Seat Floors

As predicted its all floor action here in the airplane factory.  Last weekend I got the seat floors done.  They were especially troublesome and frustrating.  First things first I have to measure out the correct locations where the hinges will go.

Yes indeed…this picture represents about 4 different tries to get the measurements right.  Eventually I wipe off the blue marker with a rag and acetone and then do it again.  I think I messed this up a few times too.

Here I finally got it right and am ready for the hinges.

The hinge material is exactly the same as the hinges for the flaps.  Piano wire hinges.  I started cutting them on Saturday night only to find out on Sunday morning that I had messed them up.  I measured 15″ not 15 1/2″.  That was about 7′ of hinges *POOF* turned into scrap because I didn’t pay attention.

No problem, I have extra from a previous mishap with this hinge material.  Now that I’m rested and paying attention, this will work fine.   Nope.  It was a different hinge material and I just hosed that up.  I found one more 6′ section of the correct stuff and cut it carefully.  this was just right.

I think that picture is one of the scrap piles.  <sigh>

I get the pieces labeled and laid out on the seats.  Then it is time to drill.  You can imagine that I was paying very close attention to what I was doing before I drilled that first hole.

Everything went fine.  I got them all drilled and preped.

I did some deburring and priming to the seat.  The hinges needed one modification.  I had to remove two of the eyelets from the middle of the hing material.  I got out the Dremel and whacked off two of the eyes.  Then I got out the file and cleaned up the edges.

After this I cleaned up the edges on the deburring wheel.  Then it was time to rivet.  Which also went off without a hitch.

Only lament I have is the blue lines in the middle of the hinge material.  I cleaned and cleaned that stuff and no matter how hard I tried I was just not able to get rid of it.  It will eventually bleed through any paint I put on it.  Once the riveting was done, that was it.

Sorry, that picture is sideways.

More floors, I assume, this weekend.