Need some help with DC-3 stabilizer construction

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Need some help with DC-3 stabilizer construction

Postby rasterops » Wed Sep 13, 2017 7:06 am

Hi,

I need some help/advice for the construction of my 804 DC-3 kit that that I'm building as per subject.

I've got to the stage of building the stabalizer and totally got it wrong the first time because I'm confused by whats on the plans and what's printed on the shim stock. Long story short I had to cut what I'd built apart and start from scratch and re-cut parts to replace parts that were too damaged to work with.

I'm up to step 1 when you glue S1, S2, the 2 x s3 and the leading edge parts together (excluding gluing S1 to the leading edge). All pinned down in position.

When I did it the first time, where I think I went wrong was either do it in the wrong order or laid the shims down on the wrong side. Both the building instructions and the layout sheet say that you should use 6 x 3/32 x 9/64 shim stock "die cut" shim to shim the back of the stabalizer when starting step 2. All I have left from cutting out the die cut shim stock which is marked 9/32" SHIM. I've measured the shims, and the measurements seem to be right but the markings seem a bit misleading. I'm not sure If I've accidentally thrown out the right size shims or I'm misreading the plans. I'm also confused about the orientation of the shims.

If I was in America, I'd probably just re-order the relevant sheets of balsa and start from scratch but It seems too difficult given the fragility of balsa and the information I've found about shipping replacement sheets on the Guillow's website.

I've done some measurements with calipers and it seems the die cut shims that are marked 9/32" SHIM are the correct ones. If these are the correct ones, should they be laid down on the longer or the shorter side? I tried matching them up with the plans and it seems that given their width on the plans, they should be laid down on their shorter width.

I'd appreciate any expert advice you can provide.

Thanks a lot :D
rasterops
 
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