if rails goes on the bottom. It'll hit the cross piece
that has the bind nut on it.

or did i get it totally wrong ?

The dowl on the rear of the canopy and the screw keeps everything in place.

I guess you can glue 1/2" lone piece to prevent from going side to side,
measure the thickness of the fuse and glue the small rails accordingly.
why would it go side ti side when it's locked in place by the dowl and screw ?

I didn't had problems

Thanks for al your help. I figured that the easiest way to do it would be to measure the fuslage sides and then put the railings that far over from the edge of the hatch bottom

wow i had the same problem! Just look very carfully and you will fiqure it out. I took me 2 hours before i fiqured out what to do!!!

Hi,

As explained above, the rails are on the bottom of the hatch, and simply help center the canopy hatch between the fuselage sides. This pic of mine might help you.

Regards,