Builder’s Notes & Comments

Page 3

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14 Sept. 03

Started trimming up the ribs today. started by using a flush cutting router bit to trim all of the excess gusset material, then used a scraper to scrape the excess glue off, then sanded with my electric finish sander. Finished 12 of the ribs today.

15 Sept. 03

Finished sanding the last remaining 12 ribs. Jennifer Johnson, one of my beautiful daughters helped guide each of the four spars while I trimmed the excess “Flashing” off of the spars with my router which is mounted up-side down on the building bench.

16 Sept. 03

I used the alum. nose rib jig to mark all 16 on 1/4 ply and 8 on 1/4 plywood. Cut out the patterns oversize so they can be routed to the proper shape. Also started to make all the alum. root and spar fittings. 8 for the spars fittings & 8 for the strut fittings. 2 for the aileron linkage.

17 Sept. 03

Cut out all 10 of the 1/4” nose ribs and 16 of the 1/8” nose ribs with the router. Marked and cut out all of the spar strut attach doublers and glued them to the spars on one side. Just need to drill the 1/2” holes with the forsner bit on the nose ribs to have them all complete.

22 Sept. 03

Sanded all four spars and filed the spar slots in all 24 Ribs.

23 Sept. 03

Trial fit all the ribs on each of the wing spars. The ribs fit real well but the nose ribs need to be trimmed a little on the bottom to fit tight. Re-shaped the alum. nose rib jig and re-trimmed all 24 nose ribs . They fit nice and tight now with no over-hang on the bottom.

24 Sept.03

Glued the spar strut wing doublers on the other side of all four spars.

25 Sept. 03

Finished all of the spar wing root and wing strut fittings by marking and drilling each of the holes required. I made a tool to make the 1/2” radius on each fitting end by using a 2x4 and drilling a 1/4” hole about a 1/2 inch from the end and sticking a 1/4” bolt through the hole, then clamping the devise to my big sanding machine and moving the fitting from side to side.

26 Sept. 03

Made an aileron end rib jig out of scrap 1/4” plywood. Marked each of the four aileron end ribs on a/c grade 1/4” plywood and rough cut them out. Re-mounted my router upside down in the building bench and trimmed all of the aileron end ribs with the flush bearing router bit.

Made all of the 1/4” aileron nose ribs by using a 3-5/8” hole saw and cutting four holes, using the piece from inside the hole saw and cutting the hole in half. This makes all required 8 nose aileron nose ribs. four for each aileron. Sanded to make them all symmetrical.

Made all of the wing root fittings for the front and rear spars. Glued the front spar wing root fitting doublers in place.

02 Oct. 03

Measure and marked where all of the root and strut fittings go on all four spars and used my drill press to drill all the holes accurately. The front and rear root fitting spar ends are now ready to have the two root ribs notched to fit for each wing.

03 Oct. 03

Notched all four root ribs, two for each wing. They needed to be notched for each front and rear spar. It was time consuming but went real well.

04Oct. 03

Sanded and painted all 16 of the root and strut fittings with epoxy paint. I did this after receiving an e-mail from Steve Kiblinger saying that the 2024T3 alum. is strong but is susceptible to oxidation from the moisture in the wood which is almost undetectable because it starts on the back side of the fitting. He suggests that after painting to make sure the fittings are set in a good bed of epoxy T-188 and then bolted with the 1/4” AN bolts.

10 Oct. 03

Sanded and filed the gussets off of the aileron ribs so that the aileron spar will fit in the proper place. Also had to remove one of the rib uprights on each of the aileron ribs. I did this with a hand saw and file. Started to measure and cut the diagonal pieces for each wing.

11 Oct. 03

Finished cutting all of the diagonal and compression ribs pieces for each wing.

12 Oct. 03

Trial fit all the ribs on each wing front and rear spar once again, and checked the fit of all compression rib pieces and diagonal wing braces. They all fit nice and tight. Placed wax paper under all of the gluing surfaces so the glue won’t stick to the work table. Glued and nailed all of the ribs to the front and rear spar on both wings.

13 Oct. 03

Cleaned up all the excess glue that seeped into the areas where the diagonals and compression ribs go. I had to refit one of the diagonal pieces to get a tight fit, I’m not sure why, the wing is still in alignment.

Glued all the diagonal and compression part to the left wing. Took longer than I thought it would.

18 Oct. 03

Sanded the left wing glue joints on the diagonals in preparation for gluing additional fillets to add extra strength. Glued the fillets in place.

Glued the diagonal and compression rib pieces to the right wing.

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