Scuffing alclad

Managed to start scuffing wing ribs after a long respit from building the plane. For me this takes about 10-15minutes per rib. Since I love doing the math for this kind of stuff just so I can realize just how much additional work I still have to do:
1. Each rib has 2 sides, a front and rear flange,and top and bottom flanges, and each of those have 2 sides. That means each rib has 10 sides of metal that have to be scuffed and made ready for primer.
2. There are 14 main ribs and about 7-8 nose ribs for each wing. Allof these have to be deburred, scuffed, cleaned, and primed. Needless to say this process takes several hours, or the equivalent of several days, for me to complete.

All but one of the left wing main ribs have been scuffed with a scotch brite pad. The one that remains is the one that the angle bracket is attached to on the very end which is still supporting my wing spar in the stand. I will have to remove the wing spar from the stand, disassemble the wing rib from the angle bracket, scuff it, clean it, and prime it, and then reassemble it all and reattach it to the end of the spar, and remount the spar back onto the stand.

The right wing main ribs are next, followed by the nose ribs for both leading edges. I have also had to perform the final edge deburring on the rib flanges on most of the ribs where they split into different sections that attach to the main wing spar and the trailing edge rear spar. There are small burrs on most of these separated flanges that have to be cleaned up. I used a small file, 200 grit aluminum sand paper, and the sctch brite padto clean them up. Many of the flanges had raised edges or small burrs and these will just eat away at the metal they are attached to if you do not clean them up.

At least I made some progress. My goal is to have all the main ribs scuffed by the end of the weekend.

On another note, I have come to realize that this "small" project of mine will most likely take me on the order of 10-15 years to complete. The number and size of the ongoing domestic interruptions, and the need to finance college expenses for 2 kids for the next 5.5 years are all taking a toll on me. I still see myself completing the project someday, but it certainly will not be completed completed in the 5 years I had originally hoped for. Not much else to say, except that life sucks sometimes.

ON that note, it is a sad day today after learning that the president of EAA Chapter 43, David Biesemeier, died Wednesday after taking off in his experimental aircraft from Erie/Tricounty airport. I had met him a couple of times and he was a really really nice guy. He will be missed. The details as to the actual cause are still not known, but there is some indication that he may have lost a wing or experienced a major engine malfunction or a possible breakup in flight. The media, as usual, is all over the place with their reports right now, so we will have to wait for the NTSB report to get anything closer to the truth.

I am finding that at my age I have started experiencing the loss of an increasing number of friends and loved ones for a variety of reasons. I guess this is a sure sign of getting older but I have to say that this just really sucks. We lost Alex to cancer just a couple of weeks ago - the boy who wanted to be a pilot that we were thankfully able to send to Oshkosh. Cancer sucks, dying in an airplane accident sucks, death sucks. There are too many people from all generations whom I respect dearly and from whom I have learned so many things that are no longer here,  and that sucks too. Sorry to rant, there has just been too much of this happening lately, and its a little hard to digest.

Anyway, hopefully I will be reporting more plane building progress in the coming weeks.