Ch. 5 - Fuselage sides - Part 2

Fuselage: the other side (6.0 hrs)

Today I measured and cut the panel I made yesterday, and I also glued the second fuselage side. 

Fuselage bottom traced onto the foam for cutting

One thing I have learned about cutting foam with a razor blade, is that it is sometimes difficult to make a vertical cut consistently. I decided to combine the blade with a machinist square, held together with a C clamp.

Home-spun foam slicer

Foam cutter business end

Foam cutter at work

I know what you are thinking, but this thing really rocks! 


It makes slicing foam with precision a piece of cake, and gives you a beefy something to hang on to, instead of the skinny sharp blade.

Check out the quality of the cut below.

Nice, even, on the black line, orthogonal cut

Sidewall ready

Of course, I couldn't resist the opportunity to set up the scene for a photo op.

A sign of things to come...

Next, I got started on the other side, but I only had one complete foam panel left, and a lot of smaller pieces that did not fit very well.  I had to sand them square, and assemble them into a contiguous piece. This process actually took a lot longer than anticipated, and generated a lot of blue foam dust that ended up everywhere.

I eventually got all of the mosaic pieces lined up long enough to tape the seams.

Then flipped it over...

Foam sidewinder

And glued it, just as I did on the other sidewall.

Weighing things down

As soon as the micro cures, I’ll trim it so that both sidewalls match.