The metal workers have gone on strike and I've had to close up my workshop and send the staff home early. We have been forced out four working days in a row, so maybe it's time to head the warnings and stay away for a few days before things get violent. I had hoped that the cold weather today would make the strikers re-think their demands, but that wasn't the case. We don't have any union members, but the intimidation, and threat of violence is becoming intolerable. Thugs!
So! .... what now? I'm bored sitting at home.
Being able to have lunch each day with my lovely wife has been fantastic. I have even been able to pick the kids up from school which I never get to do. Seeing their smiles of surprise when they see dad at the fence each day has been truly wonderful!
There has even been time to work on my Sonerai.
The Main Spar Carry Though components were cut a few months ago, but were put aside because I had no idea of how to put the thing together accurately.
As always, it wasn't that difficult.
A small confession ... [blush] .... I cheated!
All of the parts were laser cut. The front and rear cap plates, the spacers, and the rear plate. Even though they were laser cut, and the finish was pretty good to start with, I still spent a few hours cleaning them up by blasting them with a fine glass bead. [brainless, but therapeutic in its own way]
Assembly of the cap plates ....
Some sort of jig .... thing .... spacer was required to keep the spacers parallel when welding.
I started by cutting a sheet of regular mild steel plate to the width of 6". I bent the ends up, you'll see why later.
Jig .... thing ... spacer done. (this was also laser cut ... [blush] - lazy guy with no skills!)
The above plate was used for two things, firstly to tack the spacer plates to the cap plates and keep the spacers parallel to each other, and later to tack the square tubes to the plates.
After tack welding, they looked like this:
The square tubes were cut and blasted with a fine glass bead to remove the scale and prep them for welding.
I didn't think to take a picture of the jig .... thing .... spacer in position before welding, but it went inside, between the square tubes like this:
The rear plate was welded to the square tubes first, the cap plates with the spacers already tacked went on afterward. I clamped the whole assemble together in a bench vice with blocks of wood to protect the parts. Each part was fitted one at a time in the vice. It took around six or seven hours of clamping and tapping with a small hammer to get things properly aligned and tack welded. I used a vernier to check after each tap with the hammer. A steel ruler was used to check that everything was straight too.
The two top square tubes were tacked together to within 0.2mm across the full length. This was before it was fully welded. I was sort of happy with that.
Stefan over at Kitplanes for Africa kindly helped to weld the entire assembly together. I explained that it was "almost parallel" but was rather concerned to hear that the heat from the welding would distort it anyway, so the level of accuracy I tried to achieve really wasn't required.
They did a FANTASTIC job!
It actually didn't distort much at all after welding.
The square tubes are exactly parallel.
Many thanks to Stefan from Kitplanes for Africa for his assistance.
I can now understand why you are " Bobthebuilder".................dang ! that is one smart idea to notch the tubes 
Ou grap gat LOL?
