Right main spar deburred, right skeleton match-drilled

 I test-fit the tiedown brackets to make sure everything lined up.

This let me get to know my new torque wrench, although it started a bit rocky. The "click" was more subtle than on the wrench I had borrowed from a co-worker, resulting in me overtightening a couple of bolts and cross-threading one of the nutplates.

With no way to back out the bolt, I had to use a cutoff wheel in my Dremel to cut the bolt flush with the nutplate, and then cut the nutplate down as seen below.

Fortunately I didn't damage the spar or tiedown bracket, however I followed that masterpiece up by breaking two of my pin punches trying to remove the rivets. S$F!@#

I replaced the nutplates, came to terms with my wrench & got the right tideown bracket fully attached. Finally. The left is waiting on replacement bolts that I ordered, but is partially attached.

An a more upbeat note, I got all main & leading edge ribs match-drilled to both spars on the right wing!

 And the mandatory peekaboo shot...

Front

I got all the parts disassembled, the right main spar deburred, and the girls helped me remove the blue vinyl from the rear spar to ready it for deburring & priming.

Sometimes I feel like this blog is just a chronicle of my mistakes, but I have to admit it was satisfying to take the ribs off the spars for the last time.

 

Wings: 4.5 hrs



Rear spars deburred, primed, right rear spar riveted!

With Grandma entertaining the kids I made great progress on the wings on Sunday.

 

First up I deburred the holes in the rear spars and dimpled the top flanges where the doublers would interfere.

 

Right spar deburred:

And the left:

The squeezer yoke left some light scratches in the spar web, as you can see below, but they buffed out ok with some aggressive scotchbriting.

Parts scuffed, washed & dried - ready for priming!

And primed.

While the primer was drying I riveted the nutplates & spacers to the tiedown brackets.

More finished pieces! (Yes, I primed the back of the spacers after the above photo)

I was able to cleco the rear spar assemblies together in preparation for riveting.

And started driving rivets! Right rear spar W-707F complete (ordered the replacement for the left, should be here this week).

Right W-707E complete

Note the orange tape "flags;" translation: hey dummy, don't rivet here!

The girls came out to help place a few rivets & check on the progress - didn't catch them on camera this time.

 

Then: rivets were squoze.

I had some other helpers/inspectors (hecklers?) come out after the girls went to bed. They were quickly enlisted for cleco removal, rivet placement, etc.



Isn't she beautiful? Also: my wife.

Yes, the factory heads (domed part of the rivet) face two different ways. Standard practice is to place the factory heads on the thinnest material. I forgot to do this when riveting the double-doublers, but corrected myself for the rest of the W-707Gs.

 

Research suggests this isn't a serious issue, and since the rivets are set well, I'd risk enlarging the holes if I chose to remove & replace them. One more lesson learned.

This is what the other side looks like. I plan to prime it once the rest of the attachment holes are match-drilled.

With the right rear spar complete and the left complete but for the W-707F replacement, we wanted to see if this pile of parts would go together like the picture says.

Mom realized that reading blueprints is basically the same as playing with Legos.

I shuffled things around,

And Erin clecoed the ribs to the spar.

Hmm....

Look! It flies!

Way cool. Also discovered we should attach the ribs to the main spar first, then the rear spar. And there are a few rib to rear-spar holes at the inboard end that don't appear to line up.... not sure why, and I need to do some digging to figure it out.

All things considered, it was a great weekend of work, I'm very thankful for all the help I had, and we finished with some mashed rivets and something that looks like it belongs on an airplane. Thanks everybody! 

 

Wings: 5 hrs



Tiedown brackets tapped, primed

I bought a tap set on Amazon.com that turned out to be cheaper than any of the local options (including Lowes selling the exact same set). Never used one of these before, so I was a bit nervous, but it turned out to be fairly straightforward.

I clamped each tiedown bracket in my bench vise after match-drilling the rivet holes for the nutplates. Then it was just a matter of applying plenty of drilling lube and taking it slow & steady, fully backing out the tap several times to clean off the chips. I'm sure it helped that Van's had pre-reamed the brackets to the right dimensions.

And voila! Threaded receiver where one didn't exist. Too cool.

Right started

And complete!

I finish deburred, scuffed & washed the tiedowns and spacers.

Primed the mating surfaces, and will do the rest once the assembly is complete.

I started countersinking the wing rear spar doubler plates while the primer was drying, and for some reason the hand drill blew through the 5th hole I was working on. The frustrating part is I don't know why it happened; the only thing I can think of is that the hammer drill engaged, but why that would override the countersink cage stop I don't know. Grr. Replacement ordered.

 That was a good place to stop for the night. Riveting tomorrow! (Comedy tonight?)

 

Wings: 3 hrs

Tiedown bracket drilling

Temps shot above freezing so I tackled the tie-down brackets. First I measured, marked & drilled the brackets.

  Next I taped the spacers to the spars,

 Clamped the bracket with bolt alignment hole drilled to the spar,

And drilled the bolt holes through.

 And right side.

I deburred the holes and started drilling the platenut holes but had to break for dinner. Hopefully with the time change and warmer weather I'll be able to keep after it.

 

Wings: 2.5 hrs

Deburred & straightened wing ribs

Nothing to see here folks, just squeezed some flutes. Who knew a granite countertop would be perfect for airplane work?!

Wings: 2 hrs