Monday, October 15, 2012

Serving Up Ribs With A Dry Rub

Decided it best to take a step back and hold off on fluting the ribs until after they are deburred and the flanges squared.  RV-12 ribs will be on the table at Dog Aviation for the next few days being prepared with a dry rub consisting of various abrasive materials.
                                   Serving up a stack of ribs for a dry rub consisting of various abrasive materials.

Originally, I was hopeful to just be able to drag a dual wheel deburring tool along the rib’s edges to quickly smooth the edges followed by the use of a 1" Scotch-brite wheel to quickly remove any left over roughness. But that tactic was not to be because there are quite a few small jagged raised edges left from the shearing process which kept catching on the wheels of the hand deburring tool. Although not that large, the remaining jagged edges rendered the wheeled hand deburring tool mostly ineffective. Tried using only the 1”Scotch-brite wheel and that was OK, but it left a small smooth lump which I found annoying. As a result, a little dry rubbing with various hand files is required prior to using the Scotch-brite wheel on the hand grinder.

Because there are so many ribs to smooth, there will be hours and hours of using the Scotch-brite wheel. It is resulting in lots of aluminum and abrasive dust, so thought it best to put on a face mask while using the grinder with the 1” Scotch-brite wheel.