Dave's Sonex Builders Log

I finished the sanding and deburring of the rib gussets and then formed them using my bending brake. I started by using my scotch brite wheel to clean up the around the relief hole. Next I used a block sander with 220 grit aluminum oxide paper to sand all of the edges smooth and square. A coarse scotch brit pad was used to finish the edges and the surface. With the part ready to be formed I started to work on the bending brake. I created a template to gauge the edge of the clamp bar. It needs to have a 1/16" radius filed into it. I put the clamp bar in my vise and with a file, created the necessary edge. With the clamp bar prepared I was ready to form the gussets. I drew the tangent lines on the gussets for the first 16 and then after a little experimentation formed them with the brake. For the last 16 I only marked each end of the tangent lines.

I started to sand and deburr the rib gussets today.

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.

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 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.