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Michaels Web Site
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Date: 9-21-2010
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Number of Hours: 2.50
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Right Wing - Attach nose ribs
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I started locating and pilot drilling the nose ribs. I thought it would go quickly. If this were a kit instead of a scratch build, it probably would have since the holes are already in the ribs and the spar web. Scratch building was different...
The gymnastics to get a rib aligned horizontally and vertically, and then clamped without accidentally moving the rib, was something else!
On the spar-end of the rib I drew a centering line that I could see through the spar web holes from the other side. Then I had my 2 overlapping pieces of .025 aluminum to represent the 2 overlapping wing skins (photo #1). So I had to hold the rib up against the skin alignment tool, get it centered and vertical over the spar holes (which I could only see by bending way over the top of the spar so I could look through the holes on the other side), and then clamp the rib in place. But if the clamp was located too close to the vertical face of the rib, the action of clamping would move the rib over and out of alignment with the spar holes. So then I would have to unclamp and start all over again!!
Once finally aligned and clamped I could drill through the vertical flange of the rib by going through the existing pilot holes in the spar web, and into the rib. Once the first hole was drilled I set a cleco, realigned everything, and drilled the second hole. Adding a second cleco held everything in place so I could drill the last 4 holes.
Starting out it was taking me 30 minutes to set one rib! By the end it was only 20 minutes. Still much longer than I ever thought it would take.
My skin alignment tool was held together with tape tonight. I epoxied it together before I left the shop tonight so it should work better tomorrow.
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Nose rib, skin alignment tool, and clamp.
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Nose rib #4 attached with clecos
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Got 6 ribs on tonight.
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