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| All the parts of the practice kit... stiffeners are sitting in the middle of the skins |
Tonight, I dimpled the stiffeners and skins to prepare them for the flush-head rivets. Then, I drilled the ribs and spar doubler plates to the spar. The spar is the main source of strength in the control surface or wing. The doubler plate just serves to add some strength to the spar where the ribs are attached. I deburred all of the holes and then clecoed them together. I now have my first airplane-looking part... AWESOME! From here, I will work to match-drill the skins to the ribs. After that, I may get some additional practice spraying primer on these parts. After that, I will rivet the assembly together.
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| The parts all sitting in their place for the night |
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| My first assembly representing part of an airplane! |
I put in about an hour and a half tonight. I am guessing this will be pretty standard for work during the week. I have a bit of a drive each day, so by the time I get home, have some dinner and unwind a bit, I'll only have about three hours tops. My goal is just to do a little bit each night, which will allow me to get my much-needed sleep and keep the project moving along. Weekends and holidays will be my days of big progress.
I am really starting to realize why building these airplanes takes so long. ha! There are so many little steps that go into preparing each assembly. Deburring is a simple but important task that ends up taking a serious chunk of time. I'll be happy as long as I can consistently work on the airplane. I know it's going to take a lot of time to finish. Looking forward to putting more work in tomorrow night!
