Tag: drill

Completed Right Wingtip

Laid out the cut the left and right wing tips. I made over-ran on of the cuts by an inch or so on the left wing. So I did a little patch and fill with some fiberglass and micro and set it aside to cure. Then continued work on the right wingtip.

 

Cut and installed the nav light lens.

 

Installed the nav/strobe light. Used the template from the plans to drill the wingtip. Terminated the wires with Molex .062 pins. Unfortunately Vans provided a 4-pin molex housing instead of the 5-pin one that matches the wiring harness in the wing. <sigh> Now I get to pay $10 in shipping for two $1 moles housings. Mounted the bracket and installed the light. Tested it out with a 9-volt. That sucker is bright!

 

Fit the wingtip to the wing and set it in place with a ratchet strap. Match drilled the holes from the wing skins to the wingtip. Final drilled and dimpled the holes in the wing for #6 screws. Final drilled the screw holes in the wing tip and then used a nut plate, a screw, and a cleco as a drill jig to drill the nut plate attach holes. Machine countersunk the screw and rivet holes and riveted the nut plates in place.

 

Fit the wing tip rib to the wingtip. Laid out and match drilled rivet holes. Riveted the rib in place.

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Bam! Right wingtip done.

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Today’s Time (hours): 8.0
Wing Time (hours): 293.0
Total Time (hours): 445.0

 

Installed Autopilot Roll Servo

Drilled and tapped the aluminum tubes to accept the 1/4 threads of the rod end bearings. Assembled the AP pushrods. Fabricated the spacer for the roll servo.

 

Installed the roll servo into the right wing.

 

Today’s Time (hours): 2.0
Wing Time (hours): 266.0
Total Time (hours): 418.0

 

Fitted the aileron trim and inboard bottom skins

I finished inventorying and stowing parts from the fuselage kit and avionics.

Crimped the pins onto the aileron trim wires, added a heat shrink tube, and inserted them into the molex connector.

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I centered the set the aileron trim using a 9-volt battery to drive the servo. I set the  assembly in place on the wing and set the aileron to the neutral position. Then I marked the point where the aileron trim arm rested over the  push tube. I remove the push tube and located the tabs 6 inches either side of the center mark. I match drilled and blind riveted them to the push tube. I attached the springs to the tabs.

 

I clecoed the inboard bottom skins in place on the wings. Ready to rivet.

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Today’s Time (hours): 4.0
Wing Time (hours): 264.0
Total Time (hours): 416.0

 

Primed all the remaining wing parts

Drilled holes for and installed angle of attack sensor tubing. Also ran wires for pitot heat.

 

Drilled the rivet holes for all the aileron push tube ends and prepared all the parts for priming.

 

Primed all the remaining wing parts.

 

Installed the aileron and flap gap fairings.

 

Assembled the ADAHRS mounting bracket.

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Today’s Time (hours): 7.0
Wing Time (hours): 249.0
Total Time (hours): 401.0

 

Pitot mast fit and all remaining wing parts prepped for primer and assembly

Cut, deburred, dimpled, and scuffed all the remaining wing parts to prep for priming. This included the aileron trim, the aileron push tubes, the inspection covers, and the wing tip ribs.

Fabricated a bracket to secure the pitot mounting bracket to the wing rib.Drilled the holes in the mounting bracket to match the holes in the rib. Then match drilled the new rib bracket to the mounting bracket and the rib. Match drilled everything to the skin and cut out the hole for the pitot mast using 1/2″ drill, Dremel, files, and sand paper. Pleased with how everything came out. Should be nice and secure once everything is riveted together.

 

Dimpled and scuffed the skins. Everything is ready for primer and assembly.

 

Ordered avionics and hoping to get the A/P servo, pitot tube, and magnetometer installed before closing up the wings. I also ordered tubing for the AOA line and wire for the pitot heat. Hopefully I’ll have everything and be able to get the wings buttoned up next week.

Today’s Time (hours): 6.0
Wing Time (hours): 239.0
Total Time (hours): 391.0

 

Started work on the bottom skins

After the mess of the fuel tanks, I took the time to clean up the shop, replace the paper on the bench tops, and vacuum the floor.

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Fabricated the flap gap doublers. Dimpled the flap and aileron gap fairings. Peeled and scuffed the forward facing side of the fairings.

 

Clecoed the ADAHRS mount together and match drilled to the j-channel stiffener. Disassembled, dimpled, and prepped all the parts. Countersunk and fluted the retainers.

 

Clecoed the inboard bottom skins to the wing assemblies. Match drilled the nut plate holes to the inboard ribs. Final drilled and deburred all the #19 holes in all the bottom skins.

 

Today’s Time (hours): 4.0
Wing Time (hours): 233.0
Total Time (hours): 385.0

 

Fuel Tanks: the struggle is real.

Fuel tanks are absolutely kicking my ass. I got back from Toronto last night and checked to see if the sealant had cured. The stuff I had applied Monday had hardened up nicely. The first batch from from Sunday was still gooey. Not cool. They came from the same can. So I must have made a mistake in mixing that batch.

I talked to Jared and Van’s. Consensus was that it may cure eventually but Van’s recommended that I re-seal these parts with properly mixed sealant. Unfortunately this meant removing 22 stiffeners, 2 fuel fillers, and 2 fuel drains. I had to drill out a couple hundred rivets and was left with a sticky mess. Thankfully the sealant on all of the ribs we had just riveted into the left skin was fine.

When the sealant is first applied, it wipes off easily with some lacquer thinner. Once it has started to cure, not so much. I’m headed to Aircraft Spruce tomorrow to pick up some PolyGone. It is specifically designed to remove polysulfide fuel tank sealant.

 

It was essential to my sanity that I make at least some modicum of forward progress today. So I bent up the rods for the fuel sender floats per the plans. Since the ribs were installed in the left tank, I was even able to fine tune the left sender to the proper clearances.

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Today’s Time (hours): 3.0
Wing Time (hours): 208.0
Total Time (hours): 360.0

 

Final drilled and dimpled tank skins

Final drilled and deburred all the #19 holes. Dimpled the #19 holes with the squeezer. Dimpled the #40 holes with a combination of squeezer, DRDT-2, and close quarters dimple dies.

 

Ready to start assembling and sealing.

Today’s Time (hours): 3.0
Wing Time (hours): 193.0
Total Time (hours): 345.0

 

Finished riveting the ribs and stiffeners

Finished back riveting the stiffeners and ribs to the skins. Which kinda turned into a fiasco when I realized that the holes that match up to the spars on the forward edges of the top skins are not symmetrical span-wise. Once you’ve dimpled the top skins, there is a left and a right skin. Wish I had known this before riveting the left ribs to the right skins and vise versa. So I drilled out the 32 rivets holding the ribs to the skins and re-riveted correctly. Lost about an hour and a half but no damage done.

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Once I got past all that, I assembled the ailerons and they’re now ready to have their trailing edges final drilled.

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Today’s Time (hours): 2.5
Wing Time (hours): 179.5
Total Time (hours): 391.5