Main Spar

Dan and I were looking over the rivets and Dan spotted a couple that were just OK.  One in particular had a little angle on it, so after a short discussion we decided to give it a couple hits from the rivet gun and bucking bar to flatten it out.  As you are probably thinking,…

Dan & I took apart the left hand spar and prepped the parts from priming.  Our method starts with deburring, then 3M (of course) 120 grit aluminum oxide sand paper, then 240 grit and a final pass with red Scotchbrite hand pads.  It is amazing how many little scratches happen when you handle these parts so much. …

Here are some pictures of riveting the right hand spar.  The first picture is using a tungsten bucking bar we borrowed from a friend.  It weighs a lot since the density is so awesome. This next photo shows a really difficult area to buck the rivets.  Not even the little tungsten bar would fit between the angles. …

So many small details that we have documented with photos and emails back and forth but so few posts on the web site.  We need a secretary…. In November of 2012 the right wing box was assembled for the first time and in December and January (2013) the ribs were match drilled to the 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. On the spar cap the cage would not fit so we used the drill…

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…

11/4/12 – Dan got in the garage and match drilled some of the spar assembly.  To locate the spar spar attach block, Dan made a pin to fit in the 3/16 hole in the attach block.  He also made a #40 hole in one end this pin.  With a #40 drill bit in this end we…

(Been a while since I have been at the workshop since learning and replacing a retaining wall in the spring/summer 2012 – Tim) Having matched drilled  and clecoed most of the RH (Right Hand) spar we began work on the LH spar. First order of business is laying out the correct order of all the spar layers.  The…

Summer Months, June – July      (More Info & Pictures Coming) Dan got the all layers together for right hand spar and match drilled them.  Quite a bit of work and a little imtimidating to drill that first hole with the $$ spar caps and all the time put into the spar webs.  Great job. We have…