Steel Cobra

Day 2 - Sunday 9th February 2003

After yesterday's session, the basic shape had been forged; the final dimensions of the Cobra could now be seen. Today's effort was to finish the basic frame off.

As it was raining, I was able to use the angle grinder for cutting steel, rather than a hacksaw. This was mainly because I didn't want to annoy my neighbors - as they were inside, the noise would've been less. This meant the work was completed very quickly.

The wings

The first task was to put the bottom of the wings on. Two bars with a kink at 20° were cut identically, cut to size and then welded into place. This gave the body some width that was missing when only the back was there.

This was the last time I referred to the original design for lengths.

Padding the top

Now that the base was complete, it was just a matter of welding the frame along the verticies at the top. I worked out that I had six more lengths of steel to cut. These were organised from the back to the front.

Back side triangle	Middle side triangle	Complete!

Cleaning up

Now the basic framework was complete, it was just a matter of cleaning up the welds.

Front view	Back view

Visits

I then visited Pete Roberts and Rich Goodwin to show them what I'd done so far (Pete's giving me some old VW valve springs for the model, as well as some advice). Rich also took some pictures...