Feb 18, 2020     Spar work - (5 hours)       Category: Wings

Spent quite a bit of time cleaning up the glue joints and various sections of the spar. Since the spar caps get thinner towards the tips, there is a section of the lower spar cap that is thinner than the depth of the slot for the aluminum spar plate. As such, the slot penetrated the topside of the cap. One of the things that I discovered when I glued the ash block in for the landing gear is that the block aligns with this slot. Not a problem, but it means that the ash block will require some routing to get the channel back to the full depth. It was a section about 8��long. The additional cut started at zero depth at one end and then got to about 3/8��deep at the outboard end. This required setting up a section of MDF "table" and fences on either side of the spar and using the router to cut the slot deeper. Once this routing was completed, I test fit the aluminum spar plate in the slots. Each leg of the spar plate fit into its respective slot with no problem. There was an issue with the separation of the plates though, or more accurately, the depth of each slot in respect to one another. Although I'd built the spar to the dimensions on the plans, I need to make some corrections. The separation of the spar plate legs are established by the plates at the root end so the only option is to cut the notches deeper to get it to fit. This required setting up the MDF table and fences again. Each time takes about 30 minutes of set up and locating so that I don't cut more than necessary. I'm hesitant to cut the notch any deeper than necessary. So after setting up the fixture to guide me, I cut the slot on one side another 1/8" deeper. After some trimming the slot by hand using a chisel and a knife I'm able to get the spar plate to fit properly.

I cut, trimmed, and epoxied stiffeners to the bulkheads.