Wagabond build

[todd2391]

So after redoing 2 rooms in my house, the first piece of steel I grabbed in the shop I put on the grinder and a small piece of steel bounced under my safety glasses and off to the ER I went, so I was down and out for a week and a half, not fun getting a needle put in your eye to pull rust and steel out. Anyway I got back to the project this week. I started off by epoxy priming the interior tabs and baggage compartment angle brackets. I then cut out U channel supports for the left and right side stringers, I used extruded aluminum channel for the stringers. I got these welded in. I then cut out, bent, and welded in the rear support on the top rear skylight to attach the fabric too. I also finished the U channel for the top stringer, got them welded in and formed all three aluminum stringers. This was all cleaned up and epoxy primed. I then cut out the frame work for the left door, I used wood spacers and clamped it to the fuselage and tack welded it. I cut and drilled the piano hinges, pulled the door off and finish welded it. It was mounted back on fuselage and I cut out and welded the window frame. Both the window and the door will top swing out. I machined all the parts for the left and right door handles and latches, and that is where I ended today.

[todd2391]

Here are the rest of the pictures

[Broncoformudv]

Nice work!

[Steve Pierce]

Got a wire from a grinding wheel st u ck in my eye many years ago. No fun. Be safe and use a face shield.

[todd2391]

Yeah, I know I should wear a shield, but all is good now. I got back into by welding the bushings to the inner and outer door handle plates, fit the 1/4 inch tubes for the pin pulls, and welded in the square rod for the handle attachments for the left side door. I also got the top, front, and rear square tube cut and fit for the top half of the right side door. Seems like welding and fitting all the smaller parts takes way longer that welding up larger assemblies.

[todd2391]

Still working on doors. Got the left side finish welded, handle mechanism done and the lift strut brackets welded in. Also got all the rivnuts installed on the left side as well as the two lower door stops welded in. Window frame on left side is done, just got to make latch. I got the right side door frame tack welded up. Hopefully right side will go quicker as I made all the small parts the same when I was making them for the left side.

[Stephen]

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing.

[todd2391]

I finally finished both doors and windows and thank you for the compliments. I finished welding the right side frame and cross braces. Framed and welded up latch mechanism, rods, and pin holes in fuse. I welded on all the brackets to the fuselage, door, and window frames for the lift struts. The rivnuts were installed that will hold the plexiglass on the outsides and all the hinges were fitted and drilled. Everything was cleaned, epoxy primed, and finally painted. After cleaning up the shop I got the 2 front nose tubes bent for the fuselage.

[todd2391]

and the rest of the pics

[todd2391]

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I welded on the two nose tubes to the fuselage with the tabs on them. Then I got the stops for the control column welded in. Then what took me the longest was aligning the wing lift strut/gear and the front gear brackets. They got tack welded on and then I checked all the measurements again. Once I got the brackets welded in I welded in the bushings and then cut them for the gear and reamed them for the bolts. I welded in the bolt head stops onto the brackets. I also made the one end of the gear vee for the left and right so I could make sure everything fit properly.