Monthly Archives: October 2013


Wings 4 (8.0 hrs)

Since last weekend I didn’t get barely anything done on the project, I wanted to devote as much time as possible this weekend.  I started by drilling the conduit holes for routing the wiring in the wings.  I’ve decided on two conduit routes (shown here).   The first is the 3/4 inch hole that runs between the third and fourth lightening hole at the bottom.  This will be the primary conduit line and runs to both wingtips.  I also enlarged the tooling hole near the main spar.  This goes as far as the bell crank and can be used for pitot heat and the roll servo.  I’m still contemplating extending this to the wingtip.

Next I deburred all of the conduit holes and then clecoed the ribs, main spar, and rear spar together.  I final drilled the ribs and spars together and deburred all the holes.  My final step was to begin preparing for priming.  All of the ribs got the scotchbrite treatment and final cleaning for priming.

I didn’t take any photos of the conduit drilling process.  I used a step bit for the holes.  A good tip is to take a marker and draw a line on the outside of the step bit at the correct diameter so you don’t accidentally go too far.  It takes several times of drilling before the ink wears away.

Here you can see the spars and ribs clecoed together. 20131027-001844.jpg

The larger 3/4″ conduit hole. 20131027-001857.jpg

The tooling hole drilled out to 5/8″20131027-001911.jpg

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Beginning the deburring and scotchbrite primer prep process. 20131027-001937.jpg

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I labeled each of the ribs on the left from the tip to the root L1 to L14 and the same for the right wing.  After scuffing the surfaces with the scotchbrite pads, I used the long shipping crate and laid the ribs out in order.  I wanted to keep everything in order so that when I used the acetone to clean the ribs I wouldn’t lose track of what went were. 20131027-002002.jpg


Wing Spars 13 (1.5 hrs)

Its been a very busy few weeks for me.  The pace of building has slowed down as I’m pursuing a graduate degree in the evenings.  Between class and studying, on top of work and a long commute there isn’t really anytime for the plane during the week.  This weekend my wife had two horse events, so I didn’t have much time.  I did sneak into the garage late Sunday evening to rivet the rear spar together.  The results are below.  I need to rivet the tie down bracket together and it will be time to start fitting the ribs. 20131020-223021.jpg

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Wings 3 (3.0 hrs)

Not a lot in the way of pictures for this post.  I finished fluting all of the wing ribs.  I also found a good method for deburring the small corners and crevices of the ribs using a file and my soft scotchbrite wheel.  I’m sooooo glad to be done this part of the wings, as these ribs were a collasal pain in the rear.  As soon as I rivet the rear spar together, she’ll be ready for clecoing together.  I’m excited to have something that will soon look like more than a table full of ribs!20131014-195526.jpg