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.