Wing Skin Scarf Joint

I am preparing to make the scarf joint on my wing skins. The skins are already dimpled. I can make a taper on the top of the inboard skin, but how do you taper the bottom of the outboard skin if there are dimples there sticking out??? Help.

Thanks in advance,
Larry
Slo-Wings

Larry-
You probably can't make a real good scarf joint if you've already dimpled. You could probably flatten out the offending dimple, and re-dimple later, but from what I understand that weakens that one hole a little. In this case, I'd just taper it as best you can up to the dimple. You probably will not notice that much of a difference when it's all said and done.

One of the things you'll get better at as you go is visualizing the best order to do things and it will become (almost) second nature. The other thing I would recommend that you do is use your edge forming tool before you dimple on all of those lap joints. Hope this helps. Good luck.

One option that does not mind the dimples....

I cut a notch at the overlap on the inboard skin that is similar to the notch on the trailing edge side where the two join at the training edge. I cut this notch to about 1/4" before the first rivet holes.

The outer layer will nest down in the notch and be flat at the tank junction.

This creates a nice and tight sloping transition with absolutly no step off of the tank and a gradual transition up the ramp to the area were the two skins overlap.

I did this following the advice of my CFII and how he did his.

This took about 5 minutes to cut, file and smooth.

Looks great.
__________________

Brian,

Any chance you have a picture of the notch you are describing? I am having a hard time visualizing it.

Thanks!

Hope this helps

Thanks Brian! Now I see what you are talking about

Great TIP

Bryan,

Great tip, Putting my wings together today and made the old scarf joints and then saw your post. What a difference. They should put that in the manual. On my other wing I will just cut it below the spar and mark it on the back side. It made a great difference.
Thanks again,
You can look at my web site and check it out. I wish I had pics of the old one so I could show everyone the difference. Also the access panel on the back will hold that small piece down.

Build ON

Brantel said:

Hope this helps

Click to expand...

The image link is broken, can someone point me to a picture?

Thanks

Brantel said:

One option that does not mind the dimples....

I cut a notch at the overlap on the inboard skin that is similar to the notch on the trailing edge side where the two join at the training edge. I cut this notch to about 1/4" before the first rivet holes.

The outer layer will nest down in the notch and be flat at the tank junction.

This creates a nice and tight sloping transition with absolutly no step off of the tank and a gradual transition up the ramp to the area were the two skins overlap.

I did this following the advice of my CFII and how he did his.

This took about 5 minutes to cut, file and smooth.

Looks great.
__________________

Click to expand...

Does anyone have a picture of this method they can post? Also has anyone had any problems over time with this approach.

Thanks