Brief Description: Started drilling wing wiring conduit holes in the
Today we decided that before doing much more to the wing, we had better drill holes in the wing ribs for the wiring conduit. My plan is to put nav, strobes, and landing lights in the wing tips, therefore, a half inch ID conduit should be large enough for the wires. After seeing Jeff Bordelon's website, I decided to use poly tubing as my conduit. I'll use RTV on each rib to hold it in place. The OD is 0.700 inches, therefore, a 3/4" hole drilled into the lower third of the rib per Van's construction letter on his website should be ok.
We used my laser level that I already had to sight the holes after drilling the first 3 ribs from the wing tip. I used measurements 6 1/2" behind the spar and 1" from the lower rib flange for the hole center. I had to buy a 12" drill bit(1/4") and use various extensions and short bits to drill the pilot holes for the unibit. I used the Sioux palm drill and some imaginative manipulations of air hose and drill to reach the laser spot. All went well until I reached the four walk-on ribs. I finally decided to drill from the inboard rib to outboard rib using my measurements. It seemed to have worked OK since the laser red dot came all the way through.
I used the unibit to drill out the 1/4" pilots to the 3/4" holes for the tubing. I had to order a 12" extension for the unibit from Avery Tools (unibit had 3/8" shank] to drill out the four inboard walk-on ribs. Will finish the job on the left wing when it comes in.
