12/24/2020 – 1.0 hours
The process of assembling the Flange Bearing to the Inboard Hinge Brackets was unique to this point in the build and very interesting. The flange bearing has six holes in the round flange around the bearing that gets sandwiched and riveted between the two inboard hinge brackets. The holes between the brackets and the bearing were final drilled as well as the mounting holes in the hinge brackets. The parts were then deburred and riveted together.
[#12 and #30 Drill, Hole Deburing Tool, Pneumatic Squeezer with 1/8” Cupped and Flat Squeezer sets]
12/26/2020 – 3.2 hours
The focus shifted from the rear spar to the preparation of the front spar caps and horizontal stabilizer stringers. There are a total of 4 parts (2 each spar caps and stringers), and both ends of each piece need to be trimmed. The parts were then deburred in preparation for the next step.
[Dremel Metal Cutting Wheel, Flat File, 6” Cut and Polish Wheel, Maroon Scotch Brite Pad]
12/28/2020 0.6 hours
With the rear spar components primed and riveted, the final step was to bolt the inboard hinge bracket assembly to the rear spar assembly. The AN3-5A bolts went through the bracket side of the assembly, and were secured with NAS washers and MS21042-3 self-locking nuts on the doubler side of the spar. The torque specified for the AN3 bolt and MS21042-3 nut is 28 in-lb. I set up my never-before-used torque wrench to 28 in-lb and started cranking away on the first nut. I chose to ignore the following gem in Section 5 of the plans, “When using the 1/4 in. drive snap-over type torque wrench we recommend practicing with it off the aircraft first until you get the feel of the particular tool's snap-over feature since it can be rather light depending on the size of the fastener.” The predictable result was that I snapped the bolt because I didn't recognize the VERY light snap-over feel of the new torque wrench. Luckily another local builder has given me an extra AN3-5A bolt. The other 3 bolts were installed without any issues, and I have re-learned the lesson that there is a lot of great info in section 5 as long as you choose to use it :-) !
[In-Lb Torque Wrench, Crescent Wrench]