Nov 17, 2011     Spacer bars - (5 hours)       Category: Wing Spars

Finished the spacer bars and got to cleaning. Between deburring the edges of all main capstrips, ripping the strut attach bars out of .190 steel, and cutting all the spacer bars, there was plenty of dust to go around and EVERYTHING in the shop had to be cleaned.

This is my setup for cutting the spacer bars. The chop saw cut them, the belt sander made them the correct length (if required) and the bench grinder with the deburring wheel made them look pretty. This operation covered everything in the garage with a very noticeable layer of aluminum dust. In some places, the dust was so thick you couldn't see what was beneath it! There is such a layer underneath the table in the upper right corner of this picture.

  Nov 16, 2011     Spar spacer bars - (3 hours) Category: Wing Spars

Amber and I started dating 9 years ago today! Nov 16, 2002. Today was spar spacer bar day. I cut all spacers for the main and rear spar using the mini chop saw. I was able to cut them fairly precisely, just needed to fine trim a few and do a couple over because they were too short. I also marked the spar capstrips for cutting and they're ready to be cut to proper length after I double and triple check the measurements. Also sanded the edges of the strut attach bars, drilled them, and finished the ends.

  Nov 14, 2011     Spar plates and web blanks - (9 hours)       Category: Wing Spars

14 - 15 Nov
Last night and this morning, I deburred the plate pieces that Frank cut out, and rough cut the strut attach bars from the .190 4130. That is some thick stuff and the bandsaw had to munch on it a while to make all those rips out of the 9""x18"" plate! I also studied the plans in preparation for cutting out all the spacer bars. I think I ordered a lot more material that required but it will work out best that way. Oh, and I cut out the splice plates for the rear spars out of the .032 material.

In front of a western movie, I cut the spar blanks to final size using duckbill snips and drew a centerline down each one for measuring while bending. I got that sick feeling when I realized that one of the shorter main spar blanks was originally cut 1/2"" too thin, and both of the spar blanks were cut too thin on one end, but in the long run it works out ok since I needed material to do the practice bends on anyway. The folks at Middle Georgia Tech told me I could use their brake so thats exciting. I think it can have a built in bend radius of 3/32 so I'll have to see if that is sufficient. The contact there is Randy Rynders at extension 4070.

  Nov 09, 2011     Spar plates - (4 hours) Category: Wing Spars

9 - 13 Nov
Reunion in Bryson. During this time, Frank cut out some of the small spacer pieces from the .125 material using his scroll saw. I think we're going to hire him to do all the plates! Hopefully, he will teach Amber and Amber will do them.

  Nov 08, 2011     Capstrip deburring - (6 hours) Category: Wing Spars

Yesterday and today were mainly spent deburring the edges of the main capstrips. At 30 minutes per capstrip times 12 capstrips (remember, #13 was ordered as a bar, not cut from the sheet) it must have taken a total of 6 hours just to do that! Now, everything in the garage has a fresh layer of aluminum dust on it and my deburring wheel lost some radius.

  Nov 07, 2011     Flying to pickup spar web blanks and capstrip deburring - (6 hours)       Category: Wing Spars

Deburring capstrips, and also I cut out the spacer plates that go underneath the strut attach bars.
I flew the kitfox to Aircraft Spruce today and got the sheetmetal for the spar webs. They were kind enough to let me rough-cut it in their facility so that I could fit it in the airplane (barely) for the return trip! Even so, it stuck out the back of the turtle deck and went all the way to the rudder pedals. The cutting process took longer than I expected and I ended up landing uncomfortably late.

  Nov 06, 2011     Spar plates and capstrip deburring - (5 hours) Category: Wing Spars

I started cutting spar plates out of the .125 sheet but quickly realized that the throat of the bandsaw was hardly enough to be useful. I think I'm going to have to use the router to freehand some rough cuts, then clean them up with the bandsaw. I also realized that my sander is very slow on this material. Oh, and did you know it takes half an hour to deburr the edges of a single capstrip for the main spar? I got 2 of them done and called it a night.

  Nov 03, 2011     Spar capstrips - (3 hours)       Category: Wing Spars

Happy Birthday Ella! Got the capstrip material in the mail, looks to be ok. It came from Wicks, the main spar cap strips were sheared from a 4x12 sheet and the rest of the 6061 material was just cheap bar stock. I noticed that the main spar cap strips that were sheared from the sheet were not perfectly straight, but it didn't take much effort to bend them straight so I am not concerned about it. It will only make it a little trickier to line them up properly on the spar.

Examined capstrips, planned on how to cut out the spar plates, and just had fun imagining the spar building process