What size clecos and how many will be required to assemble the wing? Also, are the buffet tables straight and level enought to assemble the wing?
Bart
You can use any old table. Just make sure that you have a pad on it to protect the skins. I used moving blankets on mine. The holes line everything up without any jigs. It is foolproof. You can't go wrong. How cool is that!
As long as I am thinking about it I have couple of tips to share. When you try to put a rivet in a hole and it doesn't want to go in easily, STOP!!! What ever you do, DON"T PUSH!! What is wrong is that the holes are not lined up perfectly. There is usually a flange that a skin is being riveted to and if you push on the rivet, you only make matters worse because you are bending the flange away from the skin which makes the hole sit at an angle to the skin hole and the rivet will never go in. (This is one reason to make sure that you flute the ribs so that they are exactly flat and that the flanges are at 90 degrees to the web.) Use an awl to line them up and try again. After you have used the awl and the rivet still does not want to go in, try rocking the rivet with your fingers while GENTLY pushing. When all else fails, skip that rivet and go on. Come back to it later after you have riveted past that one and often that will line things up.
I found that after awhile, my pneumatic rivet puller would not release the stems. I disassembled the puller and found that some of the hydraulic fluid was remaining in the pulling head because I was riveting with the puller pointed down. I found that if you just hold the puller upright and give the trigger a pull or two, the fluid will drain back where it belongs and things start working again.
Don't lay tools on your plane unless you put a pad of some sort under them. That way you won't scratch or dent your project.
When you turn your left wing over, don't set the leading edge down on your padded table. If you do, you will bend your stall warning vane. I speak from experience.
When you remove the blue plastic from the parts, remove the inside first so that when you remove the other side, it will not get scratched by your bench. I used a moving blanket on my workbench to protect the skins. This was especially important when bending the tabs on the lower wing tip skin because there is a lot of sliding around while bending and measuring.
Speaking of bending the tabs, if you push down on the little wood tool that you make so that you are pressing the skin down on the bench before you start to bend, you get a cleaner bend. Also, don't be satisfied with a bend on a tab that is not exactly what is called for in the plans. Those angles are exactly what is required to make that tab line up with the skin and structure that it is riveted to and once you start riveting, you can't adjust the tabs if they are off a bit. See my comment above about lining up the holes. Van's did an incredible job of designing this skin so that it fits just right if you bend it like the plans say.