Took a nap after Church and breakfast out, started late in the afternoon to complete riveting the rear HS spar. I got so pumped up that I squeezed all the 1/8” rivets with the hand squeezer. I now have forearms and wrists like King Kong and Popeye. Then I started on the forward HS spar, got the two halves riveted together and the inboard ribs riveted to the spar assembly. I even remembered to make the 4 rivets in the center of the spar flush type. I was not thrilled with the rivets in the center of the ribs, they are very difficult to get to with the squeezer, and impossible to set perfectly straight without bending the ribs too far. I drilled one out and almost made a mess of the whole operation, but it all eventually came together satisfactorily.
The next step is to rivet the HS skins to the center ribs, which takes a rivet gun. Mine will not be here until next Friday, so I will be taking a few days off, or going to someone else’s shop to start that riveting. Since I have been working on the plane some of the time when I should be doing work work, I will probably take a few days off on the plane to get caught up on what feeds us. I may eventually have to put up a curtain between my desk (my office is also in the basement) and the project to keep it out of sight.
The completed rear HS spar (except for torquing the center hinge bearing bolts).
Center of the rear HS spar. The AN3 bolts on the center hinge bearing need to be torqued to 25 in-lb.
The forward spar with the inboard ribs riveted in place.
