RV-7 Andrew Z #73658

Post Title: Devinyled Right Tank
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Mon, 29 Nov 2010 01:00:13 +0000
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Well, after spending 10 or so hours in and out of the (very cold) garage finishing the wood floors today, I felt like working on the airplane, but I felt like being WARM, so I thought some devinyling was in order.

I grabbed the next big part in the airplane parts room, and got to work on the kitchen table (sorry girlfriend!).

Because of all the rivet and screw holes and all the cris-crossing patterns, it took me an hour for this whole skin (not the usual 30 minutes per wing skin...those were easy).

Also, I know that the instructions say to just pull out all the vinyl from the insides of the tank, but I figure I'll let the vinyl act as tape lines for the proseal I'll be using to seal the ribs to the skin on the inside.
Here's the inside of the right tank after devinyling.

The top side.

And the bottom.


1.0 hour of devinyling fun tonight.
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Post Title: Devinyled Left Tank
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Wed, 01 Dec 2010 02:30:32 +0000
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Well, I was kind of on a roll with the whole devinyling thing, and I needed some more mindless airplane work.

I got to work on the left tank's skin today.
Here's the bottom of the left tank after devinyling.

Here's an in-progress shot of the top side.

The inside, devinyled.

Finally, the top of the left tank, completed.


One more hour of devinyling fun.
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Post Title: Devinyled Aileron Skins
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Sat, 04 Dec 2010 22:00:19 +0000
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Okay. Prepare yourself for the BEST, MOST LONGEST POST EVER.

Not. (P.S. I'm bringing back "not.")
Devinlying the aileron skins while watching UNC.


One hour today (we were fast-forwarding through the game).
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Post Title: Finished Left Rear Spar
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Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:00:51 +0000
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Well, I know I've been bombarding you with new posts lately (not!), but I did get a fair amount done today. As you can tell from the title of the post, I finished the left rear spar.

More importantly, I made an investment to my health this week.

I present to you...(triumphant music)...a heater.
Ta-da!


This is a pretty sweet heater. It's small, only cost $20, and by no means will it heat the garage, BUT, the garage is no longer (literally) freezing, and I can work in front of the workbench comfortably for a whole day. It will provide me with two heat settings and has a little fan in it. I set it in the corner of the workbench (as pictured above), and after about 5 minutes, I have to turn it down to the low setting. After about ten minutes, it is pretty comfortable where I'm standing in front of my workbench. And, now that I think about it, it does take the chill off the rest of the garage. Even for the one day I've really used it while I was finishing the floors, it has totally earned its cost back.

Okay, back to the airplane. I finally found my stepdrill, and made a couple holes in my W-707E.
Step-drill to the rescue. Had I planned this a little better, I would have done three smaller holes.


I clecoed W-707E back onto the rear spar and flipped it over to use the dremel to clean out the rest of the aileron pushrod hole.
I'm about to flip the spar over and use the dremel to clean up the hole.

I'm not totally done here, but you get the idea.


After that, I moved on to dimpling the reinforcement plates where I won't be able to dimple them later.
4 #30 dimples along the left (outboard) edge, and #40 dimples along the top flange.

I also dimpled the flange of the rear spar where the reinforcement plates will go.


Then, after a little more scuffing and cleaning, I shot primer on the spar.
I love this color. Makes me happy.

And the left W-707E and W-707F.

After a couple hours inside while the primer dried, I came back out and studied the rivet callouts.
Looks like I can set 7 rivets here right now. All size "square," which is AN470AD4-8.

5 of the 7 set. Nice shop heads, huh?

I chose to put the shop heads on the aft side of the rivet (these are manufactured heads). I like shop heads, and it makes inspection easier.


Moving outboard, I studied the same callout for the middle reinforcement plate, or W-707E.
Looks like I can set five here, of size "upside down triangle," which are AN470AD4-4.

Manufactured heads

Shop heads.


And repeat with the outboard reinforcement plate.
6 here, I think. More upside-down triangles.

Manufactured heads.

Shop heads.

Then, I couldn't help but grab the right spar and put them both up on the workbench.
It feels good to have both rear spars done.

Look at the difference in paint color. Left spar (just finished) is on the right.

More difference in paint color.


Anyway, all the rivets were symmetrical from right side to left side, which doesn't mean I'm correct, it just means that if I did make any mistakes, I made them twice!

Now, all that's left on the spars is to finish up the left tiedown. Then, I really need to make some wing stands and finish up some rib deburring.

Tonight was a good night. 56 rivets, and it feels really good to get something big put together.
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Onward and upward!

Post Title: Finished Left Tiedown
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Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:00:14 +0000
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Well, with a full week at home this week to work on the airplane, of course it was Wednesday by the time I actually got out to the garage. Too many other things going on.

I was determined, however, to make some real progress, and I think I did okay.

I scoured around for my right tiedown and then pulled out the raw parts for the left side.
Here's the left tiedown stock and the two spacers that I cut while I was working on the right side.

Visit from the puppies (no, the toilet isn't hooked up...but how cool would that be?!).


After getting everything set and lining up the tiedown per the plans (oh man, I used to be so good at documenting these little steps), I started match-drilling.

The plans say to drill these to 3/16", but I went ahead and drilled them to #12, which I think is a little bigger, but the AN3-_ bolts don't fit in the 3/16" holes, and they fit perfectly in the #12.
The bolt in the lower right hole is the one from the single (of 8) holes they tell you to drill in advance. You use a bolt to line up that hole and then picot the whole assembly around that point to 90° of the spar. Then matchdrill.

1-inch hole saw....looks pretty centered to me.

This time, I didn't use any lubrication, and it seemed to do a lot better. Hmm.

After countersinking the nutplate holes for the flush rivets.


And finally, to priming before assembly.
I think the is the second side.


I started putting everything back together and got the squeezer out.
(I like getting the squeezer out.)

The one on the right is the left tiedown.


8 beautiful rivets.
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Post Title: Started Building Wing Stands
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Wed, 29 Dec 2010 21:00:38 +0000
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I realized today that tonight is the anniversary of N999ZA. Yup, it was exactly one year ago today that I picked up the empennage kit from the FedEx facility here in town.

After today's work, I have 199.0 hours on the kit, having set 2639 rivets and drilled out 205 rivets. (Only two parts re-ordered, but I haven't reordered my "dropped rudder" stuff yet, so that number is going to go up.) I thought I would have more hours on the kit and be a little further (I assumed 6 months for emp, 1 year for wing, 1 year for fuse, 1 year for finish, and 1 year for avionics, engine), but I'm okay with where I am given all the other stuff I've been working on (first floor project, HA420).

At ~200 hours per year, and assuming it will take 1500-2000 hours, that leaves me about 6.5 -9 more years of work. (The girlfriend was not happy with this simple calculation, so I quickly explained that 200 hours per year was only for this year, and would only be true if I had an entire first floor worth of wood flooring to lay every year.) We both agreed it would be okay to speed up a little for the remaining (hopefully) 3 to 4 years.

Anyway, enough with the sentimental stuff.

Well, after finishing the left tiedown this morning, I needed to move onto another big step.I thought this afternoon would be a good day to start building my wing stands.

After a lot of thought and research, I decided I didn't want the floor-to-ceiling kind. I wanted very sturdy floor stands. So, I started building.

Instead of the 4x4s, I went with matched 2x4, turned around to cancel out any bow (although these are the "select" 2x4s, and they are ****-straight).

After screwing them together and cutting them into 4-foot lengths, here's where I am.
Nice and straight.


asdf
I'm not totally done securing the supports, but you get the idea. They are secured from the bottom (flush) and then into the posts. Plenty stable.?


I also bought two 4' lengths of 1/8" aluminum angle (2"x2") as well as a 3' pieces of 1/8" aluminum angle (1.5"x1.5"). I did this because I'm going to have 4 main supports for the front spars (2"x2" angle), some supports for the rear spars (2"x2" angle), and some smaller angle (1.5"x1.5") to make the truss system I'm going to use.

(Sidebar: The whole time I was working today I was replaying the mechanical engineering class I took in college about linkages. Read a quick one-page summary of the class at here and here.

Okay, let's start making some aluminum shavings...
My 4 main supports, and my 8 small brackets.


I then drilled the holes in the brackets. I'm using 3/8" threaded rod, which is probably overkill, but I stood in the hardware store with the 1/4" stuff and it took a considerable force to make it bend (buckling). I picked up the 3/8" rod and it was rock solid. I figured for a few more cents per rod, I'd rather overdo it. Anyway, the brackets on the right will get the 3/8" threaded rod and a 3/8" bolt through the main stand post. The brackets on the left will get the 3/8" threaded rod and a 1/4" bolt that will go through the 2"x2" angle (the smaller bolt for the smaller head so I won't have any interference). You'll see.
Holes drilled in the brackets.


Then, I made matching pairs of left and right supports.
(The bigger hole goes through the main post, the smaller hole is for the bolt that will hold the bracket on).

Here are the brackets attached.

Then, I threaded in the 3/8" rod.


Before I can go any further, I need to make sure the spar will be level when they are hung. Since the garage is sloped, I can't just drill holes 2 inches from the top of each post. (For the record, I think I could build it that way, because the real issue is wing twist, which could still be fixed if the spar wasn't level, but I would rather have the wing level.)
Me using the laser-level.


This thing is awesome (it's my girlfriend's). I held it up against one support and moved it up or down until the level line across the garage was right on the top edge of the post (the picture below shows me about 1/2" too low). When the level line was even with the very top edge, I marked a line under the laser leveler (it has a little hole for marking), and then I measured down from that line (and the top of the other post) 2 inches to mark a spot for drilling.
Using the laser leveler.


After that, I drilled a 3/8" hole and measured down 18" for the bracket hole and drilled another 4 holes.

Then, I assembled all the hardware and...

TADA!!!
Wing stands!!

Here's a closeup of one set.

And an even bigger close-up of the mechanism. Since most of the force will be down, I kept the threaded rod long and mounted the post bracket 18" below the main bracket.?

And the lower adjustment mechanism. Thank you Ethan.


Then, I had to put the spars on the stands. (Making sure to carefully clamp each side.)
Wuhoo! Wing stands.


I need to add some screws into the 45° wooden supports, and tighten up all the hardware. I'll also probably cut the carpet out from under the stand bases and use some construction adhesive to glue those bases down once I know their final locations.

Still a very good day in the shop, and now the shop is clean and organized for the wing activities that will hopefully take me through summer 2011.

All in all, I think I worked about 3.5 hours on the stands today. Not bad.
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Post Title: Fluting and Straightening Left Wing Ribs
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Sat, 01 Jan 2011 22:28:21 +0000
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Well, today was kind of boring. Between installing the toilet back into the powder room and sitting on my butt watching football, I managed to motivate enough to go do some fluting and flange-straightening on the left wing ribs.

I didn't hang the outboard rib yet (still have to attach a 5" piece of angle to help support the outboard edge), but here are the first 4 (of 14) ribs done.
I'm really liking this stand.

7 of 14 ribs done and hung.

All done.


Next up is matchdrilling the main ribs, then getting the leading edge ribs prepped, assembled on the spars, and matchdrilled. Then (because I'm working a little out of order), I'll take all the ribs off and prep them for priming before starting to rivet the skeleton together.

A boring, but important hour of work today.
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Post Title: Leading Edge Rib-to-Spar Drilling
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Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:35:30 +0000
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Well, after a quick run to Lowe's to pick up a few more pieces of shoe molding for the family room (see my first floor wood floors page and today's update here), I finished the family room and then headed out to the garage for an awesome two hours worth of building.

Why awesome?

First of all, I picked up these awesome tools for the project. I needed some good 3" clamps for the spars (where they will attach to the wing stands) and a couple of plumb bobs to help measure twist. Also, I've been using my plastic triangle from 7th grade geometry as a square...it's about time I got a real square.
Tools! Tools! Tools!


Then, I got out the jigsaw with a medium metal cutting blade and cut a couple 5" pieces of 1.5" angle. I attached these angles to the outboard ribs, which will allow the ribs to be attached to the wing stands.
I used 1/4" bolts instead of 3/16". I hope I don't die. (Also, don't pay attention to my edge distances...)


Here's a good shot of what I'm trying to accomplish. The skins will overhang (to the right in this picture) the spar by about an inch from the last set of holes in the spar. I used the 1.5" angle so I have adequate spacing (don't have to notch my support angle to accommodate the skins).
This will work great.


Okay, next up, rib preparation. Here are 10 of the 12 leading edge ribs (these 10 have the prepunched holes).
Leading edge ribs.


After spending about an hour deburring edges with the scotchbrite wheel, straightening the flanges to 90° and then fluting between holes to make sure the holes are straight, I numbered the ribs for each of the wings and then got to match-drilling.

The only difficult parts here are that a couple of the W-709 ribs have holes where they don't need them and don't have holes where they do need them. The picture below illustrates.

Ignore the row of holes that has a cleco in it already; these are the main rib attach holes. See how the three middle holes leading edge rib lines up nicely with the prepunched holes in the spar? Those are easy to matchdrill to final size.
The outer two holes on the rib get "abandoned" while the two outer holes in the spar are used to backdrill new holes into the rib.


Here, I am using the holes in the spar to drill the new holes in the rib.
Matchdrilling using the spar.


I threw a couple clecos into the new holes. Now there are 5 attach holes, and 2 abandoned holes (you can see them on the outside).
There are 4 total leading edge ribs that get this treatment. It's easy to tell which ones need it as you assemble the leading edge.


Then, I spent another half hour making sure all of the rib-to-main-spar holes were drilled. Now, they are ready for disassembly, deburring, prep for priming, priming, and assembly.

Oh wait. I still have to drill all the rib to rear-spar holes. I'll do that tomorrow.

Before shutting down for the night, I snapped a picture of the two wings in the stands.
It's awesome to be at a point where I can see two big wings in the garage.


A half hour of attaching the outboard ribs to the wing stands, then 1 hour straightening and fluting rib flanges, then another half hour drilling ribs to the main spar.

I'm waiting on a 2-inch scotchbrite wheel from Cleveland Tools, so tomorrow I'll drill all the main ribs to the rear spar and then I'll find something else to do.

2.0 hours of big skeleton work.

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Post Title: Mucho Leading Edge Work
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Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:00:22 +0000
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<em>Warning: This is a long post with lots of pictures. I'll try to keep commentary to a minimum. (Oh, and I just took the pups for a run outside, and it was cold, so please excuse the typos...my fingers are still a little frozen.)</em>

Well, today was a day off for me (New Year's Day observed) where everyone else had to go to work, so I got a ton of work (on the airplane!) done. It was really cold last night (and today on our run...brrr), so as soon as I was ready to get out into the garage to work, I turned on my portable heater and turned right back around to go inside.

Hmm. I guess I can devinyl some leading edge skins while the garage heats up and I keep warm with coffee.
Here's the right leading edge.

Right leading edge upside down.

More right leading edge

Left leading edge, upside down. (That hole is the stall warning vane access panel. More about that later.)

Left leading edge again. (That small strip of devinyled leading edge on the left side of the picture is the stall warning vane rib attachment. Again...more later.)


That was about an hour of devinyling, so when I took my leading edge skins outside, it was not too bad temperature-wise. Thanks portable heater!

Note: I am working a little out of order. Technically, I should be prepping the main ribs for priming, then riveting those ribs to the spars, then setting the wing stand up, and then adding the leading edge. Since I'm waiting on some scotchbrite wheels for the rib prep part, I'm jumping ahead to the leading edge stuff.

Here, I've got all of the right leading edge ribs (except the inboard, undrilled rib) clecoed into the leading edge skin. Many people have trouble here, but if you follow the directions (which I kind of did), you start from the front end of the rib, top and bottom, and then you are okay from there. The biggest trick I found was to push the rib forward (towards the nose) as you are maneuvering the rib into place. I have long arms, so I could see the holes line up from the back, then reach around and stick a cleco in.
I like my modular leading edge/tank cradle. (No comments about my split triangular piece of MDF, please.)


Anyway, then I put the leading edge on the spar, and stood back in amazement. (Amazement at the size of the assembly, and that all the holes freakin' line up! I know this is a prepunched kit, but still, everything just always lines up. Thank you Vans!)
Nice.

Jack (tentatively): "Whoa, that leading edge looks good, but I'm going to stay here...the concrete is cold on my paws."


After playing for a few minutes, they went back inside (it turns out they came out to ask me to turn on the gas fireplace....okay, okay, I will).
On to the left leading edge.

This is an awesome sight. It finally looks like I'm building an airplane in here.

After setting both leading edges on the spar (and securing them from beneath with some #30 clecos through the main spar), I noticed that the spar really needs to be straight and level to proceed, even though it's not fully assembled yet.

So, even though I know I'm going to take this all down soon, I went ahead and leveled the spar using the trusty (and calibrate-able) iPhone app from Stanley.
I couldn't decide whether negative or positive 0.0 was better, so I left it with negative. My wing stand mechanism sure made this easy. Every 1/4 turn of my adjustment nuts was about 0.1° change. Easy to dial in.


Then, I needed to address the spar bowing in the middle from the weight of all the components. (Once the skins are on the wings, they provide that support, but until they are, there is no (what I'll call) lateral rigidity.
A variation on a (wing stand) theme. a threaded rod between two 2"x4" blocks.

Same on the other side.


Before removing the sag, you can see how much bow there is (look at the row of primed countersinks).
There's about a 1/2-3/4" of bow in the middle of the spar.


A few cranks of my adjustable homemade jack, and the middle of the spar shows the same distance with the string. This was equally as easy to dial in.
Nice and level. (Ooh, that "flush" rivet on that nutplate isn't so flush. I might need a rivet shaver...)


Then, with everything level, I clecoed the leading edge skins to the spar.
Leading edge skins now clecoed to the spar.


Now I can move on to the inboard leading edge rib. It comes undrilled, so first thing, I kind of held it in place and made little marks where the holes were going to go.
You can see my very faint marks.


Okay where is it. I'm sure there are two of them, one for each wing...
searching shop storage ...hmmm...and the airplane room upstairs...hmm...]

Grrr. Where did they go?

Upon closer inspection of the plans...
Oh.

That was easy.


I marked my half inch line and then pondered how I was going to fit this round (straight) peg into the square (rounded) hole.
This goes in there.


I definitely need the access plate doubler and cover no matter what, but I did give some thought to whether I am going to install the stall warning vane.

I am planning on using the Dynon AOA vane, which will give me good stall warning (I believe it is calibrated during some demonstrated stalls for the highest AOA seen during stall for any flap configuration). For awhile, I kept thinking that I won't need the Van's vane (and I was a little miffed that they cut a big hole in my leading edge!), but then the CFI in me woke up and thought of a few things.

Every once in awhile during a rotation or flare, I might get a little chirp of the stall warning. Everyone does, and it can't hurt to have a small reminder, separate and therefore redundant from the Dynon Air Data Computers (ADCs...wait, I think dynon calls them ADAHRS...or air data, attitude and heading reference system) during slow speed maneuvering. The Dynon is based on pressure differential (between the front and the angled top of the pitot probe), and the other is based on direction of relative wind (the vane just lifts up and compresses a microswitch when the relative wind pushes up on it).

I'm going to go ahead and install all of the provisions for both. It will be pretty easy to get everything installed, and just leave the little vane out if I don't want it in the end, but I have to fill all the rivet holes anyway, might as well not rule out any future decision changes.

I'll probably install both; you can't be too aware of low speeds, and frankly, it will probably help resale to have the more traditional stall warning.
Anyway, I drilled the doubler plate to the leading edge.


Then, I found the leading edge vane support rib. They come as a pair of two; one for the RV-9, and one for the RV-7,8. It was obviously while holding it up to one of the leading edge ribs that the one with the sticker on it is the correct one.

So I wouldn't forget, I tossed the other one in my scrap pile.
The one on the right is the one for the RV-7 (and -8).


Whew. Good day. I've made good progress in the last few days. Tomorrow, back to work, but hopefully I can keep this up.

Oh, and for the record, I hardly had enough 3/32" (silver) clecos to do both leading edges at the same time. I just ordered 100 more, but I am going to need way more that that to keep working on both wings at the same time. This might be a good time to work on one wing at a time...or break down and order the 500 or so that Vans suggests.

3.5 hours.
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Post Title: Stall Warning Access Panel Work
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Wed, 05 Jan 2011 01:00:14 +0000
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Well, I was able to spend a short half hour in the garage tonight. Last time, I ended up working on the access panel for the stall warning vane. I figured getting that prepped, primed, and nutplated would be a nice short task completion.
Here's the doubler, dimpled (for #6 screws) and scuffed after running the edges through the scotchbrite wheel.


I finished the edges of the cover, too, and dimpled for the #6 screws. The other side of this plate is devinyled and scuffed, but I'm leaving the vinyl on this (the potentially polishable) side.
Ready for priming.

See, I told you the other side was scuffed.

Primed!


While the primer was drying, I did a little edge finishing of the stall warning vane mini-rib.
Scuffed, but I still need to edge finish in all those crevices.


After the primer dried on the doubler, I set some NAS (oops) rivets with some dimpled nutplates.
20 rivets.

I didn't tighten these down at all, just threaded them into place.

Of course, I had to cleco tonight's work back into the leading edge.


A half hour, 20 rivets.
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Post Title: Prepped and Primed First Wing Rib
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Fri, 07 Jan 2011 01:00:49 +0000
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Well, since my tool order from Cleveland finally showed up, I decided it was time to jump into rib prep full speed ahead. Because I have already finished most of the edges, fluted and bent the flanges to 90°, I really just needed to prep the lightening holes (which I couldn't get to with the 6" scotchbrite wheel) and use some emery cloth to get the smaller crevices.

Here's the tool order. Along with 75 1/8" clecos, I got 100 more 3/32" clecos, a 2" scothbrite wheel, the mandrel for that wheel, and some #41 and #19 drill bits.
I love new, shiny clecos.


I put a washer on the top of the mandrel and then screwed down the wheel.
****, not enough threads.


Took it apart, removed the upper washer, then assembled it again.
I'm showing one thread, but that's okay.


In order to start taking apart the wing to get at the ribs for prepping and priming, I needed to unjack the rear spar, which means I have to remove the leading edges, which are clecoed to the main spar before allowing the weight of the wing to bend everything.
Here are the leading edges on the workbench.


I guess I snapped a picture of my 320 grit emery cloth. (This isn't really cloth, it's more of belt-sanding sandpaper. It works, though.)
320 grit from NAPA.


I chucked the 2" wheel in the drill press and started cutting grooves in it (with the ribs I was deburring).
That groove is from one rib's lightening holes. I'm going to need more scotchbrite wheels.


After completely edge-finishing the rib, including flossing the little crevices with the emory cloth, I dimpled the one hole in the rib that is underneath the rear spar flange, which also needs to be dimpled to accept a dimple in the skin. Here's the right rear spar, lower flange hole that I dimpled.
Dimple!


Then, I primed the rib.
Still wet from primer...


The next morning, it was dry, and I snapped another picture.
Nice...


This took me about an hour, but I spent a good 20 minutes getting organized first. I won't prime each rib individually, but I'll probably do them in groups of 5 or so to break up the monotany. Tthere are 28 total main ribs...I'm not even going to think about the leading edge and tank ribs yet).

That one rib looks good, though. I need to think about ordering some snap-bushings for the holes in the forward edge.
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Post Title: Primed 3 More Main Ribs
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Sat, 08 Jan 2011 01:45:18 +0000
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Warning: Boring post alert!!

I prepped and primed 3 more ribs tonight. I had prepped R1 yesterday (I numbered R or L then from 1 to 14 starting at the inboard rib). Today, I got ribs R2-R4 done. So...

I HAVE ALL OF THE RIGHT WINGWALK AREA RIBS DONE, WUHOO!!!

(There are still 24 more main ribs to do, then 12 more leading edge ribs and probably 12 more tank ribs.)
sigh]
R2, R3, and R4 just after being shot with some self-etching primer.


Anyway, yesterday's rib took me an hour.

Today's 3 ribs took me an hour.

(At this overall rate...4 ribs in two hours, I've got 10 hours of rib prep left. At the rate of 3 ribs per hour, I have 6.6 hours left.)

At least I'm getting faster. (I'm not sure how many more ribs I can do in an hour, I was pretty efficient yesterday.)
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Post Title: Primed 3 More Main Ribs, Now 7 Done
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Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:25:11 +0000
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Today, I worked on ribs R5, R6, and R7. (Remember, this isn't Vans' number scheme, this is mine.)

First, I negotiated a larger cleco holder from the girlfriend. I used to have two containers the size of the left one. Now, I have plenty of room for my clecos. (Until, of course, I have to order 200 more...)
I could fill the one on the right up if I didn't have all my clecoes in the leading edges.


Okay, back to the ribs.
The extra two on the right side needed a little touch-up from some water contamination prior to the first round of priming. Gotta let those suckers dry before spraying.


One hour to prep and prime those 3 ribs. I'm halfway done with the ribs on the right wing. I think I may start riveting the ribs to the main spar as I go to break up the monotony. We'll see.
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Post Title: Riveted Half of Main Ribs to Right Main Spar
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Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:31:09 +0000
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Well, I needed a break from all of that rib preparation, so I took the seven ribs I had done for the inboard half of the right wing and got started riveting them to the main rib (Most people start with the main rib, because you can bend the ribs a little out of the way of the rivet gun while you shoot and buck.)
Here are the first two rivets in place, ready for shooting.


After the first five rivets...
(That mark above the 2nd from the top is a tape mark.)

After drilling out and re-setting, the rivet is now great. (I scratched the primer off the flange a little. I'll clean that up with a scotchbrite and re-shoot it with primer.)


Of course, it wasn't until the second rib that I remembered my tape trick to keep from marring the manufactured heads too much.
This works great to keep everything looking nice.

See, this head looks a lot cleaner after shooting.

Here's two done.

More shop heads.


Then, I did the 4th, 6th, then 5th, and finally, the 7th.
The first 7 ribs attached to the right main spar.


1.0 very fun and rewarding hour. It's nice to see something big take shape for the last time in the garage.

5 rivets times 7 ribs equals 35 rivets, two of which were drilled out and replaced. (The first rivet, and the last rivet. Boo.)
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Now, back to rib prep.

Post Title: More Right Wing Main Rib Preparation
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Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:00:24 +0000
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Not much today, just more right wing main rib preparation. I thought I was going to be able to finish all the prep on the right main ribs, but I got distracted and only got a few of them prepped (and not even all the way to priming).

First, I opened up my two new packages of maroon scotchbrite pads.
I think it was about $10 for both at Napa.


I cut one of the packages into my usual ~3" squares.
I can get 6 squares from one layer...that makes 18 squares. per package.


Next session, finishing up the scotchbriting and then deburring the crevices, then hopefully priming.

Then, lucky me, I get to start on the left wing main ribs...

1.5 boring hours today.
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Post Title: Brainstorming External Lights Switch Layout
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Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:56:59 +0000
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I'm planning (AeroLED) strobes and position lights, taxi lights in the wingtips, and HID landing lights in the leading edges. The taxi lights will be the ones to wig-wag.

I've set the switch layouts up for flow, both in before-flight and approach-to-landing phases. Let's look at those:

Before Flight:

?Strobes ON before engine start.
?Position ON before taxiing.
?Taxi lights ON before taxiing.
?Landing Lights ON before taking the runway.
?Wig Wag taxi lights ON either before takeoff or on climbout (wig wags are primarily for traffic/recognition)
</ol>
Approach-To-Landing (VMC):

?Strobes ON (on the entire flight)
?Position ON (on the entire flight)
?I'll turn Taxi, Landing, and Wig Wag lights on prior to entering the terminal area. (No impact to switch placement, they can all be next to each other.)
</ol>
Approach-To-Landing (IMC):

?Strobes OFF (because we're in the clouds and they reflect off the clouds and distract)
?Position ON (on the entire flight, even in the clouds)
?I'll turn Strobes, Taxi, and Landing lights after breaking out of the clouds.
</ol>
<div>I won't really need Wig Wag on an IFR flight plan if I'm breaking out of the clouds on an approach, but it couldn't hurt, and it's easy to just turn on ALL of the external lights once I've broken out.</div>
So, my two choices are a 5-switch setup and a 4-switch setup.
Duckworks was kind enough to send me a spare lens. Much appreciated.

A closeup of the H3 part of the enclosure. I had never seen one before, so this was a learning experience for me.


Also included in the kit are the instructions, an exploded view, and the templates for the cutting and drilling.
Good documentation. Well done.


Anyway, I decided to just bite the bullet and cut into the leading edges. Here is the template with the middle cut out.
Template, ready to go.


First, I cut out the rib template and used a sharpie to mark the hole locations.
Exact positioning here isn't too important because the holes in the mounting plate are huge, and you can adjust these a fair amount.

Same trace, no paper.

Other wing.


Before jumping into the actual cutting, I moved on to some of the metal preparation for the other stuff. I wanted to be able to cut the leading edge openings while the primer was drying for some of these smaller parts.

Here, I've run a #40 bit through all of the nutplate attach holes and enlarged the middle holes to 5/32" per the instructions.

Then, I clecoed all 4 pieces together to countersink the nutplate attach holes for regular AN426 rivets. I could have used "oops" rivets here, but the lens retainers are thick enough that it wasn't necessary.
4 lens retainers, clecoed together to give the countersink guide a good path.

I forgot to take any pictures of the rest of the prep for the lens retainers, lamp retainers, and the mounting plates. Anyway, they got prepped, cleaned, dried, and taken outside to prime.

I headed back in and got out a variety of dremel tools to cut out these openings.

There's no turning back now.

I started near the bottom (least visible) and very far away from my line. As I gained confidence, I moved closer to my line (less finishing later).
Yikes, that's not a pretty cut.

After a little cleanup, they look a little better. Still need to do some final cleaning.


I didn't take a picture of the other cutout, but it turned out equally as well. A lot of people really stress out about cutting these holes.

I can see where they are coming from, but I think the leading edges are great with these light openings in them. (I'm going to look like a 747 coming down final, which is exactly what I want (visibility and recognition).)
Pretty leading edges. (Oh, and this was the first time in a long time I've been able to work with the garage open. It was almost 40°F today!)


Okay, back to the primed parts. I had the urge to set some rivets today, and I nailed all of them. I finally feel like I'm starting to get into a groove (although squeezing really isn't that hard.)

Here, I've clecoed the provided nutplates to the lens retainers.
Ready to start some riveting.

24 rivets set (beautifully).

Equally beautiful shop heads.

8 more rivets set (I did use "oops" rivets here).

More shop heads.

I got out one of the bulbs and just placed it in the mount just for kicks.
Looks like it will fit.

Found the screws and actually screwed them in. These things are going to look awesome.


Finally, I found all the pan-head screws and lightly screwed them in place.
Sweet.


I don't think I'll do any further painting of these. I like the primer grey.

I'll do some more on the landing lights soon, but for now, I need to get back to rib prep. Hopefully this week I'll have a writeup of the HID kit that arrives.

3.5 hours, 32 rivets. Wuhoo!
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Post Title: Finished Prepping and Priming Right Wing Main Ribs
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Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:30:24 +0000
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Well, not much tonight, other than me getting the rest of the right wing main ribs prepped and primed. Oh, and the Tar Heels pulled out a win against Clemson. Good game.
3 of the 7 that were left.

The other 4 of 7.


1.5 hours. I think with the right main ribs done, I may get them riveted to the spars and start working on some skins before returning to the **** that is rib prep for the left main ribs.

We'll see.
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Post Title: HID Landing Lights...First Look
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Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:30:48 +0000
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Well, I got a couple fun things on the doorstep today.

First, a bag of fifty 1" scotchbrite wheels from Surplus Sales of Nebraska. $15 for the whole bag (instead of $6 per wheel from somewhere like Avery...) I have to credit Bruce Swayze with the find, though. Thanks Bruce.

Full disclosure, these are 5AF wheels, so they are a little softer than the 7AM wheels that most of us have from the aircraft tool suppliers.
50 Scotchbrite wheels. Good buy.


Then, I have a more mysterious box.

I figure it's my new DDM Tuning HID raptor kit.

After a ton of reading (and especially after seeing a couple videos), I've decide that the leading edge light is really the way to go. Now, I think I am going to put a single HID (PAR 36 style enclosure, ordered from Duckworks) in each leading edge for landing lights. These won't wig-wag. I went ahead and ordered a Raptor HID kit from DDM Tuning.

They had a whole bunch of bulb type options, and a $10 upgrade to 55W (from the $30 35W version.) You can also choose your bulb temperature. I chose 5000k based on the graphic they have.

To summarize, I ordered 55W, 5000K, H3 style bulbs. For $40, it's worth trying these inexpensive HID lights instead of the $250+ lights from “aviation” companies.

Here's Don Hall's video (from this post)...fast forward to 1:15 into the video for the same light setup I'm looking for:
youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e08zwLsw6pE]

Anyway. Here's the box.
Kind of discreet. I don't see a packing slip or any directions. Hmm.


Oh, then I took the rest of my primed right ribs and hung them up on my right wing spar.
Just to get them out of the way.


****, I didn't take any good pictures of the lights, but here is one light after fitting it into the H3 enclosure from Duckworks.
Looks good here.


I hooked up my truck's battery and noted 12.6V.
12.6 VDC


Then, I stuck the lamp in the mount from duckworks and propped it up on the table.
I originally had the blue and black wires switched. Apparently black is positive and blue is negative.


Here it is all fired up. You remember how bright my garage is, right?
Wow.


Then, after letting them cool, I took some video. I let it cool so you could see the warm up speed.

It's a bad video, and poorly set up, but you'll get the idea. When I get a multimeter that can measure more than 20 miliohms, I'll set it up in series and capture loads.

At first, I have the light pointed too high, and you can't tell how bright it is. After a second, I move it around, and you can see how well it is lighting up the yard accross the street (sorry, neighbors!). I'll try to do a better setup next time, maybe with two lights, and maybe next to my trucks low and high beams for a comparison.

Off the bat, though, I am super happy about going with the two leading edge lights.

0.5 hours tonight. Not really build time, but I'm going to count it. (Hey, I put 7 clecos (with the ribs) into the right spar.)
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Post Title: Finished Riveting Right Wing Main Ribs to the Main Spar
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Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:00:19 +0000
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Well, after a quick workout, I manage to get a few rivets set in the main spar.

I quickly got 6 of the 7 remaining right main ribs riveted to the main spar (the outboard rib doesn't get riveted to the main spar because it shares rivets with the leading edge outboard rib...the rest of them are slightly offset from their leading edge rib neighbors.)

Anyway, after 30 rivets set, I decided that 6 of them needed to be drilled out. Here's a good example.
Those are called "smileys."


I know exactly why it happens. It's because I am watching the bucking bar and shop head form. When the shop head is set appropriately, I'm subconsciously lifting the bucking bar away from the shop head before letting go of the rivet gun trigger. The rivet set bounces on the head and creates the smiley.

Of course, when I concentrate on letting go of the trigger first, all goes well.

Anyway, I've been trying a new technique with drilling out these AD4- rivets. I'm actually drilling them out from the shop head side. Assuming the shop head is centered over the hole, it is easier to center-locate the drill bit on the flat shop head than the rounded manufactured head. Here are a few pictures of my good results.
I didn't get any oversized holes at all.

Here either.


Here's what the drilled out rivet looks like.
I started from the shop head side (left here) and finished just prior to hitting the manufactured head. This worked great for me.


After re-setting those 6 rivets, I snagged a picture of all (except for the outboard) ribs riveted to the right main spar.
Wuhoo! Big pieces permanently together!


I flipped the spar over on the stand and clecoed on the rear spar.
One cleco in the rear spar for each rib.

Here's an ...AD4-9 rivet. This looks better.


After some gymnastics with my good squeezer, which only has a 4" no-hole yoke on it, I realized that I needed the holed yoke, and therefore needed to use my economy squeezer. Bummer.

(Back in the empennage, I stopped squeezing AD4 rivets altogether because I kept messing them up; the economy squeezer just didn't have enough oompf.)

Anyway, I managed the wingwalk rivets with the smaller squeezer. Here's 9 rivets squeezed.
I couldn't reach the top-most rivet in 3 of the 4 wingwalk ribs. (The other open hole in each of the rib attach points needs to wait for the flap brace.)

I moved my way outboard from there, two rivets in each rib.

Halfway there, I bent over both of the rivets in the aileron pushtube doubler area, and drilled both of those rivets out. Then, the aileron gap seal switches "open" rivets (compared to the flap brace) so of course I set a two rivets there that had to be drilled out.

When I got to the end, I noticed things weren't lining up very well.
Duh. Forgot to dimple the aft side of the outboard rib.

That's better.


I still couldn't reach the one rivet (shown on the left here), but I got the other 3 set properly.
The apparent gap between the two flanges isn't really a gap, its just the shadow.


Let me bring you back to the very first rivet I set. The camera is upside down here (so the part is right side up).

The upper, leftmost rivet bent over (it was the first one I set with the economy squeezer). After drilling out, the hole was englarged.

With only slightly enlarged holes, sometimes you can just squeeze another rivet (a little longer this time) and it will expand to fill the hole nicely.
This is after setting another rivet.


This one did not properly expand, and by the time the shop head was formed, it kind of formed in the hole.

Hmm. I know this is a critical piece, so I'm going to have to call Van's and ask them what the best course of action here is.

I'm hoping I can step up to a AN470AD5-9 rivets, but I'll need to drill the rivet and hole out to 5/32" and I'm worried about edge-distance in the up direction.

We'll see what the guys at Van's have to say.

January 31st update: Ken S at Van's wrote back.
<blockquote>A 5 rivet should work ok. If you can fill the hole with the original rivet, that's ok too --even with
a slightly undersize head. Just be sure that the rivet engages the entire circumference of the
hole.</blockquote>
Alright. I'll have to add AN470AD5- rivets to my next order from Van's or Aircraft Spruce. In the meantime, I'm going to keep working on other stuff.
U-G-L-Y, you don't have no alibi, you ugly! {clap, clap} You ugly!


1.5 hours and 28 stupid rivets set (my arms are tired from the economy squeezer); 8 of those drilled out.

I'm going to have to buy a new yoke ($$$) and probably do some surgery on the offending rivet in the last picture.

I'm stopping this post and starting another one (click next below) because I moved on to the skins. I really needed to end on a good note today, and the skins actually did the trick.
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Post Title: Right Wing Top Skins Clecoed to Skeleton
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Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:30:17 +0000
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Alright, I was having a bad day with the rear spar, so after I got most of it riveted on, I moved on to the skins.

I jumped the gun a little and clecoed on the top outboard skin (jumped the gun because the spar wasn't re-leveled and the inboard skin outboard edge actually underlaps the outboard top skin.

Anyway, with just two clecos in the skin, I was able to thread some string around a cleco on either end of the spar to jack up the center of the rear spar.
The string is supposed to line up with the top of the smaller holes on the right.


After some jacking, the spar is now perfectly straight.
Nice and straight.


Next, I pulled out the top outboard skin. This is the right version (they are actually the same from Van's, but I had pulled off the vinyl on the side I intended to be the interior side for the wing walk doubler.
The devinyled part in the foreground is where the wingwalk doubler will sit.


Many builders before me have complained that Van's wants you to trim the provided doubler from 10" to 9 3/8".

Many builders have left it at 10", then matchdrilled to the skin, then found out there is a matchdrilled hole that violates edge distance.

It would probably be okay, but why include that extra 5/8" strip of 26" long aluminum if you don't have to?

IT'S WEIGHT SAVINGS!!!

Anyway, my snips do a great job with this aluminum, so I got to it and started edge finishing.
[snip snip"]
Then, you line up the forward edge of the doubler 9/16" from the forward edge of the top skin.


See my little sharpie mark?


Then, tape that bad boy up, assuring that the inboard edges are flush.
Taped!


Then, you flip the skin over and start matchdrilling. I used clecos every so often to hold everything together nicely.

About halfway through, I lifted up the assembly to check on progress.
Looking good.


After more drilling...
Done!


I pulled apart the skins to clean everything up. Lot's of aluminum shavings everywhere.
Sorry for the blurry picture.


Then, I spent a few minutes getting the top skins clecoed on.
Wuhoo! it's starting to look like a wing!

This is the less exciting under side.


This was a nice positive finish to counteract my riveting blunders earlier. I'll talk to Van's about the rear spar.

I hope I don't have to replace it.

0.5 hours of clecoing fun.
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Post Title: Started Leveling Right Wing for Good
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Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:20:05 +0000
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Well, tonight was kind of crappy. I started leveling the wings and ended up undoing all the work I did last time (clecoing on the skins felt productive!).

First, I set up my two new plumb bobs with some string.
Exciting picture, huh.


Then, I hung the plumb bobs and realized that with the skins clecoed to the wing, I wasn't going to be able to easily clamp the skeleton into perfect alignment. Instead of messing with it, I quickly made the decision to backtrack and get to a bare wing skeleton for alignment adjusting.

After pulling off the skins, I played a little with my adjustable stands and realized I'm going to need my lower braces before going any further.
I cut two 8-inch pieces of angle to use for the lower braces. One of these will need an additional piece of aluminum before clamping to the outboard rib.


I didn't have time to mount up my angles, so all I did before going inside was to more accurately measure the wing twist.
At the inboard edge, looks like I have 2.25".

The outboard edge is pretty much at 2.75."


Hmm. That's a 1/2" of twist.

I think after clamping the aft spar in place, I'll be able to minimize the twist. Maybe more tomorrow.

1.0 hour.
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Post Title: Continuing to Level Right Wing Skeleton
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Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:16:11 +0000
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Well, I keep chugging along on this right wing skeleton.

Except by "chugging," I really mean "don't seem to be making any progress."

First thing, I wanted to free up one of my clamps, so I drilled and bolted the outboard rib's special angle to the support of my wing stands.

Here's my first mistake. I was really careful to line everything up the first time so I wouldn't have to notch the support angle to accomodate the skins (which overhang the spar end). I didn't remember this on this go around, so now that they are bolted in, I'm going to have to notch the supports.

No big deal, but just annoying that I forgot.
A couple of 1/4" bolts will do just fine here.


Unlike everyone's very pretty lower outboard support, I made an ugly one.
See? More ugly. (Functional, though).


After getting it clamped to the rear spar, I used my air drill and a 3/8" bit to drill a hole for a 3/8" bolt.
I'm not sure why I took this picture.


Here's the inboard rear spar support.
Inboard rear spar support.


And the outboard rear spar support.
I'm using the clever clamping trick that many builders before me have used.


Then I spent some time leveling the spar to 0.0°. After that, I dropped some plumb bob's and carefully measured from the plumb bob string to the top of the rear spar. The outboard side showed 2 1/4", and the inboard side showed 2 3/4". A half inch of twist doesn't sound like a lot, but of course I wanted this to be perfect.

I chose to split the difference. I pulled the outboard edge of the rear spar down (aircraft axes) and clamped, then pushed the inboard side up and clamped.

Here's my problem. It seemed like I really had to push the spar to get it exactly where I wanted it, and there was plenty of (what I'll call) springback force.

After clamping the rear spar in place, I remeasured the spar, and it was now no longer square. (Of course, moving the spar edges moves the ribs, which twists the main spar.)

I releveled the main spar and really tightened up the clamps. I'm now level with the main spar and within 1/32" on the rear spar.

I'm sure I can get it even closer, but I'm worried about how much force I'm holding with the clamps.
Here's a picture of just the skeleton, squared up within 1/32" (I want to improve this).


To see if I was close with the skins, I clecoed them on. They fit great.
Another picture with the skins clecoed on.


Anyone have any thoughts? Have any other builders seen a lot of force required to straighten the wings?

Jan 31st update:

Oh man, I love the forums. bkthomps had the following to say:

did you put skins on yet? you're on the prepunched kit like i am, the twist thing is a null issue- once you cleco both sets of skins on, it will be dead on, other than the slant of your stands/garage floor.

Click to expand...

and

I followed jamie painter's blog and decided not to spend countless hours with the lasers/bobs/etc that I had and I just built the wings doing only the basic level checks and a string down the spar length to get rid of the droop, after finishing them, they are dead level in every dimension, if that helps w/ encouragement.

Click to expand...

1.5 frustrating hours. (After talking with bkthomps, I am much happier. I'll push on now and verify straightness after clecoing both sets of skins on. Wuhoo!)
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Post Title: Clecoed Bottom Skins and Leading Edge on Right Wing
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Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:00:45 +0000
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Oh man, what a great day!!

After some good advice to stop worrying about the wing twist too much ("you've got a pre-punched kit, it'll work out"), I got started on some of the next tasks on the right wing. First, I clecoed on the right top skins, and then grabbed the right leading edge and sat it on the main spar.
Looks like a wing!


I couldn't figure out which washer (skinny or fat) goes on which side of the spar, so I looked at the tiedown area of one of the drawings (can't remember which one.)

First, though, I have to finally sort out which washer ...-10 or ...-10L is the skinny one. Turns out, I should remember that "L" means "lean" (not really, but that's how I'll remember it.

Anyway, I hope that having looked that up now, I'll remember which is which.
Okay. Looks like the -10L washers go on the bolt head side of the AN3-7A bolts.


Next, they want you to draw a few lines on the bottom skin that intersect at the tiedown hole.
You can just barely see my lines on either side of the access hole.Â


Next, I slapped the leading edge into place (but first had to notch my angles...bummer).
I only had to notch very slightly. Still very annoying to me.


After starting (pronounced "attempting") to cleco on the leading edge, I realized I am going to need some mechanical advantage to snug everything up so I don't have to use the clecos to pry things into place (a big no-no).
I got out a few 2x4 scraps and placed them against the rear spar. (This is so the straps don't put any pressure on the aft end of the skins.)

Strapped! (Not very much, just enough to act as a third hand while clecoing.)


Then, I extended my lines back onto the leading edge.
The intersection of the lines is sooooooo close.


I didn't really believe I was off a little (although this is normal), so I grabbed this picture from the inside. (Depending on how precisely you place the tiedowns when you measure and drill them to the spars, you're hole may be off here.)
That little tiny light is so close to the center of the tiedown hole, I'm going to start there, and file a little bit in one direction if I have to adjust.


Anyway, I decided I don't want to start on drilling the skins to the skeleton until I do some more clecoing. I'm going to break down and just order like 400 more clecos before drilling. It can't hurt to cleco every other hole (Van's suggests every 4th hole before drilling)...things will only be lined up better, and since I'm already worried about twist, this will help me sleep at night.

Anyway, I"ll order some tomorrow. One last picture of the WING! that's in my garage tonight.
This makes me happy.


1.5 GLORIOUS, PRODUCTIVE hours. Nights like tonight make all the other crappy nights worth it.
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Post Title: 50% Clecoed Right Wing Skins
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Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:00:59 +0000
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Well, my order of clecos showed up. It was in a pretty small box on the front step, but that little tiny box was deceptively heavy.

After unpacking the box, I noticed that this bag is a bag of 500 clecos.

They actually opened the bag and removed 100 clecos to get to my order of 400. I wish I had known, I would have ordered another 100 just to save them the trouble of counting them all out.
Bag o' clecos!


Anyway, I emptied them into my (now empty) silver cleco bin (an old tupperware container).
I even left the automatic flash on so they would shine a little extra for you.


These things are brand-spanking new. And made in the USA.
U.S.A!


Some people on the forums were pointinng out that I got a heck of a good deal at $0.35 each, and they suspected they were not going to be the new, USA-made clecos.

Well, these are new.

This next picture shows a few of my different kinds of clecos. From left to right:

1) Clekolok USA, new today (from Innovative Tool Supply)
2) Kwik lok USA, purchased about a year ago (from the Yard)
3) Kwik lok USA, purchased about a year ago (from the Yard's used bulk area)
4) Unknown, purchased about a year ago (from the Yard's used bulk area)
New to old, they all work the same. I haven't noticed any degradation of holding power.


Anyway, I then spent the next half hour sticking these new clecos into my right wing.

Based on a conversation with Bill Repucci, I've decided to mitigate all of my alignment concerns by just 50% clecoing the wing. (50% meaning every other hole, as opposed to 25%, which would be the Van's suggested everth fourth hole.)

I have to admit, that thing is rock solid now.
The right top skins with a cleco in every other hole.


I looked at my new cleco stash and realized I was about halfway through them already.
****... those went fast.


After another half hour of every other hole clecoing the right bottom skins, I reached in my cleco bucket and only had two clecoes left.

Uh oh.
Darnit.


I almost made it with 600 clecos.
There are a few missing clecos along the rear spar (towards the bottom of the picture).?


When I get to that area during matchdrilling. I'll just move some of my clecos from other areas.

1 hour of clecoing fun.

Contrary to what other builders have to say, my hand isn't that tired, and I therefore don't intend on spending $200 for a pneumatic cleco runner. Take that!
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Post Title: Started Matchdrilling Right Wing
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Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:30:58 +0000
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Well, after 50% clecoing the right wing yesterday, I finally broke out the plumb bobs and measured my wing twist again. It was within a millimeter (sorry, I could only find my metric rule tonight).

After a quick celebration dance (I must have misplaced the video of the dance, sorry), I fired up the air compressor and put a drillstop on my #40 bit.

First, I matchdrilled every other hole on the top side of the right wing, then moved all of the clecos over one hole and matchdrilled the remaining holes. Keep in mind that I have about 600 clecoes, 500 of which are in the right wing right now. That's a lot of drilling and cleco-moving.

I then moved to the bottom side and drilled all of the open holes, then started moving clecos, and got tired. Later this week, I have to finish moving clecoes on the bottom side of the right wing and matchdrill the remaining holes.

To help you understand how tedious it is to move all of these clecos, I'll leave you with the following pictures.
Jack and Ginger, walking each other down the street.


Oh, I almost forgot! The ceremonial plans change!
(Triumphant music...)


Okay, so there is lot's of talk about the Checkoway method and what that is, but no one really does a good job of explaining it. I'll give it a shot, and try to give credit where credit is due.

Basically, Van's wants you to:

?Install the z-brackets (after some steps to get both sides of them drilled)
?Cleco on the baffle ("back wall" of the tanks) to the z-brackets.
?Cleco the skin to the baffle, then adjust fit as necessary by elongating holes in the baffle.
?Remove the skin and cleco in the ribs.
?Cleco the skin back on.
?Remove the whole thing for matchdrilling off the wing.
</ol>
The Checkoway method (from what I can tell, because I never actually made it to his site before he took it down...):

?Drill only the aft side of the z-brackets, then bolt them in place.
?Attach a clecoed tank into position
?Drill the inboard baffle-to-z-bracket holes (doing this now, instead of before, ensures the tank is perfectly aligned.)
?Remove the leading edge to drill the outboard baffle-to-z-bracket holes
?Remove skin and ribs, leaving baffle in place.
?Now finish baffle-to-z-bracket holes.
</ol>
The Checkoway method basically has you wait until you ensure propoer tank alignment before starting to drill holes in the front flanges of the z-brackets. If you do it Vans' way, you might misdrill a z-bracket, and it will throw off the whole tank alignment.

Anyway, many sites have kind of hinted at this stuff, but Ethan really spelled it out nicely, and I have to give him some credit.

Of course, I'm out in the garage, so iPhone saves the day.
Ooh, remind me to charge up tonight, looks like I'm a little low on electrons.


After some really precise (HA!) line drawing. I finally used my center punch to mark a good starting point for my #12 drill. (#12, because that's the holes size for AN3 bolts.)
Punched.

Inboard bracket drilled.

Second one drilled.


After drilling the second one (actually, I checked before drilling, but didn't snap a picture till after), I held a nutplate over the hole to make sure I didn't get too close.
Looks good.


Then, I needed to bolt these in position to drill the other 2 (of 3) holes. I spent a few minutes removing the lower inboard right wing skin and laid (Emily!!) the brackets in position.
I love working on the airplane. Therapy for the soul.


Okay, I have my centerline and a hole. Let's bolt them up. (I added tape and a washer for spar-protection.)
Centerline through both holes...


So, I just moved it to the top side, knowing I'll have to backdrill from underneath. No biggie.
See, worked great. (You can see I used sacrificial nutplates, instead of regular nuts...easier to tighten since once you get it started you don't have to hold the nut.)

Back to the outboard brackets...

I'd drill the top hole, stick an AN3 bolt in, then drill the bottom hole.
Wuhoo! I love making aluminum shavings.


1 hour. It was basically 45 minutes of staring at the plans, the instructions, and other builders' sites, then 15 minutes of marking and drilling.

With the start of the tanks, I need to start thinking about ordering some Black Death (Proseal (tank sealant). I used this stuff on the rudder, and it really wasn't that bad. I'm just calling it Black Death to be funny...or at least conformist.)

I can't decide if I'm going to order the quart, or a whole bunch of the smaller tubes, which are easier to work with, but more expensive.
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Post Title: Riveted Nutplates On Right Wing Z-Brackets
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Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:03:48 +0000
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Well, nothing too exciting, except I got to bang* on some rivets.

* By "bang" I mean "squeeze."

After the other night, I have 7 z-brackets that are matchdrilled to the spar. Six of those seven need nutplates on them.

I grabbed a cleco, a (sacrifical) nutplate, an AN3-4A bolt, and a handful of washers (so I don't engage the locking portion of the nutplate).

Bolt with washers goes in the hole, nutplate on top, hand tighten in a reasonably aligned orientation, and drill one of the holes for the nutplate ears through the angle.

Then, add a cleco and drill the other side.

Easy as PIE.
See? Easy!


I think it was...[thinking]...6 angles, three bolts each, 2 holes for each bolt...36 holes?.

After all was said and done, the sacrifical nutplate had been thoroughly abused.
I almost threw it away, but then decided to keep him in his own little container. I can't just throw away a nutplate that has served me that well!


I deburred the holes that won't be countersunk, and moved on to countersinking. I thought about using oops rivets, but since this material is so thick, I went ahead and countersunk for a full-depth AN426AD3-4 rivet.

Guess what I found when I picked up my countersink cage?

IT WAS ALREADY SET FOR THE PROPER DEPTH! WUHOOOOO!

(It's the little things in life that really matter.)

Anyway, here's one hole done.
Looks okay here...let's try a rivet.

Perfect depth.


While I was countersinking, I went ahead and did the FRONT side of the spar, too. (The nutplates go on the back of the spar, the bolts for the inboard z-brackets are fed in from the front.)
The countersink on the far left isn't perfect, I need to revisit this before riveting. The cage prevented me from getting a good angle on it.


Then, back to the z-brackets for some riveting.
First one done.


Then, onto the rest. All clecoed up, ready for rivets (in the background).
R3-R7 read to go.


It's late, and I need to get inside to bed.

But first, I grabbed all the tank parts for the right tank and quickly mocked them up with no clecos in my cradles. That's the baffle leaning up against the cradles in the foreground.
I'm actually looking forward to the tank. Kind of.


It was just over an hour, but not quite an hour and a half. I think I rounded down last time, so this time, I'm going to call it an hour and a half.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I had to drill one rivet out. Just plain old messed it up.

Until next time...
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Post Title: Right Tank Work
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Sun, 27 Feb 2011 03:58:14 +0000
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Oh man, I had a great day today.

I've been kind of slowly approaching the tanks on my project. I don't have a lot of apprehension about tank sealant, but I want to close out a few things in other places before I venture too much further.

Nevertheless, I made some big parts (at one point I had a whole wing!), but of course, by the end of the night everything was disassembled. Having the tank assembled allowed me to do most of the prep work I needed to do.

At this point, if I want to, I could go back and finish the leading edge lights on the right leading edge and start actually putting the leading edge together permanently.

Of course, I could always go back and catch the left wing up to the right. But that would be BORING. (I'll probably keep myself entertained with the leading edge and then go back to the left wing before setting up for tank sealing.

On to the pictures!

First thing, I bolted all of my right z-brackets to the main spar.
The girlfriend was napping, so instead of riveting the inboard nutplates to the spar, I just used some spar An365 nuts.


My best tool today was the 3/8" power drive socket that came from a gift my girlfriend's dad gave me.

I can't imagine having done these by hand. 2 minutes versus 20 minutes, maybe?
I don't have a picture of the whole set, but it is a really nice Dewalt driver set.


Okay, with the z-brakets bolted to the spar, it's now time to get the baffle in place with the tank skin.
Here's the baffle.


Then, I had an epiphany. A lot of people cleco the skin to the baffle, but then don't really have a good way to clamp the tank assembly in place to accurately drill the inboard and outboard z-brackets. Some people try to clamp it really well, others will pad the tank assembly and try to use tie-down straps around the whole wing.

I read (and re-read) the instructions, and came across a step that simply says
<blockquote>Drill the spar attachment screw holes and the W-423 screw holes to final size using a #19 drill.</blockquote>
Well, I couldn't find a reason not to do that now, so I grabbed my recently ordered #19 bits and got to work.
Here it is.


Then, I decided that I should just go ahead and dimple the holes. Can't find a reason not to.

(Although now that I'm re-reading the manual, I see a statement in there that says to dimple the tank skins using a c-frame and a hammer. Oh well, I think the dimples look good.)
Here's s a dimple for a #8 screw.

And with a AN509-8R8 screw.


After that little test, I went ahead and finished the rest of the spar attach holes.
These should let me really solidify the tank in it's final position for all drilling. No messing around with tie-downs for me!

I cheated a little and didn't assemble the middle ribs. I figured the two end ribs would be sufficient.
Things are looking big now. This is the top side.

And the bottom side.


Here's a closeup of the #8 screws helping me align the tank.
This worked great.


There were a few places where things didn't line up perfectly, but this difference (tank on the left, leading edge skin on the right) is less than 1/64". I've way zoomed in on this next picture. I would call this basically perfect. Some careful edge finishing on the leading edge will line up these seams nicely.

I can't even figure out how I would improve this if I wanted to, which I don't.
Lining up pretty good. For reference, that is a 1/8" hole, and I think that step is about 1/10 of the hole. Multiplication tells me it's about 1/80." There's no way any of you will ever notice this on my plane.


Near the leading edge, the gap looks amazing. Remember, this is my macro setting on the camera. Those are all 1/8" holes.
Great (lack of) gappage.


So other builders will drill the inboard and outboard z-brackets (which requires removing the leading edge) then you have to remove the skin to get to the other z-bracket holes, then you have to re-install both the leading edge and the tank skin to drill the tank-to-leading-edge #19 holes.

Why not do them now? Everything is rock solid and perfectly aligned.
I first matchdrilled the #40 hole into the flange behind the prepunched holes, then I enlarged the hole to #21, then finally #19.


Then, I apparently took another picture of the whole wing because I was so excited.
It's so big (TWSS).


Then, I struggled for about 10 minutes trying to really gently pull the leading edge off without disrupting the tank alignment.

Turns out, the joint plate and leading edge inboard rib fit so well, the friction kept me from sliding it out.

I had to remove the inboard rib (and joint plate) from the leading edge to get it to come off.
Of course, Jack and Ginger are playing in the background.


With my drill stop attached to my #40 bit, I drilled the 25 remaining holes.
It's nice to be at this point, I've been reading about this whole process on everyone else's build sites forever.


After pulling the ribs and baffle back off, I saw holes in all of my z-brackets.
Holes were right where they were supposed to be.

Don't believe me? Here's an example.

Notice how the holes are slightly off-center? This was exactly what I was expecting. See the "checkoway method" explanation on my Previous post (about 1/3 the way down).
It feels good to see these holes exactly where I thought they would be.


That was about 3 hours worth of work. Great day, and the tank alignment was great.
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Post Title: Started Countersinking Right Main Spar
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Sun, 27 Feb 2011 03:59:04 +0000
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This work session was really the same as the last, but because I'm trying to log stuff in categories, I split them up.

I felt like I had a half hour left in me, so I grabbed my countersink cage and banged out some of the spar countersinks that need to be done before riveting the wing skins on. (Riveting the wing skins on is a long way off, but it was a nice little task I could knock off the list.)
A shot of the inboard countersinks.


Oops, looks like I missed 4 holes here. I'll hit those tomorrow.
A shot of the outboard countersinks.


0.5 Hours.
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Post Title: Deburred Right Fuel Tank Ribs, Bottom Wing Skins
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Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:32:35 +0000
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Well, not much today, but I got all the right tanks ribs edge finished and then made sure to run the leading edges of each of the ribs over the scotchbrite wheel to remove any lumpy areas (so as not to create any bulges in the tank skin when the ribs are clecoed in).

Then, in the morning, I brought the right lower inboard skin in the kitchen and started the deburring dance.
One of eight skins done.


Then, later at night, I brought in the right lower outboard skin.
I went ahead and scuffed the interior side of the skin while I was at it.


So, some tedious work today, but work nonetheless.

0.5 on the tanks, and 1.0 on the wings.
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Post Title: Some Right Leading Edge Work
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Sun, 13 Mar 2011 16:04:32 +0000
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Wow, I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last work on the airplane.

Taking care of this little puppy (trying to find him a home) has taken its toll on our schedules and ability to sleep at night. Also, I've been busy at work logging time in something a little bigger than an RV.

Anyway, back to building.

I spent a few minutes taking some time to get reoriented. I couldn't decide whether to work on the leading edge light or start working on ribs. The plan is to get the right leading edge assembled, then get back to prep on the left wing to catch it up.

I spent some time deburring, dimpling, and scuffing the joint plate, then focused on the inboard leading edge rib.
****. These holes are too close to the web.


****, I didn't have it positioned properly when drilling.
There's no way I'm going to be able to dimple these holes.

The most important part of this picture is the sad face.


Time to order another part (along with rudder skins, maybe.)

After wiping the tears off of my cheeks, I moved on to the leading edge light hole. I knew over the last few weeks I needed to figure out a way to clean up the leading edge landing light holes, so I went to Northern Tool and bought a $25 angle die-grinder and a few accoutrements to go with it.
Tools!

Looks fancy.


I plugged it in and gave it a go, and was very happy with the die grinder, but it wasn't what I was looking for for the leading edge holes.

I broke out the jigsaw (gasp!) and put a fine tooth metal cutting blade in.

Carefully, I enlarged the leading edge hole right on the line, and spent a few minutes cleaning up the cut. It needs some more work, but it's okay for now. This was a lot faster than trying to do it with a file.
Right leading edge after cleaning up my jigsaw enlargement.


Finally, I pulled out one of the other leading edge ribs and prepped it (deburr holes and edges, dimple, scuff, etc.)

For the dimpling step, the nose of my economy squeezer sticks out a little further than the female die, so I used the regular grinder side of my bench grinder and ground it down a little.
Now it won't scratch the web of the ribs as I dimple.

Here's one leading edge rib prepped.


I still have a few (a lot!) more to do (including some nutplate attachments for the outboard two ribs for the light bracket), but then I'll get the leading edge prepped and maybe get one of the big pieces put together. That will make me happy.

I'm going to work over the next few weeks to put in some more regular airplane hours. I need to keep moving if I'm ever going to get it done.
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Post Title: Started Prepping Right Leading Edge
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Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:00:43 +0000
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Jeesh, I can't seem to get a minute away from our third puppy to head outside and do any work on the airplane.

Tonight, finally, during halftime (go UNC!) and just after the game (wuhoo UNC!), I managed to go outside and do a couple things.

I didn't want to do anything major; I really just wanted to go out there and get back up to speed. I'm kind of in the middle of rib prep on the leading edge, so I disassembled a few of the leading edge ribs and worked on what I labelled R3, or the third rib from the inboard side.

After deburring (back up, looks like I forgot to matchdrill some of the holes....sigh). Okay, after drilling, deburring, edge finishing, and scuffing, I now I have two right leading edge ribs ready for primer.
R2 and R3 (my numbering) ready for primer.


After pulling out the rest of the ribs (including the two outboard-ish ribs shown below), I went ahead and drilled pilot holes for the nutplate holes that are needed for the leading edge landing light installations. I had previously marked these while they were assembled with the leading edge using the provided template.
The two outboard ribs, now with pilot holes drilled for the bracket (the two small holes just above the lightening hole).


So here's my thought. I really hate rib prep, so I'm basically going to do one at a time, then get it installed in the leading edge. To do that, I'll need to prep (deburr, dimple) and prime the appropriate parts of the leading edge, and prep one additional rib. Generally, you want the surrounding structure in place for whatever you are riveting. Hence the need for the "next" rib to be clecoed in place while you are riveting a particular rib. If you don't have the next one in place (have everything perfectly aligned), then the final structure may not be aligned. Make sense? No? Oh well.

So, I put the leading edge in my cradles and got to work with deburring. I got all the exterior holes deburred, did some edge-finishing with my permagrit block and my edge deburring tool and a scotchbrite pad, then started deburring the interior before my hand got tired.
Leading edge during some prep.


Oh, and out of laziness, I screwed the right tank loosely into position instead of taking it back upstairs. I think it's going to be awhile before I get back to working on it.
It kind of has a funny shape with no ribs in it.


It was a short night, but got me back into the mood, so I'll call it a success.

1 hour.
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Post Title: Started Banging Rivets on the Right Leading Edge
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Fri, 22 Apr 2011 21:32:23 +0000
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<h1>OH MY GOSH!</h1>
<h1>ANDREW'S</h1>
<h1>BUILDING AGAIN!</h1>
Well, even though my last post said I was getting back into the mood of airplane building, it's been almost a MONTH since I spent time on the project.

Yikes.

Anyway, I had a day off today, and I managed to spend a couple hours in the airplane factory.

Let's see if I remember how to take and post picture.

After a little garage cleanup, I got the right leading edge out and got back to deburring all of the holes. I think deburring took about 30 minutes.
My hand hurt after deburring all of these. I need to deburr more often.?


Once done, I took the cradles off the skin and opened her up to do some scuffing.
I haven't totally finished the leading edge light installation, but I can do that after the ribs are installed.


Then, I broke out the c-frame and started dimpling. This actually takes awhile, because you have to be careful not to punch any extra holes in the skin.
Even though I can reach these dimples with my squeezer, I think you get better, crisper dimples from the c-frame.

Here's me doing the forward-most hole in the top of the leading edge skin.


I had a couple ribs prepped (my legend: R2 and R3), so I got them prepped, primed, and clecoed in place. (Making sure to cleco one rib on either side of those so the leading edge was perfectly straight.
Here are the ribs clecoed in place.

Of course, I use my normal tape-over-each-rivet-head trick to minimize scratches, dings, and marring.


I shot and bucked every other one (no mistakes) and then replaced the clecoes with rivets, moved the tape over, and finished the row.

(Needless to say, I started with the bottom of the leading edge, so any mistakes due to out-of-practice riveting wouldn't be so obvious.)
Gratuitous shop head shot on the lower surface of the first rib.

Gratuitous shop head shot on the upper surface of the second rib.

Andrew, STOP TAKING PICTURE OF SHOP HEADS.

Seriously, I need to control myself with this camera.


Oh, and I was having trouble counting rivets today, which was weird.
So I just started writing them down. Can you guys check my math?


3 hours, 58 rivets.
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Post Title: Prepared Right Leading Edge Rib Number 4
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Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:23:40 +0000
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(sarcasm)Whoa, what an exciting night!(/sarcasm)

I managed about 26 minutes in the garage tonight.

The picture below tells the short story. I grabbed leading edge rib #4, and deburred it, then redid some of my fluting, made sure the flanges were 90°, then went ahead and scuffed it with a maroon scotchbrite pad.

Maybe this weekend I'll get the 5th and 6th ribs done, then get them primed and riveted to the leading edge rib.
From left to right: Deburring, Fluting, Straightening, and Scuffing.


Rounded up to 0.5 hours.
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Post Title: Some More Work on Right Leading Edge Ribs
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Tue, 10 May 2011 11:40:01 +0000
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Well, another boring night in the garage. I did dimple rib #4, then prep ribs 5 and 6.
Here's an action shot of me dimpling rib #4.


Rib #6 was providing some rigidity for my leading edge in the cradle, so when I was done prepping #5, I clecoed it back in place so I could get rrib #6.
The right leading edge on the bench, in the cradle.


I don't remember why I took this picture, maybe just to show I finished ribs 5 and 6.
Two ribs?


Anyway, I'll need to get the leading edge landing light thing sorted out before finalizing these two ribs (the bracket is mounted laterally between these two ribs.

One half hour of glorious rib prep.
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Post Title: Primed Three More Leading Edge Ribs
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Fri, 13 May 2011 00:39:56 +0000
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Well, having primed leading edge ribs R4 through R6, I decided I better get them primed.

Before I could get going on the fifth and sixth ribs, I needed to crack open the leading edge landing light instructions again.

I want to make sure I get the holes for the light bracket nutplates done first.
Okay, looks like I need to go find the 10-32 nutplates.

K1000-3 nutplates...


Found them, then got the #30 to enlarge the center hole, put a cleco in, drilled one of the ears to #40, put another cleco in, and drilled the last ear.
Not many pictures with both sizes of clecos in them.

After doing all 4.

Guess what size drill I had to go find.


Yup. A 3/16" drill...
...for the center hole.


After getting those ribs washed and the first coat of primer on them, I moved my attention back to the leading edge light holes. I forgot to drill the lens attach holes before. I held up the template, marked some holes, and fired the #40 through there.
I should have used my drill stop. Looks like I left little circles.

Same on the bottom side.


Finally, the ribs dried enough for me to bring them in the garage.
Nice ribs.


Maybe this weekend I'll get to set some more rivets.

0.5 hours.
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Post Title: Set Eight Rivets
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Sat, 14 May 2011 02:15:57 +0000
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Well, today is Friday the 13th AND the 500th (calendar) day of my build. Coincidence?

Of course, what else would it be?

The first day was 12/29/2009. 500 days ago. Estimating 2000 hours, I'm at 245 hours, 500 days...carry the one...calculator sounds...4081.633 days, or 11 years. Wait, I'm through 1.5 years, so...about 9.5 years to go!

Bummer.

Anyway, the primer dried from last night, so I grabbed some of the blind rivets provided in my leading edge kit (can't remember the rivet part numbers) and got to pulling.
8 blind rivets.


Here's how they look after pulling.
Not too bad.

Yikes. Not so pretty, but that's the way they are supposed to be.


Then, I set the other 3 nutplates (8 rivets total) and clecoed the three primed ribs into the leading edge.
It looks like an airplane part.


Next up, riveting!

0.5 hours, 8 rivets. Booyeah.
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Post Title: Riveted Some More Right Leading Edge Ribs
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Mon, 23 May 2011 22:54:08 +0000
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Well, after a very relaxing week-long vacation, I got back to work on the airplane.

I had previously prepped and primed three right leading edge ribs, so I figured this was a good time to get them permanently assembled.

Here's a shot of the leading edge and the three ribs 50% clecoed.
Ready for riveting, sir.

The ammunition.


After setting half of them, I removed the clecos.
Not shown, I put rivets in the empty holes here, then shifted the tape over.


Guess who made an appearance when she heard the rivet gun.
IT'S GINGER!!!


I'm pretty sure when Jack heard the rivet gun, he headed underneath the bed.
After the top of the leading edge done for those three ribs, I flipped it over and did the bottom.


After all was said and done, I had 87 rivets set, none needed to be drilled out.

Here are some shop head shots.
Here's the fourth rib...

...fifth rib...

...and sixth (outboardmost) rib.


I just HAD to set it on the skeleton to see how it looked.