4.0 Hours
My work actually started yesterday when, in the morning, I began to finish the taper cuts on the HS front spar splice angles. However, my parents were on their way over and, once they arrived, I started showing them the kit and the work I had done. So, I was only able to get about a half hour of work done. My Dad will be one of my primary helpers on this project. On his next visit, I’m going to have to come up with some sort of practice project to get him some basic sheet metal work. It will probably be something simple like riveting a couple of pieces of scrap together.
After showing my parents the kit, we went to lunch and then returned home to toast my new endeavor with some good California port. Between a margarita at lunch and the port, I wasn’t up to doing any more work on the plane. Instead, my girlfriend and I just relaxed while watching a couple movies (and drinking the rest of the port). No complaints from me as this is a pretty good alternative to working on the plane.
Today, I finished polishing up the splice angles. Once they were ready, it was time for the much dreaded bends! To do this, I followed a few other builders’ advice and clamped my digital level to the piece of angle and watched the readout while I bent it. I wasn’t too happy with this, so I double checked the angles with a handy little angle finder I bought at Harbor Freight.
I decided on using a vise and digital level to make the six degree bends.
The splice bends are all equal thanks to my handy Harbor Freight angle finder.
After the splices were bent, I moved on to HS-702. The plans state that these pieces were designed for the RV-8 and you have to remove some of the flange from the inboard ends to make them usable in the seven. The drawings and instructions are pretty clear on how to do this and I opted for using snips to make the cuts. I left the cuts rough in case any more material had to be removed before final assembly and then bend the inboard ends to match the splices. The bends on both the splices and the HS-702 pieces turned out pretty good if I don’t say so myself.
HS-702s with bend line marked and 1/4 inch relief hole drilled.
Top - uncut; Bottom - rough cut using a aluminum snips.
The HS front spar pieces bent and clecoed together.
Next, I dug through my box o’ parts until I found ribs HS-404. I trimmed some of the flange off these, according to the plans, so they would fit around the splice angles. I decided to use my Dremel to make these cuts. Wow! The Dremel made quick work of this and it left nice straight edges.
HS-404 ribs trimmed using a Dremel with cut-off wheel.
Finally, I wrapped up my construction day by deburring the edges of all the HS ribs. I decided to stop for the day before fluting the ribs. I’ve never done any fluting and the ribs seem fairly flat out of the box, so I felt this would be a good time to go check some websites to see what others have done.
Even though it may not look like it, I feel like I accomplished a lot today. In the end, I had a HS front spar clecoed together and a bunch of ribs ready for fluting.
