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ZEKE'S WEB SITE
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Date: 4-27-2009
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Number of Hours: 0.50
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Step 2 in Wing Rib Construction
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First, find the appropriate noserib and press it into the waxed jig.
Then,
The next step is cutting the diagonals to fit. In photo 1 you'll see a bunch of them in the middle of a rib. They do NOT have to be cut this precisely. In fact, you want to make sure they do NOT press hard against the cap strips (neither top nor bottom) because then they'll have a tendency to push the rib apart as it dries. Some people leave the ends of the diagonals square and don't trim them to a mitered joint at all and there's no loss of strength. It's simply for my sense of satisfaction that I trim them to fit. The same is NOT true of the uprights. They should fit closely in their respective slots. However, they should not be a hard "press to fit" because that puts too much pressure on the rib.
Here, I'm afraid to say, is where I neglected my duties. I put all the gussets in place, made sure I had the right tailored gussets for this rib and the right number of common gussets, then I mixed a batch of epoxy, put it on the cap strips, nose rib, uprights, and diagonals, and gently placed the gussets on top in the appropriate place. I then went back and stapled the gussets in place. Popped the rib out of the jig, flipped the rib over, put the gussets in place on the back side of the rib, glued, them, and stapled those gussets in place.
I know - I completely forgot to take photos during this phase because I was so worked up about my first irrevocable step: glueing a rib. This is the first part I've assembled that will go in a flying airplane.
Points of interest: without pumps, the epoxy is difficult to accurately dispense in equal amounts. Must order pumps for epoxy. Next, in the hustle of putting all the gussets on, I forgot to clearcoat the INSIDE of the gussets at the trailing edge of the rib. Ugh. I'll have to get creative to solve that. On the second rib, I took care of it! Third, the rib is very floppy when it's removed from the jig with gussets on only one side!
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Diagonals cut and fit. But not glued.
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Yep, "then the magic happened and the rib was done!"
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Steel weights hold the finished (though still wet) rib flat.
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