More on Floorboards

It's been a while since I made the mock up of the floorboards but at last I made the effort to get some qualaity birch plywood for the final product. Using the mocked up floorboards with I marked out the outline of the floorboards onto the birch ply paying attention so that there were no blemishes in the birch.

There were a couple of differences between the mock up and the final boards (go to http://gbrih.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-interior-floorboards.html to see details of the mocked up floorboards) to incorporate improvements, mainly around the cut out for the brake pedels.

Cutting was done with a band saw, fly cutter and fret saw to get the required shapes; one useful tip here is to score the underside of the ply along the proposed cut with a knife, this prevents the underside from ripping when sawn giving a clean edge to the ply.

The boards were drilled to take the self tapping screws that will fix them to the fuselage (tabs on the fuselage will have tinnerman nuts fitted).

The boards were then sanded and given a brush coat of varnish. Once this had gone off the varnish was sanded lightly to de-nib it and thre more layers of varnish were sprayed on. For spraying the varnish was thinned down with MEK in the ration 1 part varnish to 4 parts MEK.

Finally the bulkhead under the seats was cut and fitted. This is screwed into the crossmember under the front of the seat sling and will drop into a slot formed by two quater round strips of wood glued to the rear part of the floorboards. the battery box, which I have yet to make, will be positioned in the middle of the floorforward of the bulkhead.

I have still got to get a couple of extra tabas welded to the fuselage frame to provide additional anchor points for the floorboards but this should be done within the next couople of weeks as I write.

A new interior - Floorboards

I've been sidetracked so far this year with three other projects, a new car, an AD on Taylorcraft lift struts and the small matter of someone trying to build a new town on our airfield but I have at last managed to make time to start work on the aircrafts interior. The old interior was not unattractive or particularly tatty, but I feel that it could be better in a number of ways. The floor was the original aluminium which had been modified over the years and then covered with carpet. This will be replaced with a 6mm birch plywood flooring and aluminium kick plates.

Working on the principal that everything will have to be done at least twice before it works I set about creating a template floor in cheap 5.5 mm plywood first. This will then be used as the template for the final floor. First the shape of the current floorboards was transferred onto the onto the plywood.




I used a hole cutter and fly cutter to get the shape around the heel brakes. The rest of the cutting required is just straight lines at various angles.






I used a jigsaw to cut the straight lines which meant setting up a straight edge to help guide the saw. The calipers have been set to the distance between the edge of the jigsaw footplate and the saw blade. Once set this is used for all cutting.





Once cut, the floorboards (which are in two halves so that they can be removed) are laid out. I will have to make some fine adjustments before I am happy with the fit, mainly because the old aluminium boards overlapped and the new plywood boards have to but up to each other. This photograph shows the two floorboards in situ with work still required.



The bulkhead will slot into a grove formed by two quarter round strips of wood that will be glued in place. A battery box holding two sealed dry cell batteries will be fixed in the center of the bulkhead where it shouldn't take up too much space and will be easily accessible. It will also help fix the floor and bulkhead in place.

I still have to manufacture the kick plates and battery box before I'm confident that I can finally make the floorboards.