KitLog pro

Powered By Kitlog Pro v2.0

Leos Web Site
' style=
Date:  8-30-2015
Number of Hours:  10.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Forward frames and skin attach

With the wedding a wonderful success, my wife has taken pitty on me and let me back into the garage to work on the plane. Picking up where I left off;

After deburring, dimpling, countersinking, cleaning and priming the assembly has started.

I replaced the upper left firewall weldment that was misdrilled earlier. I found it interesting that the replacement weldment actually fit much better and did not need to be pulled into place with clamps. If the first one had the correct angle on the weldment, I would not have miss-drilled it and needed to order a replacement.

The stringer and bulkhead assembly went very well. No issues other than a few bad rivets to drill and replace. I always seem to loose my touch with the gun/bucking bar after a lay off period of time. It comes back quickly though.

Getting the skins ready to go, I found a number of areas in the frame and ribs that needed to be dimpled or counter sunk that I missed or the plans missed. After a little research, these are gotchas (i.e. not mentioned in the plans)
1. The side mid ribs ( ) need to be dimpled and are not called out in the plans.
2. The bulkheads ( ) were not called out fro dimples and need to be.
3. The inside two bottom holes on ( ) are flush rivited both sides and need to be countersunk on the inside.

No big deal. I made a small block of steel with a dimple die hole on one corner, and the male die in the rivet gun punch. All went quickly until the guide button broke off of the male die. Two more on order so I have a spare. The countersinking of the two inside holes on each side are a little harder. I used the angle drill (pneumatic with a chuck), I machined a 10" extension to fit the countersink bit, couldn't use a micro stop, and carefully countersunk the two holes each side.

The right rear skin riveting is almost complete. After a little travel for work I'll move on to the left front skin.
' style=

Frames in place

Frames in place

' style=

skins dimpled and ready to go

skins dimpled and ready to go

' style=

clecoed in place

clecoed in place

' style=










Copyright © 2001-2024 Matronics. All Rights Reserved.