Today, I kind of accidentally worked on the airplane. I wasn’t really planning on it, but I was taking out the garbage (see lower left of first picture), and I just happened to drill the first hole.
Then, I kind of drilled half the holes, and had to go back inside to get the camera.
But wait, let’s back up. I spent a lot of time the other day and before starting to drill to really make sure everything was lined up really well.
Halfway done.
Here’s my technique. I had some c-clamps along the whole length of the hinge, and every few holes, I’d cleco the drilled holes, move my three sideclamps down, drill three more, then CHECK THE HINGE FOR FREE MOVEMENT.
I’m not sure what I could have done if it had gotten out of alignment, but I was paranoid about doing this right, and my paranoia turned out to be fore no reason.
Turned out great.
After drilling all the hinge holes, I took the clamps off and was rewarded with baby’s-butt smooth hinge movement.
Done!
There’s still a little on the end I need to trim, but I’ll figure that part out another day.
I'm taking the win while I can.
Time for football!
0.5 hours.
Andrew's RV-7 Build Log 