Underway!

I finally finished unpacking the crates and completed the inventory by Wednesday evening. Everything now has a home and hopefully I can find bits when needed!   We can now get both cars back into the garage until I need floor space for the wings - probably early in the new year.  At that time, Deb's car will have to go outside - the MGA clearly can't!

 Well done IKEA for a great range of good quality plastic boxes which are really cheap.  

I've started work on the first section - the vertical stabiliser (which is allegedly the easiest bit to build), and the parts are now all prepared (trimmed, match-drilled, deburred, fluted etc) and ready to paint prior to final assembly.  I did have one panic - I thought I'd countersunk some holes on the wrong side of the spar and it took me while to understand the use of the holes and why they are countersunk as they are. Fortunately I'd got it right or it would be more expensive freight and delays in getting new parts!    Pays to read the drawings loads of times before you commit to anything.

One unexpected bit of good luck popped up today.  A gadget I acquired as part of a job lot of tools purchased from Gumtree (pillar drill, lathe, band saw, scroll saw and some odds and sods) turned out to be a very slow speed electric screwdriver with a remote power pack (you can see it at the back of the bench in the picture below).  It accepts the hexagonal deburring tool I bought from Cleveland Tools in the 'States and makes dealing with cleaning up all of the drilled holes really quick and easy.

Above are the two hinge assemblies for the rudder.  

Next week I'll be working on the vertical stab. skins and starting on the horizontal stabiliser, rudder and anti-servo tab frames.  Once I have all of the empennage control surface parts prepared, I'll paint everything at one go and then blitz the assembly.