Category: Wings

I started to sand and deburr the rib gussets today.

This afternoon I cut out all of the rib gussets. Next I need to clean up, file and deburr the edges. Then I get to try out my bending brake.

Using the templates I made yesterday I started to layout the rib reinforecments. I had some scrap material left from cutting out the ribs. I managed to get all of the reinforecments to fit. At first I ignored marking the locations for the relief holes and simply cut out the reinforcements but it became obvious it would be better to draw in the relief holes when laying out the parts. This way I can drill all of the holes at once and then cut once.

Using velumn, I traced the shape for the four different rib reinforcements. Next, I cut these out and glued them to bristol board. Finally, I cut out the bristol board to create my tracing templates.

I made a new -02 main rib from one of my spares. I should have used the band saw to do the triming after drilling the relief hole, but I didn’t think of it in time. Instead, I used my Wiss snips to do the triming. They worked but I think the band saw would have been quicker. Now I’m done with the ribs except for straightening and corrosion protection. I think I’ll move on to some other parts for a while.

I completed the deburring and cleanup of all but the last two ribs. I’ve been using a 330 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper to cleanup the inside of the lightening holes and than a 400 grit wet paper to cleanup the corner reliefs. To finish the job I use a scotch brite pad to buff all the edges to a nice smooth finish.

Today I worked at cleaning up the remaining 10 ribs. I got 4 done but discovered that one was damaged so I’ll have to use a spare to make a new -02 rib.

Spent time cleaning up the rear ribs

I spent a bunch of time today working on deburring the lightening holes in the nose ribs

I complete the rib forming today and moved on to the flanging. I managed to get all of the lightening holes flanged as well. I still have a little cleanup to do on the ribs. I noticed a few burrs that I didn’t get cleanup up earlier. In any case, I’m nearly done with the ribs. Wow!