Tag Archives: Experimental Aircraft

Section 15 – Outboard Leading Edge

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Now that I’ve got some workbench space again I started working on the leading edge. First step was to cut a couple of cradle V-blocks out of plywood to hold the leading edge skins while riveting.

Next it’s time to work on ribs again. So back to the same routine as earlier: drill holes to final size, debur both sides of the hole, debur the edges as well as the lightening holes, straighten the flanges so they’re 90 degrees to the rib web, then flute the rib flanges so the rib is straight. That took about 8 hours over Friday, and Saturday.
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I snuck out for a few hours on Easter Sunday and worked on polishing the nose portion of the ribs on the scothchbrite wheel so that the bent tabs are more rounded than faceted. Then I started dimpling. Here’s Ashley doing a bit of dimpling on the DRDT-2. More dimpling later.
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Re-arranging the workshop

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I think I’ve done all I can do riveting the wing skins on until Dad comes down in a few weeks to help with riveting. I thought it would be a good time to build a wing cradle and rearrange the garage a little bit. So I stole Tim Olson’s wing cradle design and spent the weekend building one.
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Next I rearranged the garage a little to put the cradle up against the wall and give a bit more workable workspace. I’ll probably need to put the workbenches back together again when Dad comes down to rivet top skins but I’ll deal with that then.
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