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Countersinking Spar

Dan spent a lot of time figuring out the proper countersink depth to allow the dimple to properly form over it.  See this post  Dan used the countersinking cage and bit where we could.  We purchased it from Pan American Tools.

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On the spar cap the cage would not fit so we used the drill press and measured the outside diameter of the countersink to get the right size.

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We had purchased a 5/32 dimple die for our C Frame dimpler but they did not seat as well as wanted.  In the end we aligned the sheetmetal over the countersunk layer and placed the bolt or rivet in the top flat sheetmetal hole.  We used a arbor press to compress the rivet into the countersink.  This created a really tight and crisp dimple.  It got tricky in some spots so a little collar was used.

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Here is our countersunk and dimpled spar layers:

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More Ribs Located on Spar

We primed the rib gussets (and the rib corners they will cover) and riveted them to the ribs.  Man, there are a lot of holes in those gussets.  Lots of clecos on and off as you are riveting.  Some of the rivets are close to the flanges so we used collars of different heights to raise the rivet gun nose while riveting.  Of course we drop them on the floor or bench and spend 5 minutes finding them.

Here are some more pictures of the ribs cleco-ed to the spar.  Note that the spar is not riveted yet.

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Looking Good!

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Fit Rib Gussets and Ribs To Wing

We located the gussets to the ribs.  There are a lot of holes on those parts

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Match drilling the ribs to the spars took some thought.  Since we are scratch building, the pilot holes are located in the spar and the rib flanges are blank.  The basic process for the right wing was:

1) Lay out spar for wing station locations

2) Align and clamp the FWD ribs to align with the upper and lower spar caps using procedure described in plans for overlap of wing skin.

3) Match drill the FWD rib then remove.

4) After all FWD ribs have been matchdrilled, clamp spacers (Wxx-x and Wxx-x) in correct location at each wing station for AFT ribs and then match drill.

5) Tape spacers in place and then remove clecoes.

6) Clamp AFT ribs at proper alignment with top and bottom of spar cap and match drill.

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Ribs to rear spar

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Fitting Forward Ribs

Dan located the forward ribs for the right spar.  The method on the plans uses sheetmetal strips of the skin thickness to get the tangency between the spar cap and the ribs.  Sometimes the flange of the ribs were a tiny bit under bent  but we are sure the rivets will pull everything tight.  The ribs lined up really nice.

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Updrilling RT Spar

Dan updrilled the right spar.  To do this we installed the bolts first.  We spent a lot of time getting a “tight fit” for the AN bolts as stated on the plans .  We bought a bunch of reamers to the right fit, sometimes we would need a .0005″ smaller reamer.  (I have to admit this was my, Tim’s, complusiveness but who doesn’t like a good fit.)  I will write up a summary on reamers and post it in the tools section.  The bolts really align the spar laminates and the clecos can hold it tight.  Dan decided to use the small drill press to get a perpendicular bore, he had to move it around on the workbench with the spar elevated and leveled.

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Notice all the 1/8″ copper clecos in the image below:

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After up-drilling notice all the 5/32″ black clecos

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