Rib cleanup and fluting mania
Hours: 5 | Posted in Horiz. StabilizerSpent the afternoon/evening making friends with my scotchbrite wheels and pads. Rib deburring was the order of the day, I made it through the pile of main ribs without too much difficulty. Biggest deal was figuring out how to get into those teeny nooks between the main flange and the little tab flange that goes inside the spar. Then I realized I had forgotten about the nose ribs, so back to the wheel I went. Not bad, really.
Fluting was less of a big deal than I thought it would be, from the reading online I had done. I used my rivet fan clecoed into the first and last holes (thanks to whoever I stole this idea from), and clecoed to the bench so the rib hung over the edge. A pinch here, and squeeze there, and the holes were straight in no time.
That being done, it was a short step to putting something together, so I did. The HS skeleton is assembled, and it doesn’t look half bad (if I might say so myself). I was able to make the HS-909 shims easily with the belt sander, and drilled them into place. My only worry is that the holes on the little rib tabs (the rib-to-spar-to-skin holes on the fwd spar) don’t line up quite right…they’re off by 1/3 to 1/2 hole, fairly consistently. I did some reading online and found a note on someone else’s log that once this is assembled into the skin, everything lines up better. We shall soon see.
