This will be a catch-up post to fill the gap between "Parts Coming Together" and where I am now.
Last we left off I had the ribs test-fit on the spars. If memory serves, I had to disassemble the wing to make room in the garage to work on the Prius. Shortly thereafter the last of the mechanics tools Cheyenne inherited moved in and made working in the garage difficult until they were sorted though and somewhat organized.
I decided that the remaining, uninstalled spar doublers should be pre-drilled to make the epoxying and assembly easier. They were each tacked into place temporarily with aircraft nails, drilled through from the backside, checked against the appropriate fittings and labeled.
There are various spruce reinforcements throughout the wing that were cut to rough size from the "bargain bag" lumber I ordered from Aircraft Spruce. I was able to get all the pieces I needed and have a little leftover still. That was quite a pleasant surprise. Some of these reinforcements are the compression struts. The drag wires that X their way through the wing to hold it square also pull the spars together. The compression struts glue to the compression ribs, where the drag wires terminate, and act as spacers to hold the spars the correct distance apart. To get these cut and glued to the compression ribs correctly I had to assemble each wing, fit the compression struts, then glue and clamp as many as I could before I ran out of clamps. The process sounds involved, but it only took about 6.5 hours of work including cutting the pieces. This was spread out over three days to let the epoxy cure and free up the clamps for the next batch.
Back when I was finishing up the wing ribs I routed the wing rib gussets to take away most of the excess, but not all. I wanted to trim them back flush to the capstrips and bevel the edges slightly so that they will never be seen through the covering fabric. A long sanding block and some 80 grit paper made quick work of this (well, quick-ish, sanding took almost 6 hours over three days).
Last we left off I had the ribs test-fit on the spars. If memory serves, I had to disassemble the wing to make room in the garage to work on the Prius. Shortly thereafter the last of the mechanics tools Cheyenne inherited moved in and made working in the garage difficult until they were sorted though and somewhat organized.
I decided that the remaining, uninstalled spar doublers should be pre-drilled to make the epoxying and assembly easier. They were each tacked into place temporarily with aircraft nails, drilled through from the backside, checked against the appropriate fittings and labeled.
There are various spruce reinforcements throughout the wing that were cut to rough size from the "bargain bag" lumber I ordered from Aircraft Spruce. I was able to get all the pieces I needed and have a little leftover still. That was quite a pleasant surprise. Some of these reinforcements are the compression struts. The drag wires that X their way through the wing to hold it square also pull the spars together. The compression struts glue to the compression ribs, where the drag wires terminate, and act as spacers to hold the spars the correct distance apart. To get these cut and glued to the compression ribs correctly I had to assemble each wing, fit the compression struts, then glue and clamp as many as I could before I ran out of clamps. The process sounds involved, but it only took about 6.5 hours of work including cutting the pieces. This was spread out over three days to let the epoxy cure and free up the clamps for the next batch.
Back when I was finishing up the wing ribs I routed the wing rib gussets to take away most of the excess, but not all. I wanted to trim them back flush to the capstrips and bevel the edges slightly so that they will never be seen through the covering fabric. A long sanding block and some 80 grit paper made quick work of this (well, quick-ish, sanding took almost 6 hours over three days).
To keep this from getting too long, I'll just say that the jury-strut brackets were cut, bent, drilled, reamed, deburred and welded. I'm not sure if I like the welds on these fittings, so they may get remade in the future.
The end fittings for the drag wires were given their final bends, drilled, reamed, rounded, and deburred.
The aileron horns got their little washers welded to the tips to allow a tighter fitment with the turnbuckle that will eventually be rigged to it. Once the washers were welded on they were sanded to shape and the horns were finally drilled, reamed, sanded, and deburred.
I did some experimenting with threading the drag wires, but the 304 dulls dies quickly. I need to find a better solution. I may just have a machine shop thread them for me.
Time to Date: 204.75 hours
Comments
Post a Comment