My order from Avery Tools was waiting for me when I got home from work this evening.  Inside were two new deburring bits and a 2″ scotchbrite wheel.  I’m glad the bits came, as they made this evening go a lot quicker.  I finished deburring all of the holes on the wing skeleton and began dimpling the ribs and rear spar.

This is where I first ran into trouble. I noticed that two of my yokes were not allowing the dimple dies to lay flat against one another.  They were squeezing slightly off center, and I didn’t like the resulting dimples.  Here is a picture of a few of my yokes.  The offending yokes are marked in red and my favorite yoke in green. I’m going to have to give some thought as to how to correct this.  It might simply mean it is time to buy a couple more yokes, which I hate to do, as they are not cheap. I started to experiment with different yokes and in the process made a mistake.  I used a large yoke that was unwieldy buy yielding better dimples.  I caught a rivet as I removed the pneumatic squeezer and enlarge one of the dimple holes.  Well, that is now the second time I’ve made that mistake in the building of this airplane.  Normally I don’t dimple with the pneumatic squeezer for this very reason.  But I did, and here we are. I’m not too concerned.  Here’s the offending hole.  Normally this would piss me off to no end, but I’m surprisingly not bothered by it.

I decided to drill the hole out to 1/8″ and use an oops rivet in this location.  Additionally I cleaned the edges with a file to ensure no burs and no cracks.  I re-dimpled and made a small brace to put behind the hole. Here is the result. **UPDATE 2014.11.23** I completed this repair when installing the aileron gap fairing in Wings 35. 

Final product.

Here you can see the location of the mistake in relation to the rest of the wing. Final thought for the evening.  I emailed Van’s Support about this, but I think my solution is sound.  **UPDATE** Van’s responded to my email that my solution was sound and to build on!

Again, I’ve done a poor job of updating in a timely manner.  This post encompasses a couple of sessions from last weekend.  During this time I have continued to prepare all of the wing skins for priming and riveting to the main skeleton.

I began by completing the deburring of the leading edge skins and ribs.  I also prepared all the surfaces for priming with scotchbrite pads.  When I scuff the skins, I use the grey scotchbrite pads, which are less abrasive than the maroon ones, and I use a very light and quick touch.  The idea is to scuff, but not penetrate, the alclad. Leaving the alclad in place should increase corrosion protection. 

Next up I set about removing the blue vinyl from all eight skins.  I completely removed the vinyl from the interior surfaces that will be primed and using the soldering iron I removed the areas around the rivet holes on the exterior skins. 

In the process, I’m trying to increase my use of checksheets.  As such, I put the following list of to-do items on each wing skin, so I can be sure not to forget something like deburring the edges. 

With all of the skins removed the wing skeleton looks naked!

Finally, I began deburring the wing ribs. I deburred the outsides of all the ribs.  I’m going to wait before I debur the insides.  I lost my good deburring bit, and the countersink I’m using doesn’t work well if you are at an odd angle… and its a little bit slower.

I ordered a new countersink bit (2 actually) and I also put in an order to Aircraft Spruce for the Gertz Pitot tube bracket.  I’m still considering whether or not I should install the landing light mounting brackets in the leading edge now or wait until I have the lights in hand and retrofit the leading edges.  I made a post on Rivetbangers… so we’ll see what the guys think.  I’ll post the thread here in a later post.  Cheers -PLB

This post encompasses two shop sessions over the past weekend.  I worked on the stall warning sensor Van’s includes with the wing kit, and completed deburring the wing leading edges.

First, I completed the drilling that I had missed from a previous session.  Then I set about removing the blue vinyl.   I used to use a ruler for this, and I did for the first part of this session.  However, using the soldering iron freehand is plenty neat enough, and much faster.  No more ruler.

Next, I deburred all the rivet holes and edges of both leading edge skins.  Finally, I deburred all of the ribs and prepared the ribs for priming by roughing the surfaces with the scotch-brite pads.

With this work completed, I turned my attention to the installation of the Stall Warning Sensor Van’s includes with the wing kit.  With AOA systems common in newer avionics suites, some builder’s opt to not install the stall warning.  The argument being that if you here too many warnings, too often you may condition yourself to ignore the warning.  I disagree.  Ignoring warnings is really a factor of training, not building.  Further, some people complain that they get rags or clothing caught and torn on the vane.  Rag life expectancy is not, IMHO, a valid argument against a stall warning.  Since the warning is included in my kit, and its predrilled, I see absolutely no reason not to install it.  This past weekend I was able to prepare the access plate, and begin preparing the sensor attachment itself.  More will be done after I complete the dimpling of the skin.

In this first photo you can see the stall warning access cutout in the top right of the skin.

The instructions Van’s includes with the stall warning sensor are written as if you DO NOT have a pre-punched or pre-cut skin.  That might seem obvious, but it took me several readings of the instructions to understand.  

Access plate.

Here is where the actual sensor will be on the leading edge. You must use a file to connect the two holes.  

The results of my file work.  Still needs a little touch up, but I’m happy with the results. 

Access plate after dimpling. 

Squire was helping me out as always.  His favorite method for helping is to lay directly under my feet so that I am constantly tripping over him while holding sharp, hot, or heavy objects. Its fun.

Lastly, a quick note on the fuel tanks.  I installed the z-brackets incorrectly.  After some thought and consulting with other builder’s I decided to allow the sealant to cure before correcting the error.  When I drill out the rivets, the shop heads will be left in the tank.  Luckily, the pop rivets contain magnetic material.  With the proseal dry, they should be able to rattle around the tank.  I bought two telescoping magnets.  One has a flexible head and LED.  The other has a longer reach and a stronger magnet.  A large inspection mirror was a welcome addition to the purchase.  Very poor picture provided below.