Archive for category Ailerons
Right Aileron Final Assembly Started (3/9/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on March 9, 2011
2.0 Hours -
Even though my birthday isn’t until the end of the month, I received a birthday present from my girlfriend today. She asked me what I wanted, and then chipped in for a JD Air Parts tailwheel link. This link will connect the rudder to the tailwheel and replace the steering chains and springs provided by Van’s. Like her present to me last year, a pitot mast, I probably won’t be ready to install this until my birthday next year. Oh well, at least I have my first tailwheel part!
The first tailwheel component I've received! This tailwheel steering link from JDair.com will replace the chains provided by Van's.
After inspecting the tailwheel link for a few minutes, I headed to the garage to get some quality time with my aileron parts. I focused on the right aileron today, and started by dimpling all the parts. Almost everything could be dimpled with the squeezer, but there were a couple of problem areas that required other tricks.
The first problem area was the aft most holes on the aileron ribs. The top and bottom flanges are too close to get the squeezer in, and I couldn’t manage to get my pop-rivet dimpler in there either. I rummaged through my tool box to figure out another method and saw the small piece of steel with countersinks in the corners that I made during empennage construction for just this purpose. The countersink is the female die, and the male die is pounded into the piece with a mallet.
I had to use my steel dimpling plate, made during empennage construction, to dimple the aft most holes in the aileron ribs.
The second problem area was the leading edge skin holes that are used to attach the counterbalance pipe. Because of the curvature of the skin, you can’t use a female dimple die on the inside. In this case, the plans direct you to cleco the pipe in place and use the countersinks as the female die. The male die was then hit with a mallet from the other side. These dimples weren’t perfect, but the plans explain that they don’t need to be because the rivet and skin are soft enough to conform to the countersink when the rivets are set.
To dimple the leading edge's counterbalance holes, I used the counterbalance as the female die and then pounded the male die with a mallet.
After everything was dimpled, it was finally time to start final assembly of the aileron. The first step was to rivet the nose ribs to the counterbalance pipe using a single pop-rivet on each rib.
The first rivets set in the aileron attach the nose ribs to the counterbalance pipe.
Both nose ribs riveted to the counterbalance pipe with pop rivets.
Then, the leading edge skin and aileron spar are clecoed to the nose rib assembly and the nose ribs are riveted to the spar. These rivets (3 per side) could be easily reached with my squeezer.
The second group of rivets set attach the nose ribs to the spar.
Finally, the aft skin is clecoed to the top of the spar/forward skin, but the bottom is left open for access to rivet. I started to rivet the top side of the spar, but after the first few rivets, access started to get a bit awkward. My Dad is coming over on Sunday, so I’ll try to get the left aileron to this same stage and then have him help me finish riveting the top sides.
The third group of rivets to be set attach both skins to the top of the spar. I set a few, but will wait for a riveting partner for the rest.
Right Aileron Work (3/6/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on March 6, 2011
2.7 Hours -
As renters, a lawn service was included in our rent. Now that we own the house, we are trying to save some money and do that work ourselves. Since the grass in San Antonio is already starting to turn green and grow, we had to buy a lawn mower, trimmer, and fertilizer spreader sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, these things take up a lot of room in the garage. The previous owner of the house did a great job of finishing out the attic, so it is now very easy to store things up there. Rather than buying an electric winch and trying to rig it to lift the lawn mower into the attic, like I’ve seen other RV builders do, I decided it would be easier to move most of the tail surfaces up there. The entire empennage, minus the horizontal stabilizer, now sits comfortably in one corner of the attic. I shouldn’t need to retrieve them until they are ready to be attached to the fuselage. Moving these out of the garage cleared up just enough space to store the lawn mower and fertilizer spreader.
We had to move some stuff up into the attic, so I decided to move my empennage parts up there as well.
Here's a broader view of the attic with my emp parts tucked nicely into the back corner.
House projects took the majority of my time this weekend. However, on Sunday, I allotted myself 45 minutes to work on the plane. Before I knew it, this 45 minutes became 2 hours and 45 minutes. Oh well, I still got everything done at the house that I had planned to do!
I already had the right aileron clecoed together, so the first thing I did was final drill all of the holes, including the holes in the counterbalance pipe. Once this was done, I disassembled the parts and countersunk the holes on the counterbalance pipe. I thought it would be challenging to countersink holes on a curved surface, but it turned out to be fairly simple to do with my electric drill and countersink cage.
The aileron counterbalance pipes are countersunk. I thought this would be difficult with the curved surface, but it really wasn't.
I countersunk both pipes and then decided to prime them. Even though the pipes are galvanized, I still worried about steel and aluminum together since they are dissimilar metals. Priming these may not do me any good, but at least it sets my mind at ease.
I decided to prime the counterbalance pipe. Even though they are galvanized, I worried about bare steel on aluminum.
Finally, I started the tedious process of deburring all of the right aileron parts. As usual, this is what took the majority of my time. However, the right aileron is now ready for dimpling and rivets.
All of the right aileron parts have been deburred, they are now ready for dimpling and assembly.
More Aileron Work (3/4/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on March 4, 2011
0.7 Hours -
In order to finish drilling the left aileron, I needed to get a longer 1/8″ drill bit. I picked up a 12″ long drill at Home Depot on my way home from work, and then quickly drilled the last two holes in the left aileron. The longer drill is needed to drill two holes in the counterbalance pipe that can only be accessed by inserting the drill through holes in the nose rib/spar.
A long drill is needed to reach the last two holes that need to be drilled in the counterbalance pipe. The drill must be inserted through a hole in the spar.
After drilling these two holes, I disassembled the left aileron and set the parts aside. Finally, I clecoed together the right aileron. It is now ready to be drilled, but that will have to wait until my next work session.
As quickly as it went together, the left aileron was taken apart for deburring, dimpling and countersinking.
As usual, I now get to repeat the process on the right side. For now, I just clecoed the parts together.
Left Aileron Drilled (3/2/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on March 2, 2011
1.6 Hours -
I started working simultaneously on both ailerons, but limited bench space quickly made force me to focus on one at a time.
The aileron skeletons were relatively easy to assemble. The nose ribs (A-704) are clecoed to the spar and drilled.
The first step in assembling the aileron skeleton is to cleco and drill the A-704 nose ribs to the spar.
Then, the main ribs (A-705) are clecoed to the spar and drilled.
After the nose ribs are drilled, the A-705 are clecoed and drilled to the spar.
Once all the ribs are drilled to the spar, both the leading edge skin (A-802PP) and the trailing edge skin (A-801PP) are clecoed to the skeleton along with the counterbalance pipe. In the empennage, cast lead weights were used as counterbalances, but the ailerons simply use a length of steel water pipe that runs the length of the leading edge of each aileron. For now, I just assembled the left aileron.
After drilling the ribs, the skins and counterbalance are clecoed on and drilled.
With everything clecoed together, I final drilled the skins to the skeleton and match drilled the counterbalance pipe using the holes in the leading edge skin as a guide. During my next work session, I’ll repeat this process for the right aileron.
The left aileron is drilled and ready to be taken apart for finishing.
Aileron Spar Reinforcement Plates Riveted (3/1/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on March 1, 2011
0.3 Hours -
No work on the plane yesterday since we were closing on our house. The closing only took 30 minutes, and the best part is that we were already renting the house so we don’t have to move. I imagine that house projects will now start to cut into my building time, but I’ll also be able to start saving more money for the airplane since our mortgage payment will be slightly less than our rent was.
Back to airplane work. I had a very quick building session this evening, and only accomplished riveting the reinforcement plates to the ends of the aileron spars. For now, each plate is fastened with only three rivets since the remaining holes will be used for ribs. I double and triple checked the planes to make sure I was riveting the correct holes, which means the first thing I did was squeeze a rivet in the wrong hole! Oh well, I drilled it out and no damage was done. I also riveted a nutplate to the inboard end of each spar at this time.
The inboard end of the aileron spar after riveting the reinforcement plate and nutplate.
The outboard end of the aileron spar after riveting the reinforcement plate.
Aileron Spar Prep Continued (2/27/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on February 27, 2011
1.6 Hours -
I didn’t spend a lot of time on the plane today…just enough to get some of the aileron spar components ready for riveting.
I disassembled the spars, reinforcement plates, and aileron brackets. Then, deburred all of the holes. After that, I moved on to edge deburring. Deburring the edges of the spars is what took most of my time today. The long edges were easy enough to get with the big Scotchbrite wheel, but I had to use a small Scotchbrite wheel on my die grinder for all of the lightening holes.
Once everything was deburred, I scuffed the parts where I wanted to prime, then cleaned and primed them. I only primed the reinforcement plates and their corresponding mating surface on the spars. I figured this was the only area where moisture could get trapped, so it’s the only area on the spar that is being primed.
Priming the reinforcement plates that go on the end of the spars.
I only primed the ends of the spars since this is where the reinforcement plates sit.
Aileron Stiffeners Riveted, Spars Started (2/26/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on February 26, 2011
4.8 Hours -
Things were rolling today until I had to take a break to fix my broken back-rivet set… twice. More on that later.
I started by deburring and dimpling the rear aileron skins. For now, I’m only working on the holes that will be used to attach the stiffeners.
Most of the dimpling on the rear aileron skins had to be completed with a c-frame.
The stiffener rivets are all taped into place and ready to be back-riveted.
Once the skins were prepped, I started to back rivet the stiffeners. On the second stiffener, my back rivet set broke! Specifically, the split tension pin that holds the plastic collar on, broke and fell out. I had to take a break to go find a new one of these. Lowe’s didn’t have any small enough, but the National Aircraft Parts Association (NAPA) came through. I also picked up some more Scotchbrite pads while I was there.
When the back-rivet set was fixed, I continued riveting the stiffeners. Back-riveting is quick and easy, but I hate working on the trailing edges of these partially bent skins. I had to use duct tape to keep the skin bent back and out of my way. It’s not complicated, just a hassle. When I got to the last stiffener, the pin in the back-rivet set broke for the second time. I’m not sure what is causing the pin to break…something must be rubbing on it. It may just mean its time to get a new set! Fortunately, the collar was still staying in place and I could finish the last two rivets.
While riveting the second stiffener, the split tension pin in my back-rivet set broke and I had to take a break go find a new one. The new pin is in the picture.
All the stiffeners are back-riveted to the rear aileron skins.
The outside view of one stiffener's rivets after back-riveting.
On the last stiffener, the new pin in my back-rivet set broke. This is ridiculous...at least I was able to finish. Maybe I need to get a new set because these pins shouldn't break so easily.
After the stiffeners were riveted, the trailing edge bends in the skins could be finished. The other day, I pulled out the bending brake I used on the empennage and figured it would be too warped by now to use again. However, it was still perfectly straight. Unfortunately, it was about 5 inches too short for the aileron skins. Not wanting to chance a screw-up from using a brake that isn’t full width, I decided to build a new brake. I purchased the wood a couple of days ago, so all I had to do was take the hinges off the old brake and install them on the new boards.
I had to make a new bending brake for the rear aileron skins because the one I built for the empennage was too short. Make sure you make yours at least 5 feet long!
Using the new brake, I completed the bends on the aileron skins. I had to bend them as far as the stiffeners would allow in order to get the proper bend, and I temporarily clecoed in an end rib to make sure the bend was correct.
The rear aileron skin in the brake, ready for bending.
The rear aileron skin after bending.
I then moved on to the aileron spars. The first step is to fabricate four reinforcement plates that will go on the ends of the spars. The plans tell you to cut these to the proper size using scrap, but they actually send them to you already cut to size. Fortunately, I remember this and I remembered where I stored them! Once located, I clamped them to the ends of the spars and used the holes in the spars as a guide to match drill the plates.
The reinforcement plates are match-drilled to the aileron spars using the holes in the spars as a guide.
After the reinforcement plates were drilled, I drilled the aileron brackets to the spars/plates. The aileron brackets are already pre-punched, but the holes needed to be enlarged to #12 in order to accommodate AN3 bolts. Now that the plates and brackets are drilled, I need to take everything apart for deburring.
The holes in the aileron brackets need to be enlarged to #12 for AN-3 bolts. This is the inboard bracket.
The outboard aileron bracket.
The reinforcement plates and aileron brackets have been drilled to the spars. Time to disassemble and deburr.
Aileron Stiffeners Primed (2/25/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on February 25, 2011
0.7 Hours -
More priming…
Tonight, I cleaned and primed the aileron stiffeners. This will be the bulk of my priming on the ailerons…my primer use is going to start seeing serious reductions!
The aileron stiffeners all cleaned up before priming.
Primed stiffeners.
Aileron Stiffener Work (2/24/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on February 24, 2011
1.8 Hours -
Stiffener work is really simple, but it is also very repetitive, very boring, and very time-consuming. This evening, I started by final drilling all of the stiffeners to the rear aileron skins. Once this was done, I deburred all of the rivet holes in the stiffeners, scuffed them and dimpled them. These parts now need to be cleaned and primed before they are riveted to the aileron skins.
I didn’t want to clean and prime the stiffeners this evening, so I pulled out my soldering iron and removed some of the blue vinyl from the rear aileron skins. On the outside of the skins, I removed the vinyl from the stiffener rivet lines. All the vinyl was removed from the inside surface. The only reason I did the strips on the outside (rather than removing all of it) is because I’ll be back-riveting the stiffeners and I don’t want the back-riveting plate to scratch the skin.
Using my squeezer to dimple the aileron stiffeners.
Aileron Stiffener Fabrication Finished (2/21/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Wings on February 21, 2011
1.0 Hours -
Nothing much to report, just an hour of edge finishing on the aileron stiffeners. All 32 stiffeners are now finished and ready for final drilling to the aileron skins.
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