Made good progress on the right wing LE. Got the ribs installed to the skin and the assembly mounted to the right wing spar. Drilled all the rib-to-spar flanges, and then proceeded with the prep of the W408-1-R inboard rib and W-423 joiner plate.
I marked the locations in between the holes where I could flute the rib to straighten it, and applied the flutes. I then straightened and deburred the rib flanges using the flange bending tool and a mallet and straight edge. For the joiner plate, this time, instead of pre-forming it somewhat free-hand, like I did for the one for the left wing, I decided to be a bit more deliberate by taking the rib and setting it firmly on the work bench. Then I used my cleco clamps to incrementally secure the joiner strip all the way around the rib flanges as shown:
The short clamps worked on the very edges, but would not reach the flanges around the sides. the longer clamps worked for the sides, but just barely. I kept the rib flat on the bench and worked the strip around the front, keeping its edge flat on the bench as well. One problem I had before I shot this pic was that I placed wrong strip edge on the bench so the sharpee mark I made was in the wrong place. SO the curve was in the wrong place and I had to rework this a bit after I flipped the strip over so that the mark was located over the rib flange as shown above. So make sure you don't bend it with the mark in the wrong place. Anyway, I seemed to be able to reform it well enough. Even after doing this I found that you still need to apply some force to the round front of the strip to help keep it bent in such a way that will naturally following the curve of the rib. It does not take much, and if you squeeze it in the wrong location you will have to keep reworking it. Here is the pre-bent strip after I finished working on it and clamps were removed:
Then I set out to position the rib and the joiner plate against the right wing LE skin. Then tried to line everything up just as before. Also just as before, this turned out to be a chore trying to position a loose rib and joiner strip all at the same time to achieve the specified measurements to ensure that the rivet holes are drilled in the correct spot for everything. After about 20 minutes of screwing around with it, everything seemed to magically finally fall into place. So I clamped the skins to the rib and joiner plate just as before, re-measured the distance between the rib web and the end of the joiner plate one last time, which requires 11/16 inches all around, and started drilling.
Got all the LE rivet holes drilled, patted myself on the back, and then set out to begin the process of the LE modification that I have been planning for a long time now. For those builders that are following me, if you plan to continue with the stock build of the RV, then you will need to advance to the step in the instructions that says to leave the Le in place and start working on the fuel tanks. For me, this will need to wait until my modification has been completed successfully.
Some things about the mod I will post openly here. Other things will be recorded separately, and I will wait before sharing them after I determine that the steps I employed seem to work correctly. Always remember that anyone following this blog that desires to employ any of the methods I describe, does so at their own risk. Everything I am doing is based on my own research and experimentation, and although there is very little risk of anything going wrong during the build, there is risk that my plans may not work the way I intend them to, and this will only be determined by extensive flight testing long after this mod has been completed.
I am starting the mod with the left wing LE. The process begins by receiving yet another 408-1-L inboard LE rib from Vans, in addition to a piece of .032 x 12 inch x 36.5 inch aluminum sheet. Basically I am going to be replacing the first W-709 LE rib just outboard of the first W408-1-L rib with another W408-1-L rib, cutting out the section of the LE skin in the first inboard bay of the LE, and refabricating a "new" much larger W-423 joiner plate by extending the W-423 all the way across and between both 408 ribs.
It started with fluting and straightening of the new 408 rib.Same process as all the others.This is how I marked the locations where the flutes can be applied, by inserting under the existing joiner plate just far enough to keep it in position so could place pen marks in between all the rivet hole locations:
Here is the aluminum sheet that ordered from Vans. They messed up my order so I need to get another one of these for the right wing,but I also need to order some more .025 sheet as well. I will trim this down to some measurement between 36.5 inches and some other measurement that is a bit longer that I have not yet determined. I order it to be 3 feet and 6 inches long so I had enough extra to work with. The width is 12 inches, and before it is all said and done I may be trimming that dimension down just a bit as well, but I am undecided on that just yet.
Here are some shots of the file that I used to knock down the "bumps" on the front of the LE rib sections:
Here is a shot to elaborate on what I mentioned earlier about replacing one of the W709 LE ribs with another W408 rib. Basically I will have two 408 ribs in the first two inboard sections of the LE.
And then finally something I just could not resist. Can't wait until this mod is done!
This assembly gets glassed onto a removable LE section, but all the necessary substructure mods need to be made first, to ensure that strength will be maintained.
I feel almost giddy now that this is starting to take shape. Looks pretty cool, but will look even cooler as I get this done.
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