2.5 Hours -
I was only able to work on the plane for short periods of time, off and on, today. Therefore, I was surprised that I hit the 2.5 hour mark!
It was nice and cool this morning, so I started in the garage early. My primer was dry on the bottom of the left spar, so I riveted the 12 platenuts, which will be used to attach the inspection covers using #6 screws, to the bottom of the spar.
The platenuts on the top are for the inspection covers, the ones on the bottom are for the fuel tanks.
Just a picture of the underside of the spar after all the platenuts were installed.
Then, it was time to move on to the right spar. I pulled it out of the plastic bag Van’s ships it in. As with the left spar, the right was in perfect condition. I really like the gold anodized finish that the factory puts on it as well.
First off, I taped the gaps in the spar. While blowing out the left spar after I was done worked well enough, I decided I would use tape this time to make it even easier. Then, I started working on the bottom side of the spar.
This time, I decided to tape over the gap to keep all the aluminum shavings out. On the left spar, I didn't do a good job of keeping the tape on.
On parts of the empennage, the second one always seemed to go faster. The spars are no different. I was able to drill, countersink, and prime the bottom of the right spar in about half the time it took to do the same work on the left. Not only was it quicker, but I think my work was better as well. Once my primer dries, I’ll attach the platenuts for the inspection covers and start working on the top side of the spar.
If anyone is counting, at this stage of the game, I’m attaching 74 platenuts on each spar (more will be installed on later steps). That’s 220 holes that must be countersunk per spar, and I’m just getting started!
Later in the day, I returned to the garage to rivet on the inspection cover platenuts on the bottom of the right spar. Getting tired of countersinking, I decided to start working on the tie-down spacers instead of starting the top side of the spar.
The tie-down spacers are fabricated from a strip of aluminum provided in the kit. They are simply a 2” X 1.5” x 1/4” pieces of metal with a 1 inch diameter lightening hole cut into the center. However, these proved to be a bit more of a challenge than I expected.
I marked the aluminum strip for the first two spacers. To mark the center of the lightening hole, I used my center punch and then drilled the punch mark a little bit simply to provide a nice starting point for the fly-cutter.
I marked the center of the spacer and punched it. I enlarged the punch slightly with a #40 drill so that it would be easy to start the fly cutter.
Next, I pulled out my fly-cutter for the first time. It was easy enough to set this up for a 1” diameter hole, but actually using it was quite the experience. Once the cutting blade hits the aluminum, it is extremely loud and aluminum chips fly everywhere. In addition, the cutter is horribly balanced, causing the drill press and entire table to wobble. Safety glasses are a must with the fly-cutter!
Once the fly cutter starts to cut a circle, it is noisey and a little scary.
The cutter didn’t want to go through the entire piece due to the aluminum’s thickness. Once the cutter was about half way through, I would have to flip the aluminum over and start cutting from the backside. The resulting hole is a little rough and will need some finishing work.
I had to cut half-way through, then flip the spacer and finish from the other side.
One down, three to go.
Once the lightening hole was cut, I used my Dremel with a cutting wheel to cut the spacer from the rest of the aluminum stock (the band saw didn’t like this thick aluminum). The entire process was repeated three more times in order to end up with 4 spacers. The edges of the spacers will get finished another day.
I used my Dremel with a cut-off wheel to seperate the spacers. Now they need some finishing.
