It seems like I continue to discover pieces of the project that must/should be completed before assembling the wing to the fuse. I decided that it would be appropriate to finish the tank hatch installation before attaching the wing. However, before I can finish the hatch, I need to build the tank. Therefore, here are some pictures of the tank construction.
The first picture is from Al Rabe’s Snaggletooth build document. I chose to use his Mod 4 “clunkless” tank for the FW. The second picture shows Al’s layout, my card stock mockup, and the layout transferred to the tin stock. I did have to modify Al’s original layout to accommodate the KS tin stock I was using. The tin stock was too narrow for the original layout. I had to remove all of the front and rear soldering tabs and transfer them to the front and rear caps. This is shown in picture 3. My pencil is pointing to the only remaining tab, which is the side soldering tab.
The long bends in the tank were made with the 7” “Tank Bender” sold by Lee Machine Shop, picture 4. The smaller bends for the “V” pickup area and the end cap side bends were made with either needle nose pliers or square nose pliers, pictures 5 and 6. Once the main tank body seam was soldered the front end cap was mounted using masking tape so the positions of the tubing holes could be marked and drilled, picture 7.
I first mounted the overflow vent tube to the side of the tank. I decided to do this before the front end cap was soldered in place. This made it much easier to solder and clean the joint, rather than trying to reach the gun tip and solder in from the back of the tank, picture 8. I pre-tinned around the tubing holes in the front cap before mounting the end cap, picture 9. This allowed me to heat the tubing and cap from the front to solder the vent and pickup tubes to the inside of the front cap. The front cap was then soldered and the fuel pickup and uniflow tubes added, pictures 10 and 11.
After the tank was given a thorough cleaning with lacquer thinner, the rear cap was soldered on, picture 12. The tank was then leak tested using the typical method of pressurizing the tank and holding it under water.
Next, I will finish the construction of the tank hatch cover. This should be the final task before assembling the wing to the fuse.
Joe