Section 14 – Rear Spar, Stub Spar, Hinge Brackets

More Stub Spar Countersinking

Another view of the Stub Spar Flange

View of Stub Spars

Stub Spar Assembly

Another view of the Stub Spar Assembly

Close up of the Assembly countersinks

Overall view of the Stub Spar Assemblies

8/23/08  Deburred and prepped the Stub Spar Doublers and the Stub Spar Channel.  Practiced countersinking on some scrap and went for the gusto.  Countersunk all of the flange holes on the Stub Spar Channel, as well as the 100′ countersink on both sides of each Stub Spar Assembly.  No riveting done yet, as I will prep and countersink all of the Section 14 parts and then prime everything all at once.  Time: 2hrs

8/24/08  Deburred and prepped the Hinge Bracket Assembly, Hinge Assembly, and Tip Attach Angle Separation parts from page 14-02.  Scotch-Brited out a couple of deeper scratches that occured during shipping.  Did not get to the counter-sinking on the Hinge Assembly, as it was getting late.  I’d hate to have the neighbors calling the police on me during my first week…

8/26/08  Deburred and prepped 1207B spar doublers.  Total time: 15 happy minutes.

8/27/08  Countersunk the hinge brackets.  Pulled out the rear spars and began prep.  30mins.

8/28/08  Took the night off to watch the acceptance speech from the next President of the United States of America.  Go Barak!

8/30/08  Deburred, cleaned, etched, and alodined all of the Section 14 parts but for the rear spars.  You read that right…alodined.  I figured that I was already etching, so alodining would add little time, no weight, and significant anti-corrosion insurance.  Working with the stuff is annoying, and disposing of it is worse.  I’m sure it’s worth the extra hassle.  I inspected each piece and sanded out a few scratches with 400 wet and then 600 wet sandpaper.  Everything seems nice and smooth. 2hrs

8/31/08  Primed everything but the Stub Spars and the Rear Spars.  Primer came out brilliantly.  I laid down a nice thin layer which covers the part but still lets the Sharpie marks show through.  I will re-do the Stub Spars and do the Rear Spars tomorrow.  My alodine procedure for the Stub Spar didn’t take nearly as well as for the rest of the parts (the color ranged from very light gold to bare aluminum).  I got some input from other builders and I think that I got a handle on it. 1hr

9/8/08  Riveted the Hinge Bracket Assemblies and Hinge Assemblies together.  All of the rivets set quite well, but for the double counter-sunk rivets on the two Hinge Assemblies.  The shop heads all stick out a small amount, which seems to be a common problem.  I’m going to wait and see what sorts of clearances are needed and shave them down later, if necessary.  I noticed that the outside tip of the Hinge Assembly spread slightly when the counter-sunk rivets were squeezed into place.  I will call Van’s tomorrow and verify that everything is okey-dokey.  This seems to be a known issue, and one that doesn’t raise any serious concerns.  The primer held up very well to the riveting, just needing a quick clean with soapy water.  I will shoot just a tad more primer on the edges now that everything is joined up.  I also assembled a half-assed alodine “pool” with some scrap wood.  The pool is plenty big enough to handle the largest ribs, and will even take the stub spars.  I’ll do a test run with the stub spars tomorrow night before moving onto the rib bonanza in Section 15.  The rear spars will be getting a light coat of primer, but will not be alodined.  I just can’t bring myself to alodine something quite that big.  I simply don’t have the setup to handle it, and I envision a huge, ugly Superfund site as the inevitable outcome.

9/9/08  Stub spars were successfully prepped, alodined, and primed.  New prep procedure is to rub  the piece with a Scotchbrite pad (maroon) soaked in thinner to remove the oils, etc, then wash with Dawn-water, rinse, acid-etch for one minute, rinse, then alodine while still wet.  Worked like a charm.  The rear spars were prepped and left to dry before priming tomorrow.  Should finish Section 14 this week.

9/10/08  Checked the primer on the stub spars.  All looks good.  Primed the rear spars.  I’m trying to balance between a thin coat and an inadequate coat.  I ended up shooting a fog coat and a top coat (of primer, that is).  I’ll check tomorrow for coverage and add one more thin layer if necessary.  Thus far, I’ve used well under half of a quart of primer, including practice and overspray.  Sent off an email and phots regarding the Hinge Assembly to Van’s.  Started on Section 15.

9/13/08  Shot one more thin primer layer on the rear spars and they look great.  Per Van’s, the Hinge Assembly is A-OK.  Will finish the Section 14 riveting within the next few days.

9/23/08  Finished this section today!  All riveting has been done per the plans, and all rivets appear to be within spec.  More pix soon.

New Format

In the interest of clarity, reference, and utility, posts will now be done by plans section rather than date.  That is, each section in the plans gets a post, which will be edited as I go. Let the party begin.

Note that the Plans’ sections are a little odd.  Sections 1-5 are purely instructional and/or informational.  The wing kit was the first kit available, but starts with Section 13: Spar Assembly and ends with Section 18: Flaperon.  I’m guessing that Sections 6-12 are the empennage instructions.

First Section Done! Woo.

Okay, so it’s a two-page section, but it’s done.

I primed the angle, clecoed and riveted them in place, added the rivets to the pre-installed pieces, and tapped the tie-down attach points.  Total time:  Approximately 1.75hrs (today).

Spars with primed angle

No flash picture of the spars

View of the inboard pulled rivets

I had a chance to use the P26A close-quarters hand riveter that came in from Avery yesterday.  Daaaamn, that thing is nice.  And daaaamn that thing sucks.  Nice because it gets right in as advertised.  Sucky because it’s slow and, well, manual.  I’m an automated tool kinda guy.  Any tool with a button to activate it gets bonus points in my book.  If I can use it effectively while I’m sitting in my Barcalounger and drinking a beer…I just might marry such a tool, come to think of it.  The P26A is the exact opposite of automatic.  I can already tell that my forearms are about to triple in size.  But it works like a champ.  TIP: Wrap a layer of duct tape around the business end of it to keep the thing from marring your work during use.

I examined each pulled rivet for angle and grip.  I found just one rivet that didn’t meet the Van’s standards (it was tipped up off of the piece on one side), and it was punched, drilled and replaced.

I will add photos soon.  I’ve been lazy about taking the camera into the back yard these last few days.

Rivet and Shop Cleanup

A slow day (lest we forget…this is all happening after a full-time+ job and helping with the girls…)

Drilled out the few sketchy rivets from the -L spar.  No mars, no elongations…success!  Spent about an hour getting the shop re-organized for actual work, rather than theoretical work.  Things are slowly coming together for smooth operation, I think.  The Avery close-quarter rivet tool will be here tomorrow and I will finish up the first section before the weekend.

Tappin’ that…spar

Home Depot to the rescue!  With a spankin’ new 3/8-16 tap in hand, I tapped the tie downs on the left spar.

And then on to the first rivets!  How exciting.  I successfully riveted on the -T and -V angles on the left spar and moved onto finish-riveting the pre-attached angle.  After several of the latter, I realized that the rivets weren’t pulling the piece tight against the spar webbing.  So I punched out the rivet stems for drilling, which I’ll do in the morning.  Far better to drill a few rivets than to have the spar stiffeners only loosely attached…

See the Hints & Tips page for a picture of my rivet punch.  It’s a trick I picked up at a Zenith Zodiac builders class.  Because the pulled rivets have a steel stem, simply drilling them out can cause the drill bit to skip off the head and mar the surrounding work.  But if you grind down a cheap spring-loaded punch ($5 at HF) to fit the hole in the rivet, drilling out the rivet is easy.  Use the punch to take out the steel stem, then slowly use the drill to take the head off the rivet.  Done.  Guaranteed not to skip.

Primer primer

Started working on priming the first bits of angle and doublers.

First step was a bath in soapy (Dawn) water, to remove grease and oil and crap.

Then, on to the etching stage.  I’m using Stewart Systems EkoEtch in a spray bottle.  I noticed that this appears to be the exact same stuff as Alumiprep, but more expensive.  Too bad I didn’t figure that out before I bought the EkoEtch…  Sprayed on the etch, let it sit, and used ScotchBrite pads until the metal was nice and dull.  I hung up the pieces and let them dry.

Next came the primer.  I used a cheapie detail spray gun that came with my compressor.  It worked okay, but not great.  It was hard keeping a smooth flow through the gun.  I may need to thin the primer a little, but I think I’ll just start using the HVLP gun I picked up the other day.  Finished up all of the 1206-T and -V angles, as well as the 1210B doublers.

Shop Work and Joan Crawford

Did my first bit of destructive construction today by match-drilling the W1210B-L doubler to the spar.  Then I drilled out the tie-down holes and realized that I didn’t have the appropriate tap.  Doh.  I spent months assembling the tools from the list in the plans.  I’m missing two or three items.  Who would’ve guessed that one of those would be needed on the first page.  Hee.

Since I’m priming the angle, doublers, and ribs, I decided that now would be a good time to prep the painting area.  I disassembled the spar crate and made a 3′x5′ frame with chicken wire stretched across it to make a spray box, and then I used some wire to make a boatload of hangers for drying after painting.

And that was about it for the day.  Not alot of progress, but necessary to streamline the priming process.

I also noticed several dull spots on the right spar.  Some checking revealed that this is primer used by the anodizing subcontractor to cover an holes or marrs in the surface of the spar after treatment.

Spar primer

W1210B-L Doubler

Paint Frame

Joan Crawford’s Nightmare

Work Begins

After months…okay, years…of waiting, it was amazing to actually start on a project of this magnitude.  I turned to the first page of the plans and started in.  I spent about an hour and a half prepping the work area, and then cutting and deburring the W1206-V and -T angles.  I finished by cutting and prepping the W1206B-L and -R doublers and called it a night.  The next step involved drilling and tapping, Michael Phelps was about to race, and I was out of beer.  I am a man that can take a hint.

My prep of the sheet and angle involves several steps.  I strip off the blue plastic coating, use the belt sander to take down the connecting tabs, and move to the drill press.  I have a ScotchBrite wheel mounted in the drill press, and I use it to radius all 90′ corners and edges.  I noticed that running the edge along the wheel parallel to the spin is most effective for deburring.  While many people are not deburring the factory-punched rivet holes, I found that most had a very small but noticeable burr around them.  So I took a few minutes and deburred the holes.  I’ll be doing that throughout the build.

I have also decided to primer everything but the spars and the skins.  I’m using the Stewart Systems primer/sealer.  I went back and forth on the primer issue, but ultimately decided that the extra weight would be worth the extra corrosion protection.  Hopefully I won’t pay for this decision down the road…

W1206-V

Finished W1206-V

W1206-T

W1206B-L and -R

ScotchBrite Wheel

Christmas in August

RV Manufactorium

Shop interior

Tool storage

Power alley

Front of the shop

More crates

Delivery!

Spar crate

Spar crate

Wing sub-kits after uncrating

And the crates finally arrived!  In exchange for a mere $250, FedEx kindly gave me a wing kit for a Van’s RV-12.  If only that were the only check…

Fueled by adrenaline and stupidity, I hauled the two crates into the backyard Airplane Manufactory all by my lonesome with the help of my Radio Flyer wagon/moving dolly.  I think I’ve used that thing more than my kids have.

I opened the crates for visual inspection and unpacking and…holy crap these spars are big!  I mean, I knew they were big, but the reality is much…bigger…than the picture in my head.  Looks like I’m going to be scrambling to fabricate some additional storage for this stuff.

It looks like everything is here, but inventory will have to wait for another day.  Between the massive crates and the 105 degree heat, I’ve done all I’m gonna be doing today.