22-05: Primed and riveted aileron skins and stiffners

To get the aileron skins sorted, i laid them out on the table to work out which ones were left and right. They seemed basically identical and symmetrical, so i elected to put the side of each skin which had the little burr from the hole punching on the inside. This made deburring a lot quicker. I was very proud of myself for my planning ahead skills and how efficient i am at working. I'm sure it will be fine. 

 

For future reference... 

Moving on... 

Next up was to clean, etch and prime the aileron skins (and nose skins). Before this, i put an edge break on the skins where they contacted the trailing edge, and also on the nose skin where it overlaps the main skins. 

I hang the skin on some small nails on the fence to wash the etch solution off.

Dimpling

Once the primer had dried, i was able to dimple the skins. I did not dimple the holes which align with the trailing edge wedge, because i still need to cleco the whole assembly together and drill the trailing edge wedge. 

I realised that i forgot to mask off the inside sections of skin where the trailing edge wedge will be taped in place - so i removed the primer with acetone in those areas while it was still fresh. 

Beginning Assembly

Once the dimpling was done, i was able to begin some assembly, by bolting the counterbalance and nose ribs assembly together. When i test fit this, i orientated the screws so the heads were on the rib side and the tails of the screws / nuts were inside the tube. I didn't like the look of this, so when i installed it for the final time, i put the screws the other way around (heads inside the tube). It was much easier this way to get the nuts done up (i used fresh nuts also). When i bolted it together, i clecod the ribs to the spar to help with alignment.

I would not do it this way again - as you will see later, this screws being this way, stopped me using a solid rivet for the forward most underside rivet. 

Later i would realise that i could not get the squeezer into the forward most rivet of the lower flange due to the screw in the way. I had to use a MK-319BS rivet here instead.

Riveting Stiffners

Next up, i back riveted all the stiffners and end ribs to the skins. 

It took longer to place the rivets in the holes than it did to rivet them. 

I'm going great guns!

Next up, the plans call to cleco the whole shebang together, in order to put the trailing edge wedge in place and drill it. Easy peasy..