Wing Rib Fluting — Part 1

About a week ago, I decided to bring my wing ribs upstairs and do the fluting up here, since that doesn’t produce any filings or shavings.  HOWEVER….I have had a lot going on family wise that I haven’t been able to spend much time on them.  I’ll also admit that over the last few days I have actually been fiddling with these things to the point of frustration.  I tried a few times to sit down and get the straight using the wood dining room table as my “flat surface”, and always end up frustrated because no matter what I tried, they never would come out straight.

You see, we have to flute  the flanges on the ribs because during the forming process they will get bowed a bit.  Fluting “shrinks” the metal down along the flange, pulling it back straight.  See how they are from the factory:

It seems like a simple process, and it actually is…..if your reference surface is truly flat.  😐  Turns out, our dining room table is not exactly flat, and I was using this bowed/curved surface as my guide and my ribs never came out right.  Once I realized this, thanks to my wife Tammy, I decided to use our granite counter tops, since I knew they’d be nice and flat.  After switching over to the stone counters, I ended up using the “table top” method of rib fluting.  This video shows how to do this method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIvFpVV6kIQ

The results speak for themselves.  After I did the table top method, with the flanges sticking up I flipped the rib over with the flanges down towards the counter top to double check.  Then I used a metal ruler to measure that the rivet holes were all in alignment.  Some ribs (like the one below) only needed a couple of flutes, while others needed many more.

I ended up getting the process down pat, and was able to knock out 14 ribs using the granite counter to and “table top” fluting method.  I did have to go back and re-do the ribs that I did on the dining room table, since they were not straight.  I’ve got a lot more to go, but I think this method will help me knock them out quickly. Here’s all the photos from tonight’s work:

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/pc9q3jqyrzesHnzn9

Hours Worked: 2.75
Tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply