14-03: Wing Rib Deburring

Page 14-03 has one of those instructions that sounds easy but takes a month; wing deburring!

Each wing rib followed the below process:

Each part was labelled with a part number, then rib location before any work began on the rib. The rib flange direction was checked against the plans, to make sure there were no mix-ups. 

Next, each of the #40 holes in the rib flanges were drilled and deburred. 

The punched hole before deburring - this is the side the punch entered from, the other side of the material has a tiny little burr.

After deburring - it looks very countersunk in the close up photo, but the sheet is only 0.025" thick!

Next up was to work on the edges of the part:

A Vixen file was used to remove the little stamping burrs on the edges.

This is the edge before deburring - you can see a little raised knob left over from stamping out the part.

An edge deburring tool is used after the file to take off the sharpness on the edges

  

Here is the edge close up after the file and edge deburring tool has been used

Finally the part is run lightly over the scotchbrite wheel.

After the edges are done, the lightning holes are edge deburred using a cool little 3M wheel which consists of sandpaper and scotchbrite pads - this is chucked into the drill press on maximum speed and gets a hole done in about 30 seconds.

Next up, is all the little gaps between the flanges - these are done with Aluminium Oxide cloth backed sandpaper - 320 grit. I used a file to support the paper for some steps and a the paper is wrapped around a piece of scotchbrite pad for other parts.

The paper is wrapped around a round file for doing the tops of the flange notches

After sanding with paper around the round file

Paper is wrapped around a scotchbrite pad for support...

..and is used in the gaps to deburr the edges. I also do the outside edges as well using this method.

A flange gap after deburring with the paper wrapped around a scotchbrite pad. 

Where the gap is too small to fit a scotchbrite pad in, paper is folded in half and the edges are done with a 'flossing motion'.

The paper is held at a 45 degree angle to the flanges and does the upper on one side the lower on the other.

Sometimes, paper wrapped around a flat file is useful when the gap is too small to do the outside edges of the flange notches.

After sanding with the paper wrapped around the flat file

The J-Stringer cutouts are done with paper wrapped around a scotchbrite pad.

At the end of the day, quite a bit of sandpaper and scotchbrite is used.

After edge deburring, the parts have little stamped rib labels attached with a cable tie - this is due to the fact that the sharpie part numbers will clean off when i acid etch the parts before priming.

Wing ribs done! Ready for priming. After priming i will dimple the required holes in the flanges, flute the ribs to flatten them then adjust all the flanges to 90 degrees. They will then be ready for riveting to the spar.