Continuing the Shop Cleanup and Work Bench Drawer Assembly

I had hoped to finish building my bench drawer this evening, but I only managed to get about half way. The actual drawer space dimensions I am shooting for are about 27 inches long x 24 inches wide x 6 inches deep. Turns out I already have some 4 inch metal support brackets that I will use to secure the sides to the bottom. The bottom is 3/4 inch particle board that I had laying around doing mostly nothing, and the sides will be 3/4 inch plywood, also because I had a piece laying around doing nothing.

I have another dilemma that I am still pondering how to resolve. My work benches are 7 feet long and have no center post on the middle. This was done by design as I wanted to have as much free standing space underneath the bench as possible. Problem is that I do not have any frame member onto which I can mount the drawer slide on one side, so I have to measure and fabricate all that. I should be able to finish that up tomorrow.

Here are some additional pics I did not have time to post yesterday.
This first one is of the two wing spars, which I finally removed from the protective pastic adn placed on the work bench after moving enough stuff out of the way to allow the 9.5 foot long spars to sit on the bench. Sure would be nice if these were made of gold, eh?

That is one TV show that I am absolutely captivated by these days, is the two gold rush shows on the discovery channel. Not so much because it is about gold mining, but because it documents the journey and the struggle to achieve one's dreams and ambitions, which is very similar to my experiences thus far in my endeavor to build and fly my own aircraft. The wing spars are actually anodized with a chemical treatment to prevent corrosion, and this is all done at the factory. The end result is a beautiful gold-colored wing spar, which will infortunately be covered up by the wing skins, never to see the light of day again.

I was taught a long time ago that if you grow up having everything handed to you, you will never learn how to truly appreciate anything. True appreciation of the things that you own and do in life always comes as a measure of the trials and tribulations experienced along the way. The Hoffman crew on the gold rush show must overcome one hurdle after another, but in the end they almost reached their goal of 100 ounces. I admire that kind of drive adn determination to achieve something that is not easily attainable, and that is an attitude that keeps me going, even through the delays and the screw ups along the way. So even when I am reduced to re-arranging the shop instead actively building the airplane, I stay focused on the fact that all the little challenges along the way are simply a means to an end, or perhaps a right of passage, etc.

Next is a pic of the root end of the left wing spar with several serial numbers. These numbers help identify the left from the right wing spar, and they also help identify the center section of the spar box that fits inside the fuselage that must precisely match the mounting holes in each wing spar root. Apparently there have been a few builders that have actually built the wing upside down because they don't properly identify the inboard from the outboard end, and the top from bottom of the spar. I do not intend to make that mistake.

This left spar also has what appears to be  edges on the support bracket that have been ground or polished down on one side of each lightening cutout for some reason, but the right spar does not have these marks. I will need to discuss this with Vans tomorrow.

This next pic is a really nice one showing the detail along the span of each of the spars. This really gets your juices flowing until you realize that the very first step in the process of building the wings is to countersink about a billion holes along each spar flange. These holes will hold the dimples of the wing skins and the nut plates and screws that will be used to attach the fuel tanks to each wing. Everyone's posts I ahve read when they complete this task always mention how sore their arms and hands are afterward. No pain, no airplane!

And here is the only piece of damage I have encountered on the Wing spar. It is a deep scratch about 5 inches long. I think I will be able to dress this out, but it may come at the expense of removing the anodized corrosion protection to dress out the scratch. I did not notice this upon initial inspection after receiving the wing kit, but I also chose not to remove the spars from the plastic covering because I was still in the middle of my tail kit at the time. So lesson learned for anyone else that orders a slow build wing kit, make sure you inspect all of the major parts very carefully for damage. If necessary I will sand out the scratch and cover the area with primer.

Here is a shot of the underside of the left spar. The graduated steps are ground from a single piece of aluminum bar stock and riveted in place with the other parts that make up the spar. This give you an idea of how beefed up the root section of each wing is.

Next is  a little blurry adn the flash really did a number with the reflection for some reason. This shows just a handful of the many nut plate and rivet holes that have to be countersunk or drilled - a lot of work to be sure.

And finally a shot of the ground down edge I mentioned previously. I ahve to beleive that this is intentional but I do not know why it is this way only for the left spar and not for the right.