Jan 03, 2021     Getting back to the spar - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

I had two sets of W20-02 and W20-03 root rib attach angles from my last great work attempt, but one of them was marked as scrap...so I made a new one. Santa brought me a 3D printer, so i used that to print a template for the shape of the back of this to make it a little easier. I drew it in Sketchup and printed it in about an hour. Then it''s just a matter of marking and cut it out with the bandsaw. I used my bench vise to close the angle to 86.1 degrees.

  Jan 02, 2021     aileron drive rib       Category: Wings

The W21-01 rib is a special rib. This rib gets two pieces of vertical channel riveted to one side of it, two pieces of angle riveted to the other side, and an aileron drive horn mounted between the angle pieces. I ordered the W21-12 pivot bushings straight from Sonex.

  Dec 05, 2020     more wing ribs - (6 hours)       Category: Wings

All wing ribs for the right wing have been flanged and crimped. I have riveted the gussets onto the fore and aft ribs and trimmed the ribs to clear the extrusion for the main spar cap near the root. This picture shows one of the inboard trimmed/gusseted ribs compared to one of untrimmed/ungusseted ribs.

  Nov 07, 2020     a victim of the wing ribs - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

I deburred and formed 7 aft wing ribs and broke one pair of fluting pliers. ;( I formed one of the wing ribs in the wrong direction. I''ve since marked the inside of the form blocks and I know I should not see the marking once I have it clamped together.
I''ll try the upgraded fluting pliers from Wicks. I can''t complain. I bought those about 21 years ago when I first started on the Sonex. I''m guessing the plastic becomes brittle with age.

  Nov 04, 2020     wing ribs - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

I have 10 wing fore ribs complete (W15-05). Four of those have the additional cutout and a gusset riveted in to reinforce the spar attachment area. The rest of the fore wing ribs are identical. These ribs get new part numbers (W15-01, -02, -03, and -04). The ribs are differentiated by the size of the cutout.
I continue to check before forming each wing rib to make sure I''m forming it in the correct direction.
I form the wing ribs by sandwiching each aluminum flat pattern between the form block and a slightly smaller homemade form block. I run a 1/4-20 bolt through the two form block pieces with the aluminum flat pattern in the middle. The flat patterns have tooling holes for this purpose. Then I old the sandwich in my vise and form the flanges with a soft-faced mallet.

  Nov 03, 2020     wing ribs in progress - (6 hours)       Category: Wings

32 of the W15-08 and -09 gusset stock have been made. W15-06 and -07 are cut and drilled from the -08 and -09 stock.
I created a plywood template for each step.
The first is a flat pattern to trace around and cut out for the flat pattern.
Then I made two wood pieces with a 5 degree bevel on the sides. The flat pattern gets sandwiched between the two wood pieces. It gets bent one way to make the -08 and the other way to make the -09.
Finally, I used translucent notebook dividers to layout the shape of the final gusset pieces with the drilled hole locations (W15-06, 07 and W16-07 and -08). The W16 pieces are used for the aft ribs. The W15 pieces are for the fore ribs.
I have the laser cut kit from Sonex which includes the flat wing ribs. I use the form blocks (also from Sonex) and the flaring tool (also from Sonex) to form the ribs. I''m only working on the right wing, so I''ve only attached the W15 gusset pieces to 4 of the ribs so far.

  Oct 19, 2020     bugging poor Kerry again - (.2 hour) Category: Wings

I needed to order a 3/16" reamer for the right wing spar close-fit bolt holes, so I started looking for another sub-project and decided to form some wing ribs. I forgot that I also needed to make gussets for some of them. This is where the conflicting information started. I had a note on my plans (that I''d made) that the W15-08 flat pattern was included in the laser cut parts kit, but I did not have a location for them on my homemade inventory list. I also looked through the boxes where I thought I would''ve put them.
I finally decided to email Kerry and ask. True to form, Kerry responded with a plethora of information but it took him 26 whole hours. I think that is the longest I''ve ever waited for a response from the factory and 12 of those hours were on a Sunday. He actually attached a digital version of the packing list when I ordered the laser cut kit 20 years ago! Amazing service as usual. Thank you Kerry!

  Sep 18, 2020     not building a space shuttle - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

I did the initial fit-up of the wing spar webs several years ago and my memory of exactly how I did it is lost to time. I was concerned that the height of the spar was not accurate enough, the edge distance between the rivet holes to the spar caps was to small, and there was a gap between the bottom of the spar cap and the top of the center web. I figured this was a structural issue that required a constant load path. I also found some inconsistencies in the conversions between imperial and metric dimensions.
I spent hours contemplating how I was going to fix my mistakes. I thought I was a victim of tolerance stack-up. I emailed Kerry with a bunch of questions. I was afraid I was going to have to order new wing spars and wondering how they would do that since they only sell one set of wing spar per plans number. Would i have to pay for return shipping on my original wing spars?
Not to worry. Kerry assured me that my concerns were unfounded. In the usual Sonex style, he reminded me I''m not building a space shuttle. The wing they destroyed at the Sonex factory had less than ideal workmanship with inferior rivets and still withstood 11 g''s.

  Jul 05, 2020     F08-08 - (1 hour) Category: Fuselage

Made F08-08 out of 1x1x1/8 aluminum angle. This is the flap lever detent. The notches are cut out with a bandsaw, then sanded and filed smooth.