Pushrods and Bell Crank

I was able to finish the pushrods with primer and final pop rivets.   Also, I pre-assembled the Bell Crank.   I had to ream out the brass bushing per the directions so that the bolt would slide through.  Some guys jig the bushing and use a drill press, I just used a hand drill and squeezed the busing in a vise with cardboard around it so not to scuff it.  Worked OK for me.

Aileron Pushrods

While I have an aileron in the fixture ready to rivet the top skin, and the left wing ready to finish riveting I found myself at a stopping point.  My riveting partner has been super busy at work the last few days and hasn't had the time to jump in.  Not to worry though because there are lots of other things to work on like the push rods.   Hopefully this weekend we can put an hour or so into riveting the wing top skin..

Until then, I am very happy how my pushrods are going.  I cleaned and primed the inside last night, let them dry for 24 hours, then moved to the tough part..   I think lots of builders have troubles with the powder coated steel ones, but mine went together just fine.  I was able to use the squeezer with regular yoke and slim sets to squeeze the size 11 rivets.  I have seen sites where builders mess up the coating or mess up the rivet and have to start over.  Luckily mine turned out pretty well.  I also rigged up a quick make shift tube centering jig for my drill press.  I had some extra angle laying around and just drilled it into a 2x4...  From the results it worked pretty good.

I also went to work on the long tube pushrods at least getting them started.  These guys don't use long rivets, but rather pop rivets and have six of them on each end.  I used the jig, drilled 3 holes all the way through the tube, creating the six holes necessary.  A little template on graph paper gave me the starting points.  Not perfect, but definitely good enough to fool most anyone.  ;-)  (just jokes..  It turned out really good..)  I haven't primed these inside or out so will focus on that tomorrow.

Ailerons

Ok, just like the wings, I got going a bit further on one aileron than the other and just kept going.  I will catch up quickly, but now I have one that is almost ready for final riveting.  I will get more pics of the interim steps on the next aileron, but the below pics show the jig I am using to rivet the top skin onto the spar.  On the ailerons, you are supposed to rivet the top skin in the best way possible, then turn it upside down on a flat table with weights on it so that when the bottom skin pop-rivets go in, the aileron is straight.

Check out the wing ribs reflecting in the skin on the second picture.   I need to figure out that flash a bit more on the camera.

Ailerons continued

Today I was able to start working on the Aileron Spar.  Fabricating the doubler plates and drilling them out.  In the pics, note the sun shining in the shop.  Living in Seattle is crazy, this is the first time in about 4 months that the sun has actually shown through the open garage door and into the shop.  Crazy place in the winter..

Back Riveting the Ailerons

Now I am really moving on the Ailerons.  Tonight I back riveted all the skin stiffeners in place on the primed skins.  You can see I used grey primer on the stiffeners and white primer on the skin.  Looks kind of cool.

Last night I got the right top wing skin all in place and ready to rivet with the post-its and clecos..  Just like the left one last week.  Hopefully this weekend I can get going on that one with Rebekah.

Priming Skins and attaching Aileron Attach brackets

I had a big day of priming yesterday.  I got both flap skins primed as well as both left wing top skins.  I also was able to prep and prime the flap braces.   No pics, but you will see them all soon enough.

I also started riveting on the Aileron Attach Brackets to the right wing and noticed something.   When fitting the flap brace after the top skin is on, you end up having to shoot the rivets when they could have easily been squeezed if the skins weren't on.  So on the left wing I:

Mounted the Flap Brace prior to riveting the top skin.

This allows for squeezing and doesn't interfere with anything since it is logically the next step after riveting the skin anyway.   Note that I am not going to mount the attach brackets or aileron gap faring until after the skin is riveted.

Aileron skin prep/ Attach Brackets

Today I made lots of progress but not much to show for it.  All 32 Aileron skin stiffeners are all drilled, deburred and dimpled for both ailerons.  Also the skins are drilled deburred and dimpled and prepped for priming. 

I also got the left wing top main skins ready for priming as well.  Next time the weather is nice I have tons of priming to do.  Hopefully this week things look good in seattle.

Since I was done with skins until priming, I figured I would start attaching the aileron brackets to the right wing.