Canard alignment pins

First order of business was to clean up / trim up the F22 bulkhead's top edges. I had left them untrimmed when I built the nose since I wasn't sure at the time how much trimming was going to be required and I didn't want to over trim.

I took the multitool and trimmed everything flush.

Sooooo clean...

 This allowed me to position the canard in place and pose for a pic!

It was now time to trim the canard's trailing edge.. this is one of those tasks that could have been done a long time ago, but I was probably eager to move on to the next chapter. Couldn't put it off any longer.

I took the canard template and marked the trailing edge every 6 inches or so.. then connected the dots with a straight edge.

 

Here's Michaelah (mechanical engineering student at USF) helping me trim the trailing edge...

 Belt sander worked great.. and within a few minutes the trailing edge was straight as an arrow!

With the trailing edge all set, I moved on to making the alignment pins. I placed an AN3-20A bolt on the vise and took an angle grinder to it...

Sparks flew and the head flew off... 

Rounded the end and made sure it was still 2" long. This one did not make the cut since I removed a bit of material while rounding the end. The next two came out perfect.

Now to drill the F28 doublers...

 I measured the doubler's centers per plans...using drawing A7 as reference..

I didn't want to drill too deep, so I used a "poor mans depth gauge" and taped 1.5" on the bit...

Took a deep breath and went for it...

 And presto!

Verifying 0.5" sticking out...

Alignment pins installed! (they don't get floxed in until later in the chapter)...