Well, it has been far too long since the last update but it has been a rough few months, between work, holidays, helping a friend set up a maker-space, and then my dad passed away in February which completely derailed me for a while. It has been a bit challenging to keep focus with all that has been going on.
On a lighter note, I just managed to put in the first order for aluminum for wing ribs, spars, and a start on the skins! Hopefully I will be receiving some metal soon so I can start making ribs!
I also just finished designing and cutting out a belt grinder that I will be using for finish sanding the form blocks and any other grinding task that is needed. It is a 2"x72" belt grinder powered by a 2hp motor fed by a VFD so should be able to handle anything I throw at it. The way I designed it, I should be able to use a piece of round tube behind the belt to notch the tubing once I get to the fuselage. It is designed so I can use the belt either vertically or horizontally to provide maximum flexibility. I designed it in solidworks and just finished cutting all of the pieces on the CNC plasma that I helped to set up at the maker-space. It is cut out of 3/8" plate, once I validate that it works according to plan, I will be building a second for the maker-space. I should be able to get started on welding it together this weekend.
The current plan is to leverage the CNC router at the maker-space to cut out the form-blocks and ribs. Since it is only a 30"x30" router table that will take some planning but I think it should be doable by indexing them with dowel pins.
On a less exciting note, I just discovered a crack in the RH exhaust stack of my Cherokee on today's preflight... It goes without saying that it occurred on the nicest day that we have had in the past 3 weeks. Sometimes it seems if I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all...