Month: June 2019

Fitting the flaps together

Assembled the inboard and outboard rod end ribs. Clecoed the ribs and doubles together. Match drilled the #40 holes and final drilled the 1/4″ hole. Countersunk the #40 holes on the outboard doublers.

 

Clecoed the ribs to the flap hinges and final drilled all the #30 holes.

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Modified all the main ribs by removing the top forward tab from each with the Dremel and a cutoff wheel. Finished with a bit of sanding to remove the burrs.

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Assembled the flap substructures.

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Trimmed the inboard and outboard trailing edges to final size with the bandsaw and finished on the scotch brite wheel.

 

Clecoed the flaps together.

 

Match drilled the two top holes in each of the nose ribs. I also final drilled all of the holes in the trailing edges.

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Assembled the hardware in the hinge to hold everything in alignment and match drilled the four holes in the  trailing edge of the hinge.

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Disassembled everything.

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Next I need to machine countersink the holes in the trailing edge wedge and the holes I just drilled in the hinges. Then dimple and prime everything.

Today’s Time (hours): 6.5
Wing Time (hours): 152.5
Total Time (hours): 363.5

 

 

Began work on Flaps

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Built the cradles for the flaps. Traced a leading edge rib to make a template which I transferred to the plywood blanks. I used the bandsaw to cut out the cradles. I glued and screwed some 2×2 stock to the bottoms so I can clamp them to the bench.

 

Started work on the flap attach brackets. Laid out and drilled the holes in the flange of one of the left halves of the bracket. Then match drilled the other three and deburred everything. The right halves get drilled later in the process.

 

Today’s Time (hours): 2.0
Wing Time (hours): 146.0
Total Time (hours): 357.0

 

 

…And tanks are on hold again

Same drill as yesterday… Match drilled the right J-channel stiffener and machine countersunk the skin for the tank baffle rivets.

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Then I started dimpling the skins. I started by using the squeezer to dimple all the holes it could reach. I caught one hole off center. Then moved on the second skin. I got through the all the ones with the squeezer and then moved to the DRDT and had the skin pop off of the dimple die just as I was pulling the handle. This created an extra hole about 2 mm from the original hole. I could probably salvage both of these issues if this were a regular skin but I’d rather not chance leaky tank skins. So ordered replacements from Van’s. Not my best day of building.

The good news is I’m not stuck waiting on the replacement parts. I can move on to the flaps and/or ailerons in the meantime. Could have been worse.

Today’s Time (hours): 2.0
Wing Time (hours): 144.0
Total Time (hours): 355.0