Sep 15, 2022     Finishing the left aileron - (1.0 hour)       Category: Ailerons

After letting the VHB tape adhesive cure under heavy weights overnight, I started double-flush riveting the trailing edge using the special flush dies. To minimize introducing twist, I set every 10th rivet, then go back and start evenly filling in the middle rivet of each of the new segments, repeatedly filling in the middle rivet of each segment until every other rivet is filled, and then filling in all of the remaining holes. After all of the double-flush rivets were done, I added the pulled rivets on the inboard and outboard ends of the aileron, thus completing this section. The amount of twist in this one seems to only be about 0.3 degrees.

What's next? I think I will start working on the fuel tanks, since I have had the tank sealant sitting in my refrigerator for a few weeks and it has a limited shelf life.

  Sep 14, 2022     Closing up left aileron nose - (1.5 hours)       Category: Ailerons

Tonight's work session started by finishing countersinking the trailing edge extrusion, then dimpling both of the left aileron skins. Then I bucked the row of flush rivets that close up the underside of the nose, locking in the alignment of the aileron. After that, I applied VHB tape to both sides of the trailing edge extrusion and clecoed it into place and weighted down flat on my kitchen countertop.

What's next? After the VHB adhesive cures overnight, I can double-flush rivet the trailing edge and then mark off both ailerons as done.

  Sep 13, 2022     Finishing up right aileron, Starting on left - (2.0 hours)       Category: Ailerons

After letting the VHB adhesive cure overnight, I started double-flush riveting the trailing edge together using my hand-squeezer and the special flush dies from Cleaveland Tools. Then there were about a dozen blind rivets that needed to be pulled on the two ends before I could officially call the right aileron complete. It's difficult to say precisely how much twist there ended up being. but I'm pretty sure it's less than a degree, which is good.

Resuming work on the left aileron, I started by measuring and cutting a new piece of VA-140 trailing edge extrusion. Then I clecoed it in place and final drilled all of the holes of the trailing edge and the two skins. Finally, I removed the extrusion and then used the counter-sink cage to drill counter-sunk holes into one side of the extrusion.

What's next? Finish counter-sinking the extrusion, and then set the final row of rivets in the nose skin.

  Sep 12, 2022     Untwisting and closing right aileron - (3.0 hours)       Category: Ailerons

Resuming work on the right aileron, the next step was to buck the final line of flush rivets on the underside of the nose skin, but first I needed to ensure that any twist was minimized since the riveting would effectively lock in its current angles. My digital angle level showed about 5 degrees twist, so I ended up wedging and clamping opposite corners of the aileron to my worktable before starting to rivet.

Once I had finished that row of flush rivets, I realized that the outermost stiffener of the underside skin was mispositioned trapped in front of (instead of behind) the opposite stiffener. This meant drilling out the handful of rivets holding that outermost stiffener to the skin, and then re-riveting it on the correct side.

With things back as they should be, I applied 3M VHB tape to the trailing edge extrusion, clecoed it in place, and weighted the aileron down on my kitchen countertop for the adhesive to cure overnight.

What's next? After the VHB adhesive has cured, I can double-flush rivet the trailing edge and then pull the final blind rivets on the inboard and outboard ends of the aileron.

  Sep 11, 2022     Preparing trailing edge extrusion for right aileron - (2.5 hours)       Category: Ailerons

After retrieving the right aileron from storage and re-reading the instructions to figure out what was next, I started by measuring and cutting a piece of the VA-140 trailing edge extrusion to fit the aileron. Fortunately, the ailerons are shorter than the flaps, so the entire width can be satisfied with a single piece of extrusion. Then I clecoed the extrusion in place and final drilled the holes through the trailing edge skins, then removed the clecos to debur the skins, and then dimple them. Then I used the countersink cage to prepare both sides of the trailing edge extrusion to allow a dimpled skin to sit flush.

What's next? I think it'll be time to close in the nose section of the aileron by riveting on the bottom skin, and then setting up the adhesive on the trailing edge to cure overnight.

  Jun 24, 2022     Right aileron nose skin riveting - (3 hours)       Category: Ailerons

Switching focus back to the right aileron for a little bit, I started by finally removing the protective blue vinyl plastic from the nose skin, deburring the holes, scuffing up areas that I would prime, and then finally spraying on some primer on those interior rivet line areas.

Since I found it difficult to use the air riveter where trailing ribs connect to the left aileron spar, I decided to try the hand squeezer on them while the spar is still unconnected to anything else (the normal order is to back-rivet the trailing ribs to the skins, and then rivet the skins+ribs to the spar). This seemed to work out well and I got some really nice shop heads on these ribs.

Once the primer on the nose skin had dried for a few minutes, I started riveting the nose ribs and counter-weight to the nose skin. I was able to do all of these rivets with just the hand squeezer and hand rivet puller, except for one rivet that needed the air rivet gun. There was still air pressure from the day before, so I didn't even need to turn on the compressor for that.

What's next? I couldn't really proceed with anything else until I receive the replacement hinge brackets from Vans, which should arrive on Tuesday, so I'll set the ailerons to the side and start working on the actual wings next.

  Jun 24, 2022     Continue riveting the left aileron - (4 hours)       Category: Ailerons

Tonight I continued the riveting work on the left aileron by using the pneumatic rivet gun for the places I couldn't get with a squeezer. The nose ribs are now fully riveted to the spar, and the top skin is fully riveted to the nose skin and spar. I had a few struggles with some of the -4 rivets that hold the main ribs to the spar, mostly due the angles of physical access.

What's next? The bottom skin is now the only thing on the left aileron held in by clecos, but I cannot proceed any further without having the backordered VA-140 trailing edge extrusion. Vans still hasn't shipped out the replacement parts that I ordered last week for the right aileron hinge brackets, so I won't be able to make too much progress on the right aileron either. I have a little more I can do on the nose skin on the right aileron, but after that I might start work on the actual wings next.

  Jun 22, 2022     Flush riveting nose skin of the left aileron - (2.5 hours)       Category: Ailerons

In this work session, I started by taking off the temporarily assembled nose skin and prepping it for final assembly. This meant I had to remove the blue vinyl covering from both sides, some final hole deburring, dimple all of the rivet holes that would be receiving flush rivets, edge-rolling the two trailing edges using the special rolling tool from Cleaveland Tools, scuff the parts that would be primed, and then actually prime those portions of the nose skin. Again, I tried to minimize wasted primer by only painting it on the portions that would be in contact with the spar, other internal aluminum ribs, or the stainless steel counterweight tube.

After that, I started assembling the nose ribs into the nose skin and flush riveting the easy rivets in the nose skin. The assembly was a little confusing here because I wasn't following the order of operations strictly enough, so I ended up having to drill out a handful of the rivets just after installing them. I got a little more than half of them with hand-squeezer or hand-riveter (there were a few blind rivets to install), but there are still a few more that were too hard to reach and I will need to use the pneumatic rivet gun on tomorrow.

  Jun 21, 2022     Back riveting the stiffeners to the aileron skins - (2.5 hours)       Category: Ailerons

I got to do some back-riveting for the first time, and it went amazingly well. It seems much easier to get consistent results back-riveting than normal riveting, at least from this session's experience. Rather than special back-riveting tape, i just used blue painter's tape and that worked perfectly fine. I got all 32 of the the stiffeners attached (8 on each of the 4 skins) without a single bad rivet that required drilling out. Then I back-riveted the 4 parts of the hinge brackets to the left skins, though the shape of those brackets made the process a little tight.

I must say, being able to ask Alexa to turn on or off the air compressor in the garage (in the adjacent room to my workshop) without having to go out there and flip the switch is pretty convenient. I also picked up a pair of bluetooth earmuffs that let me listen clearly to music while riveting, which is also pretty nice.

What's next? I need to start doing the final prep on the nose skins, dimpling, priming, and edge-rolling them. Looking ahead, it seems like I'm going to very soon be blocked again by the back-ordered VA-140 (trailing edge extrusion) parts, so I may need to pick another section to work on next.

  Jun 21, 2022     Primed right aileron skins - (1.5 hours)       Category: Ailerons

I carefully drilled out the rivets holding the mistaken hinge brackets for the right aileron and clecoed them back in the correct way. I've already ordered replacements for those two brackets, since the countersinks on the wrong sides are not recoverable, so it'll probably be at least a week before I receive the new ones from Vans. However, I was still able to use the bad ones to check the correct faces of the right aileron skins and make some progress on them. I started by removing their blue protective plastic, dimpling them to eventually receive their flush rivets, scuffing the areas that will receive primer, and masking off the trailing edges (that will be receiving adhesive for the trailing edge extrusion). Then I sprayed them with primer where they'll contact the ribs/stiffeners.

(This was a short session because I spent the rest of my evening doing some unrelated metalwork for the ceiling fan in my hangar, which needed the 5-foot downrod support tube to be cut down to 3-foot, and re-drilling the holes in that tube.)

What's next? I'll need to practice some back-riveting, and then move onto attaching these stiffeners to the skins.

  Jun 17, 2022     Left aileron skin prep - (4 hours)       Category: Ailerons

This time I worked mostly on prepping the left aileron skins by dimpling them, scuffing the inside, and then painting primer just on the areas where they would be contacting other ribs/stiffeners. This also meant identifying and labelling which side would be the inside, and also taping off the trailing edge to prevent primer going where the adhesive would later need to go.

I also spent a little time painting primer on the stiffeners and then dimpling them once the primer was dry. I suppose I could have dimpled them before priming them, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference.

Then I started looking at the skins for the right aileron so I could at least label the correct sides there. That also required temporarily setting up the right aileron hinge bracket ribs in their correct position to align the skin with them. Unfortunately this revealed that I had apparently made mistake while assembling those two hinge brackets incorrectly and counter-sunk the wrong sides of them. Basically I had created matched sets of just left-aileron brackets, instead of sets for left and right. Since these are kind of structurally important, simply counter-sinking the other side of them would probably not leave enough strength in the remaining material, so I'll need to replace them.

What's next? I'll need to verify this a little more closely, but I think I'll just need to order a new A-1006-1 and A-1007-1, which are about $5 each. Then either finish prepping the right aileron skin, and doing some back riveting of the stiffeners.

  Jun 16, 2022     Right aileron nose caught up and stiffeners cut - (4.5 hours)       Category: Ailerons

I repeated all of yesterday's work to assemble the aileron nose and drill the aileron counterweight tube on the right aileron, so now both the left and right sides are caught up to each other. This time things went a little more quickly because I knew what to expect when doing all of the drilling and how to temporarily remove the rib while marking the hole positions.

The other big progress I made was possible after I received an installed a new blade for my band saw. This finer tooth-pitch blade (62" x 1/8" x 14 TPI) is also narrower and allows for easier turns to be made. In any case, this allowed me to finish cutting all of the rib stiffeners from the angle stock that was supplied. I also scuffed all of these stiffeners with the scotch-brite pad, and buffed all of the rough edges with the scotch-brite wheel on the bench grinder.

What's next? All of these rib stiffeners will now need to be painted with primer. Then all of the aileron skins will need to be scuffed, edge-rolled, dimpled, and primed as well.

  Jun 15, 2022     Drilling the left aileron counterweight - (3.0 hours)       Category: Ailerons

Tonight started out by cleco'ing together the nose ribs, nose skin, and spar of the left aileron together so that I could match-drill the counterweight. The counterweight is actually just a stainless steel tube positioned at the nose of the aileron, but it must be match-drilled in 14 places and the final-drilled to the needed size.

Drilling through this stainless steel tubing definitely took some life out of my drill bits, and I had to switch to a newer drill bit part way through when I realized that I was making really slow progress drilling. Fortunately, I stocked up a few spare drill bits around just for this reason. I'll just also mention that it was very nice that Vans pre-cut these counterweight tubes to the right length at the factory, because cutting them to length (as the instructions says you might have to do) would have been annoying to do with just a hacksaw.

What's next? Assuming my new bandsaw blade arrives tomorrow, I should be able to resume work cutting out the ribs for the trailing edge of the ailerons. I might also work on doing the same steps from tonight on the right aileron.

  Jun 14, 2022     Riveting aileron nose rib brackets - (3.0 hours)       Category: Ailerons

Tonight's work was mostly riveting together the multiple pieces that form some of the ribs, nose ribs, and hinge brackets of the ailerons. All of these rivets were flush rivets that I had to prepare with the countersink drill cage. A couple of the pieces also required a nutplate to be riveted on as well. All of the riveting done tonight was just done with my hand squeezer. Prior to riveting all of these pieces, I spray painted a little more primer on these parts for corrosion prevention.

Although this primer dries to the touch pretty quickly (about 15 minutes), it unfortunately is still pretty soft for at least a full day so it easy to accidentally scratch or stick to other contacting surfaces for that period. I'll try to leave freshly primed parts overnight before doing their next steps, but that isn't always the most convenient for keeping up progress.

I also had some time to prep to prep the aileron spars by dimpling the flanges where the skins will go, deburring the lightening holes and edges, scuffing the surfaces with a scotch-brite pad, and applying some primer.

What's next? It looks like I'll be mock-assembling the aileron spar, nose ribs, and drilling the stainless steel counterbalance tubes.

  Jun 13, 2022     Continue prepping aileron parts - (6.5 hours)       Category: Ailerons

Last week I was traveling for work, so I wasn't able to get as much progress done as I would have liked. I did bring a box of parts to the hotel so that I could do some debur and scotch-brite scuffing work.

I got back to my workshop at home last night and resumed prepping the parts using my bench grinder and bandsaw. I have ordered a higher tooth-pitch bandsaw blade, since the wood blade my saw came with is a little too aggressive for this thinner material in the ribs. Then I dimpled and countersunk a few of the holes in the nose rib parts before doing a quick spray of some primer to them.

What's next? I should be able to start squeezing rivets in the first set of these nose ribs tomorrow, and finish counter-sinking more of the holes in the trailing ribs.

  Jun 05, 2022     Starting on the ailerons - (2 hours)       Category: Ailerons

Since I'm setting aside the flaps until I receive the backordered part, I decided to start working on the ailerons. The first step was to take out the punched pieces, remove their protective blue plastic vinyl, and write on their part numbers with a Sharpie marker. I also had to cut several apart using the bandsaw, since a few of the parts were still connected to each other in order to simplify Van's manufacturing processes. After that I used the Scotch-Brite wheel on the bench grinder to remove the rough saw remnants and smooth those edges.

What's next? Since I'll be traveling for a few days to Houston for a work event, I've packed a small box with these parts and some supplies (deburring tool, metal files, and scotch-brite pads) so that I can try to get some progress done while sitting in the hotel room in the evenings.