Hawaii

I just got back from some major relaxation in Hawaii, hence why the airplane news hasn't been rolling in. This weekend hopefully I'll get those ribs riveted on with the help of my dad who is in town!

Paint Time!

Aileron brackets riveted!  These things look very very cool.  I did this inbetween coats of primer on the wing ribs.

 Here is a picture of the "dusting" of the primer onto the ribs.  I was at the hanger from about 530 to 845 painting them.  It was pretty cool to see them painted and stacked.

 Here is the aileron brackets before they were put together getting reprimed to get those freshly countersunk holes.

 This was all done last night.  This morning I woke up early for some reason so I headed to the hanger before work and grabbed all of the ribs.  They look great!  I need to do just a little touch up, but overall I'm really excited.  Once my dad gets into town we'll be hammering the rivets home to get these attached to the spars!

Here they are sitting next to the right wing ribs!

Wing Ribs

I wasn't happy with how the aileron brackets looked after spraying.  I think I'm failing to get a good rinse of the etching compound.  I ended up taking the wing ribs home and washing and etching them in the bathtub late in the evening so tomorrow I can straight from work to the hanger and paint them.

Also, it was pointed out to me that I forgot to countersink the aileron brackets for the flush mount rivets, so I countersunk those and have added them to the pile of things to prime.

Wing Ribs

Tonight I went to the hanger with some new tools. First, I got a space heater to make painting work a bit better.

 Then I started by tearing up some sand paper to deburr the edges of the corners.  The tearing I think make it tear further too easily, so I began cutting it into strips instead.

 While I was working on this, the paint tent was heating up.  Once it hit 70, I sprayed the pieces for the aileron brackets.

I also cleaned and etched the ribs for priming once the edges were good!  Here they are drying in the heated tent.

 Finally, I was given some leading edge jigs so I set up the right wing leading edge.  Here the two of them are sitting right next to each other.

Ribs

I made a decision. Single conduit lines down each wing, but I wanted to open up the pitot tube holes so I could fit in plumbing for angle of attack (AoA). Tonight I did that, this time with the step drill instead of a hole saw. I found the results were better...

Also, my conduit arrived from Vans with the tie downs. Thats about all I did tonight...

Weekend in the hanger

This weekend wasn't as productive, but I did get some new materials and such.  My order from Vans arrived with the conduit and tie downs.  I also decided that I was going to do a SafeAir1 pitot mast, and ordered that.  From Cleveland tool, I ordered a double offset rivet set so I will be ready for the wing rivetting.  But enough about toys, lets get building.

I put the right wing up on the table, match drilled the ribs to the spars, and dissassembled everything.  I did not take any pictures of this.

I also made a quick jig for pilot holes for running conduit.

Then I went through both stacks and drilled the holes.

Once this was done, I deburred everything, pitot holes, conduit holes, tooling holes, corners, and basically am ready to clean, etch, and prime the ribs.  I think I am going to get some emery tape though and do a bit more work on the corners while waiting for the summer to kick in and heat up my workshop.

Once I was done cutting myself on sharp corners, I started putting together the leading edge cradle.  I got some 3/4 inch plywood with the help of a friend, and so I feel like its sturdy.  It won't win any awards at a carpentry show though.  Here I just have the skin in it.

I went ahead and clecoed the ribs in as well.  I started on the top side of the wing and at the front of the leading edge, and clecoed up to the rear side.  Then did the back.

 Lots of clecos.

This will have to wait until I have the ribs riveted on, the skins tentatively on, and then it will get placed on.

Lastly, I match drilled and deburred the aileron brackets for the back.  Heres the pile of them waiting to be cleaned and etched and of course primed.

In other news, I will be trying to find a new place to house this blog because apparently I'm out of space for photos.  I want to include the full size images because its been helpful to see other peoples full size images, so I will be trying to locate a place to stash them for now.

Rear Spars, Wings

Tonight I put together the rear spars.  They had dried completely, so I assembled the left hand side.  I started by taking a sharpie and putting a line through any holes I was supposed to skip for now.  When I got to the two reinforcement plates, I switched and circled the holes that I could actually rivet because there were fewer of those.  For the rear spar fork reinforcement, I put clecos in all of the holes I wasn't allowed to rivet.  More on that in a bit.

Once all of the pieces were riveted on, I cleared off my work table and put the main spar down on the far side.  I started placing the ribs into the appropriate slots on the main spar, and then clecoed them in.  Then I started putting the rear spar on.  The first few ribs went fine, but then on the fourth one, I realized I had moved the clecos to help pull the pieces together a bit more, and had then riveted the empty holes on the very ends of the fork.  So this meant I had to drill them out.

Here you can see third from the left, riveted holes with sharpie marks across them.

I drilled out the first hole no sweat, it truly went just about perfectly (all things considering).  The second one didn't go as well.  Once it was out, I realized that not only had I riveted holes I wasn't supposed to, I had just removed one rivet that didn't need to be removed!  Obviously I was a bit excited.  I reriveted the hole, and drilled out the appropriate one, and continued down the wing.  Once all the ribs were attached at both ends, I took a few quick pictures, waited for the grin to subside, and found someone else in the hanger to show it to.

Next, I went down each end and match drilled all of the holes.  When I next go in, I'll be taking off the ribs, drilling out two holes for conduit on each rib, deburring all the recently drilled holes, and deburring the corners.  Then its to the clean/etch/prime booth.