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Wings
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Page 2
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Here
is the root doubler. I cheated. Instead of transferring all those 64th
measurements to the AL, I just fit and drilled the doubler to the skins.
I did this while the skins were off the ribs. Then I put the skins
and doubler back on the ribs and drilled to the final size. It was then
easy to draw a line using the holes as a reference to establish the final
edges. John suggested you leave the doubler a little long and do not rivet
it on until you can fit the wing root to the fuselage. I made the wing
walk a separate part so I could shingle it under the leading edge skin
rather than over it. 9/12/99 |
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Here
is the ingot I poured for the aileron counter balance. It weighs about
9 lb. and I cut it diagonally to get the two weights. 9/12/99 |
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Here
is the finished lead counter balance. The lead cuts easily on the bandsaw
(use wax) but I had a hard time drilling it. I snapped several 3/32" drill
bits trying to drill the pilots for the bolt holes. 9/12/99 |
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Here are the counter
balance assemblies. To cut the arms, I used double stick tape to tape together
four layers of AL together. I could then cut, file and drill all four arms
at once and be sure they are all identical 9/12/99 |
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My skins were not
closed all the way (left). To prevent the skins from bulging out on my
finished aileron, I made a simple press (right) to close up the trailing
edge. 9/12/99 |
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Here
are all the parts ready to assemble. The tip rib was hardest to make. My
brake would only bend about 110°, I had to use my seaming pliers to
bend it the rest of the way. 9/12/99 |
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I
bent the top and bottom of the tip rib first and then fit the rib to the
skin and marked the rib for the bend of the forward flange. 9/12/99 |
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Here is the aileron
fitted to the wing. 9/12/99 |
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You can see here
the counter balance extending through the rear spar. I did not have to
rebalance the aileron, it turned out to be perfect the way it was.
9/12/99 |
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Here you can see
the aileron control horn and hole through the rear spar for the push rod.
9/12/99 |
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Here is a jig I
made to drill the rivet holes in the flap skins. I made it from .025 AL
wrapped around the flap skin. I could then measure and drill the pilot
holes. I made similar jigs for the ailerons, elevators and rudder. 10/4/99 |
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Once I had the jig
I could fit it around the skin and line it up with the rib center line
I drew on the skin. Remember the measurement on the plans call out the
distance to the edge of the rib not the rib center line. 10/4/99 |
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Here is my hinge
spacer in action (also see "Tools" section). 10/4/99 |
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Here is another
jig I used to get the spacing right on the hinge half that attaches to
the wing trailing edge. 10/4/99 |
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The flap hinge bumps
up against the reinforcement where the aileron push-rod goes through the
rear spar. So I notched the hinge to clear it. 10/4/99 |
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I found that the
leading edge of my flap skin was not perfectly straight. After I had clecoed
the hinge to the wing and did a test fit of the flap, I found that there
was some binding. So I removed that hinge half and installed a new hinge
half. This time I drilled and clecoed only the ends. I then attached the
flap and inserted the hinge pin. With the flap installed, I drilled and
clecoed the rest of the holes. Now the flap moves just fine. Also I was
sure to have the wing skins attached while I was fitting the hinges. 10/4/99 |
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Once I had the hinge
installed, I noticed that the flap control horn bumped into the edge of
the hole in the rear spar. I double checked my measurements to be sure
that I had not made a mistake. Tony said he ran into the same thing on
one of his flaps and he just enlarged the hole slightly. I did the
same. (The wing and flap are upside down in this picture and in the picture
above) 10/4/99 |
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Here is what happens
when you get careless while fitting the flap hinge and drop one end of
the flap to the floor. When I tried to bend the skin back into shape It
started to crack. 10/4/99 |
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My fix was to remove
all the Al from around the crack so the crack could not spread. I am also
thinking about adding another rib to fill in the inboard flap tip. 10/4/99 |
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Here is my left
wing with all the skins riveted. However, before the riveting I had to
deburr about a million holes. It was slow work until I got a two-way deburr
tool (see tool section). Once I had all the holes deburred the riveting
went quick. I started with the aft skins remembering to include the flap
and aileron hinges. However, I did not rivet the skins to the main spar.
That comes later when I riveted the leading edge skin. I also left
off the wing walk and root doubler. I will install them later. 11/7/99 |
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I then started by
riveting the aft edge of the leading edge skin and worked forward.
Once I the top of the leading edge was riveted I flipped the wing over
and started on the bottom. I again started at the aft edge and worked forward
one row at a time. The clecos did not want to hold very tight in the countersunk
holes so I had to press the skin down to the ribs with the rivet gun. On
the flush rivets, I placed a piece of masking tape over the tip of the
rivet gun to keep it from scratching the skins. 11/7/99 |
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For the wing tip,
rather than transferring all those 64th measurements to the AL, I cheated
by laying the tip blank onto the wing and tracing the outline. BTW The
next guy to see Pete Buck, please knock him down, steal his ruler and give
him one that is only marked in 32nds! 11/7/99 |
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For the relief cuts
I drilled 1/8" holes at the point where each cut would be. For the bottom
of the tip I drilled right on the traced line but for the top of the tip
I drilled about 1/8" inside of the line to allow for the acute bend. (The
wing is shown up side down.) 11/7/99 |
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Once I had the hole
drilled it was easy to cut a V right to the hole and I ended up with a
perfectly radiused cut. To clean up the V's I use a file that I had rounded
off one edge with a grinder so that it would not cut into my perfect radius.
11/7/99 |
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As John suggests,
I tried to bend the tabs using the wing skins as the guide . However I
found that the skins were not ridged enough. So I took the tip off the
wing and hammered the tabs over a small block of wood using the point of
the V's as a guide. 11/7/99 |
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Drilling the tip
was tricky. Along the top of the tip, it is easy to hold the tip against
the wing skin as you match drill the holes. However, it is harder to hold
the bottom of the tip. I used a broom stick stuck through the aileron counter
balance hole to hold the tip. That works for the aft part of the tip.
For me, it was easy to stick my hand through the strobe power supply inspection
hole to hold the fore part of the tip. If you don't have that hole, I am
not sure how you could hold the tip to drill. A suction cup maybe?. 11/7/99 |
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Once the tip is
drilled it is easy to trim the leading edge to get a tight fit. 11/7/99 |
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The second wing
is going much the same as the first but there seems to be ten times as
many holes to beburr. Maybe it is just my imagination.1/14/00 |
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Here is the inside
portion of the pitot/static tubes.1/14/00 |
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And here is the
outside of the pitot/static tubes. (The wing is upside down).1/14/00 |
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