2.0 Hours -
100 more clecos showed up on my doorstep this afternoon. My grand total of 3/32” clecos (the silver ones) is now up to 525. This still isn’t enough to clamp all the skins on both wings, but it is enough to allow me to clamp all 4 skins to one wing, drill both sides, then take the bottom skins off and work on the other wing. Fortunately, once final drilled to the ribs, I can take the bottom skins come off and reclaim some of my clecos.
After clecoing the outboard bottom skins to both wings (the one on the right wing is only partially clamped since I ran out of clecos), I started drilling the top skins on the right wing. This is a pretty easy process, but the repetitive clecoing is making my right hand a little sore. So, after finishing the right top skins, I decided it was time to move on to something else.
Both bottom skins on the left wing are clamped into place.
Even with 100 more clecoes, I still didn't have enough to fully assemble both wings. At least the bottom skins come off after final drilling the holes to size.
My leading edge cradle has been sitting in the corner of the garage for a couple weeks. As built, the foam padding was too thick. To make the leading edge/fuel tank ribs fit, I need to use thinner padding material or remove some more wood from the cutout and reinstall the padding. I opted to use a thinner material to pad the cutouts. Instead of foam pipe insulation, I’m just going to use some cotton material cut into strips. This should pad the cutout enough to prevent any scratches while still leaving plenty of room for the leading edge/fuel tank assemblies.
I probably won’t be doing any building over the weekend. We’re taking a quick trip to Houston to visit the Johnson Space Center and the 1940’s Air Terminal Museum. We’ll probably do some shopping as well, but at least I’ll still get my aviation fix.
