Section 15: Wing Ribs

9/10/08 Started the section today by peeling a whole lot of blue plastic off of the nose ribs.  Found two or three ribs with significant scratches, but only a few scratches on each of them.  Oddly, one (from the middle of the bundle) had three parallel scratches which had sliced right through the plastic.  They sanded right out with 400 and then 600 wet sanding.  Deburring starts tomorrow!  Woo.

9/14/08 Instead of deburring right off, I chopped off the various nose rib flanges, per plans.  The band saw made short work of the flanges, and this step went off without a hitch.

9/15/08 Deburred the lightening holes and the wavy flanges on the nose ribs.  Radiused the corners, as well.  Next step is to clean up the nooks and crannies, and run a Scotchbrite pad over the pre-drilled holes to knock down any residual burrs.  Then it’s on to fluting and then priming.

9/16/08 Off for a hunting trip, so I tidied up the shop area.  No significant progress.  Back to work on Monday, 9/22.

9/24/08 Finished the nook-and-cranny deburring on most of the nose ribs.  Should be fluting by the next session.  Woo.

HIATUS I took about a month off for…well…life.  Killed some geese in Canada.  Some ducks in Oregon.  Some beers in California.  Cranked out some work.  Suppressed some evidence, righted some wrongs, and drank more beers.  All was good, but it was nice to get back to work, albeit slowly.

10/23/08 Well, now I actually finished the deburring on the nose ribs.  All corners have been filed.  All edges have been scotchbrited, sandpapered, or filed to a pleasant smoothness.  Mmm, aluminum.

10/30/08 Took a couple of hours and cleaned up the shop.  The blue plastic, tool packaging, beverage containers, etc, really takes up space after awhile.  Especially when the Santa Ana’s and some unseasonable rain showers stir up the pot.

11/3/08 Fluted ALL the nose ribs.  I have pictures to prove it!  I expected a huge pain in the ass, but it went smoothly and easily.  I HIGHLY recommend the Avery Tools fluting pliers.  I had my doubts, but it worked like a charm.  Also, please take a few minutes to watch Alan Gilmore’s fluting video.  Alan, you’re a dork!  But a wonderful, generous, and extremely helpful dork, and we love you for helping us out (well, at least I do).  Alan’s process and insight was unbelievably helpful in vaulting up the learning curve of the fluting process.  By the last rib, I had my own, slightly different technique.  But Alan’s recommendations form the core of my technique, and kept me from making any major (or even minor) mistakes as I learned.  Brilliant!  Just take your time, do not over-crimp, do both sides and then double check the whole.

11/4/08 Watched the election returns.  Yay!  Boo on Prop 8, though.  I utterly fail to understand the widespread suspicion, mistrust, and poor treatment of our gay citizens, especially at the level of the State.  Bigotry in any official form or forum is unacceptable in this country.  My view of organized religion as a vehicle of fear, intolerance, and hate was confirmed by the underhanded and deceitful tactics of the pro-Prop 8 propaganda.  I can only hope that someday soon such laws will be viewed with the same shame and regret that we view the Jim Crow and anti-miscegenation laws of our recent past.

11/5/08  Began unpacking and deburring the main ribs.  Stripped the blue plastic and trimmed the end flange off of the appropriate ribs.

11/6/08  Deburred all of the trimmed flange areas.  Deburred all of the scalloped edges of the rib flanges with a scotch-brite wheel.  The last step will be radiusing all corners and filing the straight edges.