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Wingtip Attach Method?

How do you attach your wingtips

  • Total voters
    140
  • Poll closed .
A

amaris

Well Known Member
Curious what people are doing to attach the wingtips...

Blind Rivets? - If so, have you ever had to take off the tip after installation?

Plate Nutes? -

Hinge method? -
 
Installed nutplates per plans [edit: I Plan to replace my landing lights in the future]. Time consuming but happy with the fit and looks. You should pull the wing tips for the condition inspection, IMO.

Drilling out a bunch of blind rivets is an opportunity for big holes.

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Originally installed my wingtips with blind rivets and flew almost 20 years that way. Drilled them out and installed nut plates when I installed the ER fuel tanks.

There's no reason to pull the wingtips for inspection unless you've installed something in there to inspect.
 
I used 4-40 screws with bonded spring nuts on the inside of the wing tips on both my RV-6 and on the RV-8 I am currently building. Less time consuming and less expensive than traditional nutplates. And the smaller screws make for smaller dimples and larger hole edge distances.
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Platenuts with # 6 stainless... All my tips are that way... Looks good to me...

#6 allow GoPro mount, I wouldn't feel comfortable with #4.

I have landing and nav lights / strobes in the wingtips. Have had em off once because the landing light mount came loose, and once for new landing lights when the Z-Trons pooched. Elevator tips came off to re-balance after paint. Lower rudder came off to repair tail strobe.

I have also seen hinges look good on tips, but owner said he had to pull aileron to remove pins...
 
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Mine were blind-riveted with a piece of pin-striping tape over the rivet line (looked sharp). I installed an APRS unit in the wingtip, so had to drill out the rivets and replaced them with 4-40 screws like the above poster. I bonded these weld-nuts from mcmaster-Carr: https://www.mcmaster.com/#90596A111
 
for those 4-40 weld nuts, did you eyeball their location when you glued them in place? Or did you put glue on them and then install with the screws? That sounds like it would be a bit tricky because you can't get in there to hold all of them in place to start the threads. But I like the solution. Nut plates are a lot more work and yours is still removable.
 
Yes, as you described. Once the tips have been drilled in assembly with the wing, I then removed them and installed the 4-40 flex nuts (from ACE hardware) by using a 4-40 screw to clamp them in place. I used a couple of layers of fiberglass/resin over the top to help hold them in place. One of the pictures shows tank sealant underneath the flexnut, but I found that to be an unnecessary step.

Then once the resin is fully cured, the 4-40 nuts come out and you can countersink the outside tip fiberglass using a dremel stone that has been ground to 100 degrees. That way the dimple in the wing skin fits in nicely. And by using a small grinding stone for the countersink into the fiberglass, you avoid dulling one of your nice cutters. Plus the cutter tip will not damage the flexnut.

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sblack said:
for those 4-40 weld nuts, did you eyeball their location when you glued them in place? Or did you put glue on them and then install with the screws? That sounds like it would be a bit tricky because you can't get in there to hold all of them in place to start the threads. But I like the solution. Nut plates are a lot more work and yours is still removable.
Click to expand...

I roughed them up with sandpaper then bonded them with West Systems epoxy filled with 404 filler. I eyeballed the center of the hole because the holes were already oversized. - I was afraid of bonding the screws into the weld-nut, so did not secure them. The alignment worked fine when the wingtip went back on...
 
I used 4-40 screws on mine with standard nutplates (two legs riveted with some flox over the legs to help keep them in place in the fiberglass) and were I to do it again, I would go with 6-32 ones. I'm using stainless screws and they tend to strip and are a pain to remove/replace. Maybe cad-plated would work better. And the heads are smaller than ideal.

My two cents.
Greg
 
Allen with the hinge method there is only one screw to secure the hinges at the trailing edge. Just be sure to locate the securing screw far enough aft toward the trailing edge so you don't have to remove the aileron to get to it :eek:
 
Two questions:
1. Ron, why the wish for hinges?
2. For those putting a magnetometer in the tip, how are you securing the tip, or is the steel in the nut plates and hinge pins inconsequential?

Tom.
 
The first time around I did 4-40 torx in plate nuts. They're too small with aging eyes and too easy to twist off, and just plane funky compared to the rest of the airplane. I'm always hunting that torx bit. The second time around I'm doing 6-32 phillips in plate nuts. What tool bag doesn't have a #2 Phillips.
 
After reading all the comments and looking at some of the sites, I'm going to go with plate nuts.

Thanks to everyone for their comments!
 
Click Bond #6 nutplates. Would not do it again. Both times I took the wingtips off, a couple broke loose. Had to cut the screw off, without damaging the paint. Fun times.

They were easy to install though. Before anyone chimes in about preparing the surface properly, my wingtips were used for pictures in Click Bond advertising with an employee looking over my shoulder telling me step by step what to do.
 
So how about the regular nut plates, are these causing problems with the magnetometer for those that have them, or is the amount of steel inconsequential (assuming you use non magnetic stainless screws)?
Tom.
 
tgmillso said:
Two questions:
1. Ron, why the wish for hinges?
2. For those putting a magnetometer in the tip, how are you securing the tip, or is the steel in the nut plates and hinge pins inconsequential?

Tom.
Click to expand...

I have lots of stuff in the wing tips: antennas, strobe power supply, APRS, access to Duckworth lights, etc. Forty + screws vs two hinge pins? No brainer! Plus, hinges are easier to build in and cleaner appearance.
 
Good point Ron. I'll have lights and a magnetometer in mine, so it may pay me to head down this path.
Tom.
 
There's a simpler solution to my magnetism problem in the wingtip. Just put the magnetometer on the aft deck where it is supposed to be according to the G3X install manual. Now I can use what I like to secure the tips. If only I had read Appendix A.2 of the manual earlier...
Tom.
 
I'll lob a bomb in the discussion :D. What about the cowling. Hinges or screws and why.....wait let me grab some popcorn :p
 
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