Today I finished Page 16-2 Steps 1-4 for the left wing. Countersinking the wing walk area went more smoothly than I expected. Afterward, I prepared for dimpling the top skin holes by removing the blue vinyl from the top surfaces of the W-1003 and W-1002 skins.
Time Lapse Videos:
Countersinking large screw holes for nutplates in thin sections of sheet is no fun. The countersink bit tends to wander and make a hash of the hole. I thought about how to minimize chatter and keep the bit centered for a few minutes and came up with this:
First, I cut a piece of wood to fit a small area along the line where the nutplates are. In this case, the nutplates will eventually hold the wing root fairing on the left wing. I clamped the piece of wood in place and drilled #40 holes in the wood to correspond with the nutplate rivet holes. Then I clecoed a nutplate through the top of the skin into the wood.
Then I used the nutplate as a drill guide to drill a #30 hole in the wood below, centered on the screw hole in the nutplate.
Next, I used my 90 degree drill and a #30 piloted countersink bit to carefully make the appropriate countersink (in this case, to accept a sheet above dimpled for a #8 screw.
Finished product is a well centered countersink with minimal chatter. I used pine wood here but in the future I will use oak or another hardwood because the pine is so soft, and allows a bit of movement to the countersink pilot.
Today, I got the top wing skin parts out of the crate and began fitting them to the left wing. Way back in the beginning of the wing construction process, I had made a mistake in drilling the J channel wing stiffeners in the wrong position. I had contacted Van’s Aircraft about this and they confirmed it was not a big deal to simply extend the length using a short piece of J channel at the wing tip, so I fit and drilled this piece today as well.
I used up every silver cleco I could find and still didn’t have quite enough for the whole wing. I guess I’ll have to order some more eventually.
Time Lapse Video:
Also, today I worked on drilling out and re-setting some rivets on the rear spar on the left wing that I didn’t like.
Time lapse video of yesterday’s activity–riveting the left wing rear spar and associated parts. Total a bit over 4 hours of real work spread out throughout the day.
I got this beautiful 75 gallon aquarium from Larry, who did not have room for it anymore. I got it set up and hope to add more fish to it soon. Right now there is a single Labidochromis caeruleus in there, but I don’t think it’s visible. Reading up on optimum cichlid population density, it looks like I’ll be able to fit about 25-28 average size fish in there. Because of the African Cichlids’ behavior patterns, it is better to have a high population density to minimize aggressiveness. I intend to go with Lake Malawi cichlids. In the past I had mostly Mbuna type fish from that lake but I may go with a different sort this time. The Mbuna tend to be a bit more aggressive and root up plants and such.
Update: Still snowing
