OK spent most of the week trimming the tip of the ribs and deburring in prep for prime and assembly on Saturday. I figured out a good technique on the trimming the tip of the 8 fwd ribs. I shaped the first one the way I wanted then I would line it up with the next rib using the rivet hole (with a rivet in place) to locate it, then I would trace contour to the next rib with a blue sharpie. Then I just shaped it down until the blue ink was gone. So they should all be about the same shape.
For the assembly I ended up setting all the rivets with the hand tool due to the space restriction....which is so painful when the rivet shaft breaks, but it went well. I think I need to make another table...the HS is hanging over on both sides and it's going to be hard to work with and likely to get damaged. This will be the widest part of the plane (without the wings installed) so I was curious to see how close it was to going through the garage door...whew, 3 inches to spare on either side. I walked it through just to make sure. Once N629MJ is complete, I'll have to be careful about getting it out of the garage. I already know the tail section will be too tall so I'll have to push down on the tail. I've got time to figure that out.
Next step skinning the HS.
Fluting HS ribs...the only reason I'm smiling is that I've finally finished deburing ribs.
