Catching Up: Part Deux

While it might not be obvious to anybody but me, there have been two other shining points of progress over the last two months.  First was the construction of the 4 rear bulkhead supports.  These will serve dual functions of strengthening the rear bulkhead, as well as being the lateral seating supports.  They're not actually tacked on in this picture, just mocked up.  Second is the lateral tube and diagonal just aft of the shifter on the transmission, which are tacked in place now.

It should come as no surprise that there is unlikely to be any physical progress over the next week or two, however it's not for the usual reasons...I am actually in the process of sorting out the rear suspension geometry so that I can finish planning the rear bulkhead bracing.

Catching Up: Part 1

Between SWMBO teething, the Plague ravaging our household, more teething, and now more Plague, there has been a precious little time to spend on my dithering in the garage.  Let alone updating on my (lack of) progress.  However, I do have a few updates to make.  So I might as well get started on the longest one, while laying here bed ridden and recovering from my latest brush with death...Also known as the "man cold".

Back before the turn of the year, I once again turned to painters tape in an effort to simplify the measurements and calculations required for cutting a couple of tubes.  The difference this time being that these tubes were for multi-axis (3D) angled ends.

As before, lay out the desired tube path with tape.  This time, with two pieces of tape forming the opposing sides.  I found it to be much more accurate and stable by 'sticking' a small piece of scrap tube between the two pieces of tape near each end to help place the tape.  Then wrap tape across the 3rd side to form the 'top' of the cut, as well as mark the two 'sides' for finished length as well. Hopefully this picture will be worth enough additional words to salvage my poor description.

Now the tape can be removed and wrapped over the actual tube being cut.

Trim the excess.  Note that the 4th and final edge can be found by drawing a line between the 'bottom' edges on the two sides.

Now be careful how to set this up in the saw.  If done wrong, it will cut off needed extra length.  If done right it will indicate what needs to be ground off, as pictured below.

Color the excess material in with Sharpie (finally a good use for the Industrial Sharpies) and take it to the bench grinder until the Sharpie is all gone and the tube fits.

I must admit that this method and/or my execution are not as perfect as the 2D tape method.  As the tubes move out of plane with each other, the 1" wide face of the tube being intersected becomes less-than 1" relative to the intersecting tube probably plays a part here.  I'm sure that I also just need more practice.  The end result was that the indicated grind area was a bit on the conservative side, and I actually just needed to grind off a little more metal than the tape line indicated...Which is great, because I really hate trying to grind metal back on to the tube.