| December 1-3 |
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The first weekend of December.
Friday night was spent out on a date with my wife. Dinner and
theater.
Saturday day was spent working on honey-dos and the evening was spent out
with the family.
Sunday. Sunday was my first day of Christmas shopping. I got out
to the shop around 7:30 and finished cutting and deburring the aileron rib
blanks. I quit at 9:00 or so. |
| December 4 |
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Christmas wishes to all. Tonight was the
beginning of the Christmas party season for me.
last night was the Republican Christmas party.
Tonight is the 1363 Holiday party.
I can see that this week will be a productive one :) |
| December 5-6 |
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As predicted, next to nothing has been done.
However, tonight should provide me with some time to hammer the aileron ribs
into shape. |
| December 7 |
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I spent about two hours out in the shop
tonight. A good portion of the night was spent cleaning up my work
area. After doing all of the routing I had aluminum shavings
everywhere. So I broke out the shopvac and had at it.
Once I was all cleaned up I started bending the aileron blanks into
shape. I think I got 4 done before I called it a night. I'm troubled
by the trailing edge of my master form block. The MDF is starting to
separate. The rest of the form block is in good shape still, it's just
this portion where there isn't much material.
There are only 12 more to bend. I hope it makes it. |
| December 7-10 |
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Shortly after posting my last entry I got an email
from Wayne Massey. It seems
he had a similar issue and sent me some pictures of his solution. His
solution was simple and effective. By simply clamping the end of the form
block, further damage was avoided.
The two pictures I've posted show the damage to the form block, and the fix
that helped me out. With Wayne's guidance, I got the last 12 ribs hammered
out . Thanks Wayne. |
| December 11-12 |
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Monday I did little more than study the plans one
last time before I set to making the short center ribs.
Tuesday turned out to be a good build night. I hammered the flanges on
the ailerons to 90 degrees and fluted about 1/2 of them.
More importantly, I cut and hammered the flange on the short center
ribs. This gives me 170 ribs of 170; cut and formed!!
It took me just over 7 months to get this far. I still have some
lightening holes to cut, flanges to form, deburring to do, primer to spray, and
stiffener angles to attach. Still, it feels good to get all of the ribs
cut. |
| December 13 |
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One step forward two steps back. I may have
spoken too soon regarding being done with cutting ribs. Unless I get word
to the contrary I will need to remake my aileron ribs.
When drilling a jig pin location in the rib I allowed for ~3/8 clearance
between the location and the lightening hole. Unfortunately, I forgot
about the 1/4 inch flange. that put the hole ~1/8 from the beginning of
the flange. I'm just waiting to see what the powers that be say about my
error. |
| December 14-17 |
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I haven't called "the bob" yet. I've
got issues :) Anyway the general consensus is that I should be
fine. So I cut out most of the remaining lightening holes in the aileron
ribs.
I also made up 6 short center ribs. Only needed 4, but I bent 4 the
same way and needed two more. *shrug* |
| December 18 |
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spent some time cutting the remaining lightening
holes in the aileron ribs. Once done I went to cut the small 1" hole
in the bottom of the short center ribs. I couldn't find the Mandrel for
the damned drill bit. Ah well.
I spent another 1/2 hour or so deburring the aileron rib lightening holes and
called it a night. |
| December 19-20 |
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This will probably be the last entry before the new
year. I have the next week off. I'm hoping to finish up the ribs
(sans stiffeners). I would also like to start cutting and drilling said
stiffeners. If I really get ambitious, I try bending the spars. We
will see. Happy Holidays to everyone See you in 2007. |
| December 21-31 |
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The ribs are finished!. . . kind of. I still
have to make up the stiffeners and prime them up. But all of the bending
is done.
Honestly, I didn't get a whole lot done over the holiday vacation. I
was planning on getting a small bending brake from Santa for Christmas.
Instead, Santa spent a lot more and surprised me with a 3x rivet gun. Not
a bad trade off :).
So I spent the week doing some home improvement stuff. Repairs to the
barn, hanging some exterior security lights, repairing a door on the garage;
that sort of stuff. I also relaxed. Lots of relaxing. |
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| back, next |
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