Ready to rivet top wing skins

Another brief update:

Mounted the left spar on the bench and clecoed the skins to it.  Everything looks good, with what I think is a little oil canning on one section in the middle of the long W-0003 wing skin.  I am looking closely at it to see if perhaps the wing ribs are not exactly bent properly but it seems like this is the only place I have this currently.

I have to draft some helpers to rivet these skins as it is close to impossible to do alone mounted vertically from what I can tell. 

One small mistake which looks like it will be a non-issue (cosmetic if there even is an issue at all) is that I did not roll the edges of the overlapping skins prior to dimpling.  They do appear to lay flat though at least now prior to riveting.  So for other builders it is important to do things in the order that the instructions say as in this case if you dimple first the edge roller will get caught on the dimples.  I had gotten into the habit of reordering some of the steps when building the RV-9 Tail and that worked fine, but this kit is different.  One thing I changed the order on which did work is dimpling the ribs prior to installation.  I am glad I did that.

Here are some pictures of the progress!

Sandpaper (60 grit) on a wood block to thin the corner where three surfaces meet - worked well

Masked off for priming the W-0002 skin where it lies under the other skin

Long sheet set up for dimpling - swirls are thicker primer areas - coverage was good need a better gun/technique

Inboard spar clamped

Outboard spar clamped

Backside

 

Frontside clecos in progress

Top skin dimpling complete

Quick update:

  Had a productive weekend.  Despite the windy conditions, I thinned the mating skins, primed all skins, AND completed all the dimpling in the skins.  All of that took around 7 hours.  I found that the DRDT worked best as compared to the pneumatic squeezer for dimpling.  I dialed in some preloading on the DRDT so that the jaws flex a bit and although that works your hand harder, it creates a very nice dimple.  The C-Frame would have been fine too,  but it was nice to work in the nighttime while everyone was asleep with the DRDT.

 Next up is mounting the spar on the bench and starting the skin riveting.  I am trying to recruit bucking partners for this next phase.

  Also really studying up on the fuel tank process, as I need to decide ASAP if I am going to enlist someone else to build the tanks.  I am swaying currently towards building them myself based on some of the feedback I have read from other builders who said it wasn't as bad as they first thought.

Time Flies

Time flies when you are having fun.

Updated progress report:

  Ribs are all on the spars, rear spar has been attached as well.

  There are a couple of rivets in the rear spar that I am not happy with, and one hole on the rear spar that I know is too large although there is an ugly rivet in there right now.  Vans told me to go ahead and put a structural screw in there as well, and I am looking at what size would be appropriate.

  The top skins and doublers are also drilled, and countersunk.  Despite the warning to pay attention and drill the correct screw hole on the inboard nutplates in the center (single leg nutplate there) I drilled the wrong hole.  My new policy is that unless I am 100% certain what I am doing late at night is planned and brainless I quit working on the project early.  I thought I would have to purchase new skins, etc but of course this has a fairly simple fix with a patch to that area.  This will be covered with a wing root fairing anyways, and is only there to keep the fairing on, so I am fine with that fix.

 Up next is the endless dimpling that needs to be done on the skins, and then riveting.  I bought a 12" back rivet set and a handheld back rivet bar from Cleavland tools in preparation.  I will recruit a helper or two for the holding of the bar when I get there.

Having lots of fun with this build, I can see why people say that the wings are monotonous.  For me the key is to do something almost every day and it does move along. Some of the steps take so long that when you get to the end of them you are in disbelief that you get to move on to something else.  I think when I finished the countersinking of the spar I just stared at it sure I had missed something.  Dimpling is going to be another one of those...  Need to get the bench cleaned off and the wings moved to the rack in order to put the DRDT to use.