Right Tank Stiffener Prep

So, among other horrible things that happened to me today (leaky toilet, Sopranos DVD that kept skipping, ground turkey burgers, which were delicious, except it was actually chicken), and dogs that are freaking out at the neighborhood fireworks, I managed to drop my ONLY set of cleco pliers behind my workbenches.

“But Andrew, you have both your workbenches on wheels,” you say?

Yes, except I still have the spar box, and it’s lengthwise under both workbenches, so I really can’t move either.

After a few minutes of maneuvering, I gathered up a few things I found under the workbenches.

I was wondering where my first-aid kit went.

Anyway, I spent about 30 minutes at the scotchbrite wheel edge-finishing my stiffeners.

After that, I got them clecoed into the skins (yes, I know I’m not doing them the same way as the elevators, I don’t think I need to drill them into wood this time).

I labeled them before continuing so I could get them back to the same spot when ready for final assembly.

Here, you can see 6A (aft) and 6F (forward).

5A anf 5F.

1A and 1F. I only show these because Van's cautions everyone to have enough room to the left of these stiffeners for water (contamination) to flow to the drain to the lower left. I think I've got plenty of room.

Then, I got to drilling. I went a little different route and drilled from the outside-in.

Lot's of clecos.

After drilling, I spent the last 30 minutes of my work session tonight deburring the holes, then scuffing just the bottom side (becuase that’s where the pro-seal will go), and finally dimpling the holes in the stiffeners using my tank dimple dies from Avery.

1st one done.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

All 12 complete.

All that’s left before actually breaking out the pro-seal is:

1) Cleaning these stiffeners up (along with the drain flange and filler cap)

2) Deburring, scuffing, dimpling, and cleaning the skin.

At that point, I can rivet the stiffeners, drain, and cap in. Then I’ll start into the ribs, but I’ll need to do a whole whole bunch of finishing on the ribs, too.

1.5 glorious hours of edge-finishing, drilling, deburirng, and dimpling.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 30th, 2011 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Wings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.