I didn't have a lot of time to work on the plane today. I've been mulling over what to do about the center support cap of the Almost 14 mod. It's supposed to be designed to just set in place and bolt to the seat back brace, but something about it or my setup makes the angles off so it doesn't line up with the angle of the horizontal brace or lay flat on the top. It sets a good 1/8"+ above the horizontal brace..
I spoke to the designer of the mod and he couldn't figure out why it's not working like it should either. Based on the discussion with him, I know which connections are important and which are aesthetic at least. There is a small steel piece that screws directly to the vertical brace as well as the horizontal. The holes for the vertical brace were also offset to where they wouldn't clear the front angle of the horizontal brace like it should. I ground away a couple of areas of the horizontal brace to allow the screw access, then drilled new holes and installed new nut plates on the vertical piece.
For the 1/8" gap, I could just put a couple of washers there and call it a day, but I think it would look a lot nicer with an actual spacer. For odd shapes like this, Fusion 360 makes it fairly easy - I imported a picture of the portion of the cap that needs the spacer, then scaled it and traced the shape for printing. I undersized it just a little bit to make sure it wouldn't stick out anywhere.
12 cents in material later, I had that spacer, plus another one for the forward portion of the cap that also sets off of the standard parts (this spacer will be completely hidden - it's just a very awkward location that would be hard to use washers in).
Here is a trial fit of the spacer (not snugged down - everything will lay flat when tightened). I will use screws for the final fit.
