I finished deburring the holes in the doublers for the rear wing spars & marked the holes to be countersunk, and drilled & deburred the spacers for the tie down brackets.
The 1" bimetal hole saw I picked up at True Value made drilling the holes easy, though I probably shouldn't have cut the spacers before drilling them. I had to hold them with Vice Grips since I did t have enough material to clamp them to the drill press. Also the bit seemed to oscillate slightly, I need to tighten up the alignment of the press.
A sanding drum in the dremel made cleaning up the holes easy, followed by a hit with a scotchbrite pad.
I slipped out to the garage tonight and worked on the rear spar doublers. First I opened 3 holes to #21, then threw a couple step drills in the press to remove most of the material.
Next I used the nibblers and a file to remove the material to the traced line, and Clecoed the doublers to the spars and hit them with a 120 grit sanding drum in a dremel.
I finished by deburring the holes in those two plates & the short inboard doubler plates.
After that I fluted the rest of the main ribs that we have edge-deburred. Only about 5 to go!
I woke up before 0500 and could go back to sleep soooo I decided to watch some Top Gear and flute ribs. Not a bad start to the day.
After lunch I hit the shop and got to work with the large-tooth vixen file and a medium flat file to finish shaping the inboard rear spar doubler plates.
After:
After that the outer edges got a spin on the scotchbrite wheel, while I fought with the inner vee edges between the drill-mounted mini wheel, a drum sander in my dremel, and finally just scotchbriting by hand.
I lined up the aileron bracket attach doublers and match drilled both to each spar; left outboard:
Left center showing dimension line:
Right outboard:
Right center:
Right drilled:
I match-drilled the inboard spar doublers as well to #30, and drilled the upper flange to #40 to make dimpling easier while the doublers don't interfere. Right in process:
Left complete:
All match-drilled parts ready for countersinking & hole deburring!
I didn't expect the rear spars to come together as quickly as they have. It's exciting to think that we're just a couple hours away from riveting the rear spar together and clamping on the ribs for the first time - that will be the first time the wings look like something more than a pile of parts.
I'm thankful we started deburring the wing ribs early to break up the monotony; not quite finished yet, but only 2 main ribs to go and then on to nose ribs.
I had some expert help once again placing rivets to secure the wing inspection plate platenuts on the main spar.
Main spar flange platenuts complete! Say that five times fast.
We also countersunk and riveted the K1000-4 platenuts at the inboard end of both spars.
I measured & marked the tiedown spacer brackets, opting to cut them to length prior to drilling the center holes. I ran out after lunch to get a new hacksaw blade which helped matters considerably, only to realize a few minutes later I'd forgotten to pick up the hole saw I needed for the 1" center holes.
The AEX tiedowns themselves were already cut to dimension, with one of the two needing only a 1/32" shave with a file.
Next up I marked the dimensions to trim the inboard ends of the rear spar doubler plates & cut them by hand.
I touched up a few spots on the rear spars that needed a bit more deburring, and took the aileron bracket attach doublers to the deburring wheel.
It was a good long stretch in the shop, and I was surprised on the video to see how much of it Nat was out there with me - she placed rivets, removed clecos, learned how to use the hacksaw to trim the doubler plates, and even volunteered to vacuum the shop! Not bad for a few months shy of 6 years old.
