Cornell Motor/Battery box rebuild

Continued work on rebuilding the Cornell's motor/battery box. I started with fuse work yesterday. You may recall that with Cornell 3 I replaced the box with a pedestaled motor mount and angled the battery. This worked fine, but changed the CG a bit. In this rebuild I wanted to preserve the original design of a firewall motor mount and battery box. It came out pretty good, but took a lot of time.

Building the box from popsicle stick wood.

Cut some gaps into the framework to lighten it up.

The remaining original box on the left had the corner sanded down, likely to fit under the cowl. I did the same to the right side, which is the rebuilt side.

Installed.

Under the battery shelf, the side supports sheared off.

I supported the battery shelf with popsicle stick wood cross bars.

I fit the hatch and realized I had placed the top of the firewall too far aft. Here its moved forward about 2 mm and fits nicely.

The box is done. I need to re-cover the bottom of the fuse with sheet balsa curved to fit, then do all the cote work, remount the motor and ESC, and rebuild the cowl (they are still out of stock expected Jan 2012). I won't touch the NIB Cornell as its for when they stop making replacement parts.