9/02/2007 - 2 hours
Couldn't work on the wings yesterday as we had an out of town wedding to go to. We got back on Sunday the 2nd and I started right away on the spars. I read the plans a number of times and looked at the drawings and such. I reviewed a few websites and then started marking the parts with top, bottom, front, back etc.



Next I put tape over the seams to keep out the shavings from countersinking and began the work. I got one side done of one spar just to make sure I was doing everything correctly. It turned out nicely. Save for one wrongly set rivet.



9/03/2007 - 5 hours
Countersunk the rest of the holes and put the platenuts on. Did the same for the access panels platenut attach points. Next, deburred the edges of the access panels, matched drilled the holes to proper size (either #6 or #8 - see plans) and then dimpled the panels.
 
   
The picture directly below is something I have to call Van's about. Some deep(?) scratches that were anodized over. I am thinking nothing major but I had better ask anyway. Update 10/2/07 - Van's says it is ok.
 



9/04/2007 - .75 hours
Not much time put forth tonight. Kinda tuckered out from the weekend. Tonight I put on the platenuts on W-706 spar web. Just four of them, pretty simple and straight forward.
 


9/7/2007 - 3 hours
Countersunk all the spar flange holes. Fairly easy and of course nerve racking since I don't want to cut to deep.
Got all the wing tie down hardware cut, drilled and all that jazz as well. Also had help from the family! They did all the priming of the countersunk holes.




9/9/2007 - 4 hours
Finished up the 1st section today by drilling the lightening holes, deburring and priming everything. I mounted the pieces and torqued to specs (this included attaching the aileron bellcranks pieces. See pics below:

The drilling of the lightening wholes was... well .. enlightening. I started off by C-Clamping the little pieces down to my super small little table top drill press. It was a pain so I clamped the small pieces of aluminum to a little piece of board and just held it with my hand while drilling. This actually produced a hole that was much better than the one using the clamps. Simple too!


9/10/2007 - 6 hours
Started the 2nd section last night and today. This section deals with the rear spars for each wing. Not overly difficult just very time consuming. Lots of deburring and priming. Not many pics taken today as it was not very interesting. But here they are anyway:

The aileron pushrod hole {the one above with the hole in it) I figured would be the toughest. It actually wasn't bad. I did as the instruction said by using a Unibit to get rid of most of the metal then finished it all up with my Dremel attachment using a cylindrical sandpaper accessory. When I got close, I cleco'd it to the spar and then put the finishing touches on it. An almost exact match! Next up is riveting this beast!

9/11/2007 - 2 hours
Ok so riveting is not next unfortunately as I forgot to do some things. Had to dimple the spar flange before riveting and also tape up the holes that did not need to be riveted yet. Check out the pics.. although they aren't the best... guess I must have been shaking for some reason.

Thanks to Chad Jensen again. He had pics of this on his website so I decided to grind my 1.5" yoke down so that it would fit in the flange to make the dimple. The flange is not quite 90 degrees .. probably about 80 or so and a normal yoke with the dimple dies would cause the flange to bend out to 90 degrees... and we don't want that! Thanks Chad!


9/13/2007 - 2 hours
Riveted this bad boy together. Let me tell you... I love this pneumatic rivet crusher! As well as the new yokes that I bought. The longeron one is awesome. Well worth every cent of 140 bones!.

Also got some of the ribs out and started deburring. Really looking forward to this... yeah right! I did have help though. Mitch is real interested in helping .. he got his chance tonight. Check him out:


9/14-16/2007 - 5 hours
No pics as you don't want to be as bored as I have been. I am finally done with the ribs... well deburring, bending the flanges and fluting. Still have to drill the holes for conduit for the strobes and position lights etc. If I never see a rib again I would be happy!

9/18/2007
Installed wind stands. See the shop page for pics and such.

9/23/2007 - 5 hours
Today I worked on installing all of the ribs to the main and rear spars using the wind stands. After that, I drilled all the holes. I also took apart the right wing skeleton to get everything ready for deburring. Made a little metal template as well to drill the conduit holes in the ribs for such things as light wiring and any pitot/AoA plumbing. Of course I don't have the right size hole saw (5/8") so yet another stop at Lowe's or Menards!


Is this cool or what:
 


9/25/2007 - 1.25 hours
Drilled the plumbing holes in the right ribs. I put them on the bottom of the rib web just aft of the largest lightening hole. I also deburred the right wind ribs and spars.

Started the hole drilling by forming a template to locate the hole on each rib. Then eyeballing where I should center punch. It does not have to be exact since the tubing is flexible. If the hole is a fraction of an inch off... not a big deal.

Drilled the holes and ran some tubing through a couple just to make sure everything was good to go.


9/26-28/2007 - 2.00 hours
No pics. Cleaned and primed the right side ribs. Removed the left side in preparation for cleaning and priming.

9/29/2007 - 1.00 hours
No pics. Cleaned and primed the left side ribs. Started priming a few ribs.

9/30/2007 - 6.5 hours
I spent quite a bit of time in the shop today. Many hours riveting the two wing skeletons together. It started out as a nightmare though. I began the project on the right wing, by riveting the rear spar. The directions don't tell you where to start and like a dumba$$ I didn't look at Chad or Brad's site. By starting at the rear and then moving up to the front spar was a bad idea. Very hard to get between the inboard ribs to rivet. And to top that off, my riveting sucked today. There are about 5 or more wholes that were filled with AN470AD5-7's where as they should have had 4-7's. Nice eh! I wasn't too pleased and the neighbors and my wife knew it by the many cuss words emanating from the shop....but it all worked out in the end. The left wing went together quite nicely after making all the mistakes on the right wing.


The last pic above shows both left and right skeletons. I only have the left side rear spar to rivet to the ribs yet. That shouldn't take but a half hour with the Pneumatic Rivet Crusher.

Total for September = 45.5 Hours