Between mudding kitchen walls to prep for paint,
the Olympics and family obligations, not much was accomplished on the RV-12 during
the weekdays this week. However, a lot of thought has gone into how to change
the assembly order to best accommodate the riveting of as many components with
solid rivets as possible. The spar box has been clecoed together a couple of
ways during the week as a sort of dry run for the riveting process. For those
builders interested, I’ll post a detailed assembly order when I get things
finalized in the coming days.
In the meanwhile, began moving forward and
worked on match drilling the upper and lower control horns to the spar box
assembly.
Match drilling the #12 holes that will be used
to bolt the
upper and lower control horns to the spar box assembly.
The counter balance assembly begins by final
drilling #30 the counter balance arm sockets prior to attaching them to the spar
box assembly with Clecos.
Final drilling the counter balance sockets on
the drill press.
The counter balance sockets are then Clecoed to
the spar box assembly 90 degrees off their normal position to facilitate easier
match drilling of the counter balance arm. Next the counter balance arm is run
into the front counter balance socket through the spar box and into the counter
balance socket attached to the rear spar .... then clamped into position so the counter
balance arm can be match drilled to the existing holes in the counter balance sockets.
Using a level on the end of the counter balance arm to match the counter balance arm
to the same plane as the spar box assembly prior to drilling. Once the proper
reading was established, a clamp was used to clamp the rear counter balance socket
to the counter balance arm to lock the position for match drilling of the two
bolt holes.
Once the counter balance arm holes are completed,
the counter balance sockets are rotated 90 decrees and the parts marked for
positioning so the correct part orientation can be assured during final
assembly.
This is the final position the counter balance assembly.
Later lead
weights will be attached to the end of the counter weight arm.
The spar box assembly was disassembled for deburring.
Then the front spar received a little match drilling for the four doubler
plates.
Match drilling the front spar for the #12 and #40
holes of the four doubler plates.