Mocking left tank and filling rivets
TLDR
- Misc: added strap to wing stand
- Misc: filled some rivets with superfil
- Right aileron: 2 hinges are binding
- Tank: Started to prepare left tank
Misc work
As I wrap up the left wing, I started to work on miscellaneous small tasks.
Wing strap
I bought a 2x8 carpet, and cut it to 4 strips of 6 inches width. Then I screwed it to the wing stand I built a few days ago. The wing stand is officially done.
Rivet filling
Instead of using sherwin williams spackle, I bought the real thing Super-Fil to fill my rivets. The stuff is very cheap and on bottle lasts the entire build, so I don’t know why I wanted to try alternatives.
Anyway, Super-Fil required mixing 2 parts by weight 2:1. The blue part is the main ingredient, and the white part is probably the activator. However the dead fish smell from the white part is terrible, so I would recommend using it in a velalated area.
Some people recommends mixing it alcohol to make it more fluid. I didn’t find it particularly useful. I just used it as is. I put the mixture in a small syringe, and squeezed a little bit on each hole on the wing.
I mixed 5 grams each time, and usually by the time I use 70% the mixture hardens and becomes unusable. It’s typically a good time to take a break though. So with some breaks in between, I finished the top side of both wings in a day. The actual work hour is probably about 2 hours.
Right aileron binding
As I was filling the rivet on right aileron, I noticed the aileron binds when I push it all the way up.
After some finding, it turns out the 2 hinges on the far outboard side binds to each other when the aileron goes up. The binding is not severe, but it definitely should not be there.
I did not try to solve it today. I will log this as an issue, and I will play with the spacing when doing final assmebly. I’m thinking I might need to either bend the hinges some more, or adjust the washers to provide more spacing between the 2 hinges.
Starting on left tank
As I wait for the right gas tank the cure and finish leak test (that’s a long story, will have its own blog entry), I started to prepare the left tank.
I deburred, dimpled and cleaned all parts, and clecoed then together. From Evan’s video, he recommends cleaning at the end. I just did it anyway because I have the time.
I didn’t take pictures, but I also test fitted the small parts on each end ribs: fuel return fitting, fuel inject, drain sump.
Next step: I will put the assmebly on the wing, then match drill everything.