Wing Construction

January 1
	One thing I forgot to write about in December was the order I placed after Christmas. I ordered up lots of riveting supplies. There were Clecos, and pliers, and gauges, and clamps. I'll sort it out and add it to the parts list soon. All told it was another 300 or so.
January 2-4
	I suck. I managed to mangle at least three aileron nose ribs last night. Somehow I had forgotten to drill the holes for the balance weight. So I set about doing that . I should have done something else. like. . . read the plans some more. Or, maybe spend some extra time measuring. I tried using a unibit. The first try got hacked when the unibit contacted the flanged edge and took about 1/4 inch out of it. All in all not a huge problem, but I thought I was done bending ribs.
January 5-7
	minimal progress this weekend. Most of my project time was spent trying to figure out and then order the supplies that I'll need in the near future. It's taking a surprising amount of time to figure all of this out. That 300 dollar order I made was just a scratch in the surface of all of the other bits and pieces I'll need before I can actually move forward. primer? what to do, what to do? more riveting and dimpling tools- gotta have em more clamps- can you ever have enough? So I'm making progress. It's just not terribly visible right now. I've also got a Van's toolbox practice kit I want to finish up before I start riveting on my Bearhawk. I'll need a few more tools to finish that one up too. Plus tool storage has now become an issue. As well as storage of clecos and rivets. I'll attend to that this week as well.
January 8-10
	Still waiting on some supplies so I haven't really done much. Mostly I've been working up orders for yet more stuff I'll need down the line. I won a pneumatic squeezer on ebay. When it gets here I'll find out if it was worth the 200$. I'm cautiously hopeful.
January 11-22
	It's just about time for an update don't you think? Call it winter blues, gathering tools, other interests, or any one of a dozen other excuses. Bottom line is that I haven't done much on the project in the last month or so. Pretty much since Christmas. I still pull out the books every day for at least a few minutes. Last night I actually made it out to the garage. It was kinda chilly out there. I'm trying to get some practice in with my riveting skills. So there I was drilling holes, deburring, dimpling, and setting rivets. Or doing the same and just setting the universal head rivets. Learning what would pass muster and what wouldn't. I also spent some time working on my Vans practice toolkit. The hinge is beginning to be a pain in my butt. I'm torn between ordering a new hinge to make it just right, or saying "that's close enough, it's only a practice kit." I'll probably end up going with the latter. The squeezer I got works wicked pissa. nice smooth action. Between that and my 3x gun I should be all set for most of my riveting chores. I also have a line on a metal working shop that might be able to do my stiffeners and spars for me. I'm waiting on a call back. As for primers, I think I am going to be using Nason primer. It's fairly user friendly and shouldn't kill me too easily. I just might move some of my stuff into the basement of the house so I can avoid some of these colder weeks out in the garage. That won't work for priming, but bending and drilling shouldn't pose too much of an issue.
January 23-30
	I made some more progress with the Van's practice kit. The lid is now in place. I'm really glad I got this kit. I'd rather hack this thing to bits and learn something than mess up one of my plane's bits and have to remake them. Other than that it has just been too cold outside for me to get motivated to get out there.















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