4.0 Hours -
I haven’t worked on the plane all week, so I wanted to get a little done before the Nebraska football game started. If a Nebraska game is televised, it takes precedence over airplane building!
I received my replacement z-brackets from Van’s yesterday, so the first thing I did was finish those up. I had three left to make for the right wing, and I ordered a fourth, spare bracket, from Van’s just in case I had another brain lapse. Once the last three brackets were secured to the right wing, I finished deburring the ribs for the left fuel tank.
Next, I wanted to try out my tube flaring tool. I bought a cheap flare tool from Summit Racing a while ago. For $30, I figured it was worth a shot, and, if it didn’t work well, I would cough up the money for a Rolo-Flair. I cut a short piece of 1/4” aluminum tubing and inserted it into the flare tool. When the tube is flared, the resistance increases substantially, so it was pretty obvious when to stop turning the tool. The resulting flares looked pretty good, but the tool leaves marks on tubing where it is gripped. I don’t think this is a big issue, but I may try wrapping some tape around the tubing before I insert it into the tool and see what that does. *EDIT* After playing with tool a bit more, I’ve determined that it distorts the tube shape in addition to leaving marks. Not wanting to cut corners on the fuel system, I’m going to order a Rolo-Flair.
This is my cheapo flare tool. Not bad for the price.
I played with my flare tool and had decent results. I need to see if I can prevent the tool from marking the tube near where it is gripped. The pictures make it look worse than it is though.
Satisfied that I would be able to flare tubes when necessary, I finished getting the left fuel tank ribs ready. Straightening these ribs was a little tougher than the other ribs so far. The metal is a little thicker and they seemed to have a lot more twist in them as them came from the factory. Needless to say, I got them as straight as I could and started assembling the left fuel tank. I placed the left tank skin in cradle and peeled away the protective plastic (always fun!). As soon as I started to cleco the first rib, I quickly realized that this was going to be more difficult to assemble than the leading edges. The fit on the tanks seems tighter and the metal for both the skin and ribs is thicker than on the leading edge. However, I managed to cleco in two ribs before I realized it was 2:30pm…time for the Nebraska game…airplane building can wait for a few hours.
The fuel tank was much harder to assemble than the leading edge. Both the skin and the ribs are a bit thicker.
After the game (Nebraska destroyed Washington!!), I got back to work assembling the left tank. To get clecos in some of the forward holes, I really had to do some finessing of the ribs. By finesse, I mean tapping them with a mallet to get the holes to line up! Eventually, I was able to cleco all the ribs in and then attach the baffle (T-702).
Once all the ribs were in place, I attached the baffle.
Once the tank was assembled, I was finally able to set it on the wing. Seeing the wing actually look like an entire wing was amazing! I attached the tank to the wing as best I could with clecos and then drilled the inboard tank rib to z-bracket using a 12” #30 drill with a drill stop attached.
Now that looks like a wing. The left tank is clecoed to the wing.
This is the gap between the leading edge and tank skins near the spar.
This is the gap between the skins near the leading edge.
Once the tank was on the wing, I could drill the inboard rib/z-bracket to #30 with a 12" bit and drill stop (to prevent the drill from hitting the spar).
The inboard rib/z-bracket drilled and clecoed.
My excitement about having a complete wing was short lived. As soon as I drilled the inboard rib to z-bracket holes, it was time to take the leading edge off. With the leading edge off, I could drill the outboard tank rib to z-bracket.
The leading edge is removed in order to reach the outboard tank rib.
Here's the outboard tank rib/z-bracket after the inboard leading edge rib and joint plate are moved out of the way.
With both the inboard and outboard tank rib drilled and clecoed to their respective z-brackets, I removed the majority of the tank from the wing, leaving only the baffle, inboard and outboard rib attached to the spar. At this point, I decided to call it a night. Next, I’ll drill the rest of the baffle to z-bracket holes using a 1/8” drill.
Finally, the most of the tank is removed. The inboard rib, outboard rib, and baffle are left in place so that the other baffle to z-bracket holes can be drilled.
