I worked myself into a corner where I needed a riveting partner to continue riveting the top skins to the left wing so I decided it is time to set the left wing aside and catch up the right.
Thanks to my very understanding wife, the left wing is safely stored in the spare bedroom closet.
On the right wing, I got the J-channels drilled, flange holes final drilled, and the top flange countersinks done.
No pictures today (because I forgot to take them) but a quick note to say that I finished countersinking the inboard top skin / wing walk doublers. This section of the skin is countersunk because there's two layers of .032 aluminum making it a little thick for dimples. The rest of the top inboard and outboard skins are dimpled and that's the next task.
Good day’s work today going through page 11-03. I finished countersinking the left wing main spar. After countersinking all of the nut plate attach rivet holes and the skin attach rivet holes, I primed the countersunk portion of the hole by spraying primer then wiping it off of the flat part of the spar flange.
After the primer dried, it was time to install about 60 nutplates, each with 2 AN426AD rivets. The lower flange, I used the Main Squeeze hand squeezer. I had to drill out a couple of rivets, one because it didn’t set flush, and one because I wasn’t paying attention… see below…
Ultimately, they all got successfully installed.
For the upper flange, I used the pneumatic squeezer. It’s a very powerful tool and requires a good bit of focus for me. I was pleased with the results, I had to drill out two rivets that didn’t set flush but it went much faster and less muscle power.
Here’s a video of me installing nutplates, first with the hand squeezer then with the pneumatic. Then I countersink the attach screw holes deep enough to allow the dimpled 0.032 wing skin and fuel tank.
Not a lot of visual progress worthy of pictures today because I spent the day countersinking the main spar. First I did all of the nutplate attach rivet holes since they will need to be of a depth to accept a rivet head. Then I adjusted the countersink cage to go a little deeper and started on the skin and rib attach holes. These holes will need to accept a dimpled skin so they need to be countersunk a little deeper. I have a LOT more of those holes to go but hopefully I’ll be able to finish them tomorrow.
Like I said, not a lot of visual progress but this at least shows that we can fit a car in the workshop garage
