This build log doesn’t have a lot of photos, as its pretty simple. But, it did take me 3 hours to complete! Tonight was all about the left wing skins. I had already gotten the top skins clecoed into place in the last build session, so now the plans tells us to match drill the holes and then cleco on the bottom skins and do the same. I figured this was a good time to give the new reamers a solid test drive. I am still on the fence about reamers. I’ve read that using reamers to open the pre-punched holes can save A LOT of time on deburring. I noticed that if I am not very careful, the reamer will want to walk out of the hole and scratch the skin. Thankfully, the tip of the reamer is not very sharp so it doesn’t gouge the skin very bad, and I left the plastic on so that helps too. BUT, I have noticed that I still have some very slight burrs on the ribs from the reamer. So, I am still gonna have to deburr them. Maybe it wont be as bad as a drill bit burr, I won’t know for sure until I take the skins off for their finish work.
Once I had the top skins match drilled, I moved the clecos down a hole to finish up the remaining holes. My forearm was getting tired by that time! I decided to do something a little different before moving on the bottom skins, so I figured I would mount the wing tie-downs. We are getting close to needing the cut the hole in the skin for these things, so I stuck them on the main spar, and pulled their associated bolts, washers (one normal, and one thin per bolt), and nuts from the parts bins.
This is the hardware for one wing tiedown. The other gets identical bits of kit.
Notice in the photos, that there is no torque seal on them. I have not torqued them down yet, I just wanted to get them on finger tight for now. I am going to read ahead a bit tonight and see if its OK to torque them down.
Working on the tiedowns for a bit gave my forearm a little break, so I was refreshed and ready to get the bottom skins done. I mounted the W-704-L skin first, since its the inboard skin, and then mounted the W-705-L to the outboard side, making sure the overlap at the eighth rib was right. Then the work was identical to the top skins: Match drill all the holes, then move the clecos down and match drill those holes as well. Per the plans, I started in the middle of the wing skins and worked my way from the main spar down and outward to help avoid pillowing. By the time I was done with all this drilling and cleco’ing, I was ready to call it a night.
And here’s a photo of me to help prove that I am the joker actually building this thing:
Google Photos Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/chxS5Z3xMFQEsJSC7
Hours Worked: 3 hours