I Hate Dimpling Stiffeners

August 24, 2011

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Well, can you guess what the airplane-building activity was? Maybe from the title?

Yup, you guessed right. Deburring and Dimpling stiffeners.

Here are the tools of the trade. An oversize drill bit, spun in the fingers to deburr. And, my normal dimple dies in my economy squeezer.

After one stiffener...

After 32 stiffeners.

For some excitment tonight (since otherwise, it would be a little lacking), let’s break out the calculator.

2 ailerons, 2 sides per aileron = 4 aileron sides.

4 aileron sides, 8 stiffeners per side = 32 stiffeners.

32 stiffeners, 7 holes per stiffener = 224 holes dimpled.

224 holes dimpled, 2 sides per hole = 448 deburred hole sides

448 deburred hole sides, 2 spins per hole = 896 spins of the drill bit.

My thumb and fore-finger hurt.

0.5 hour.

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Posted by Andrew

I Hate Drilling Stiffeners

August 15, 2011

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I’m still trying to nail down a good time for continued wing skin riveting, so in the mean time, more ailerons.

But first, a little taste of how I like to walk the dogs. Or rather, how they walk me.

In the same vein as last night, I’m not really a big fan of drilling stiffeners. Maybe it’s because I’ve done it on the rudder and both elevators, but it’s just kind of boring.

You can tell it’s boring by my lame pictures tonight.

After drilling some stiffeners, a boring picture.

Halfway through the 32 total stiffeners, one of my #40 drill bits broke. Boring picture.

I labelled each stiffener with the aileron (right or left), side (upper or lower), and then 1 through 8 from inboard to outboard.

After about 45 minutes of that, I decided a nice small (15 minute) task would be to knock out the edge finishing.

Did anything assist me in that decision? Yes.

A pretty bad cut on my knuckle from dragging it across a skin edge. Ouch. (So far, this project has cost some blood and sweat. I’m sure the tears are on there way…)

All the edges edge-finished, and some nice round corners.

Here are both aileron skins and the four piles of stiffeners, all matchdrilled.

I may be done with drilling stiffeners. Who knows.

1.0 Hours. I bet tomorrow’s post is called “I Hate Deburring and Dimpling Stiffeners.”

(Actually I don’t hate deburring and dimpling stiffeners. I can do it inside, where the A/C is nice and chilly.)

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Posted by Andrew