Main spar

Had some accident with the engine, so I continue with the aircraft riveting/bolting on the main spar.

Main spar

Even with the C-frame on the concrete floor, the manufactured head did not set properly on the 1 inch rivets. The fastest way, by far, was to use a large and heavy and long bucking bar and the rivet gun on all rivets. With the long bar it was much easier to get the shop head straight compared with the small tungsten bar. The difficult part with this was to push hard enough on the rivet gun. Have to remember this the next time I make a main spar :-)

Riveting the main spar

Clecoed together the spar with the steel parts just to make sure the bolts would go in right. Then I removed the steel.

Started riveting with the C-frame on the concrete floor, but my back said "no". So continued on the table. For the smaller rivets all went fine.

The the -16 rivets also seemingly went fine until I I looked on the manufactured head. They were not set properly, large gaps between the head and the angle. Just not enough metal in the C-frame for these long rivets.

Had to drill them out. Then continue by hand with the rivet gun and the Tungsten bucking bar. A bit difficult to get the same consistency on the shop head by hand compared to the C-frame on these large and long rivets, but OK enough, and the manufactured head is totally flush.

Main spar primed

Deburred and primed the main spar, also the steel parts. I leave it to cure overnight.

Main spar

Finally finished with all the holes in the main mid spar including all the steel parts. Priming and riveting next. It's a lot of work with a surprisingly large amount of parts that together constitute the main mid spar in an intricate but well thought out manner. The folding mechanism also makes a lot of parts. A drill press would probably speed up the work a lot, and the pre-made spar option is probably a good choice also.  

More bolts in the spar

The right side. The black plastic liner is to be placed on the fwd side (obviously when thinking about it).

Except for 30 and 40 drill bits, the Drill Doctor works excellent.

Bolts in mid spar

Drilled and reamed all the holes for the bolts on the left side. I'm not sure if the black plastic sleeve/block for the wing pins are to mounted fwd or aft on the spar.

Deburring mid spar

Finished deburring the main spar. Cleco'ed together again and drilled/reamed for the AN3 bolted rib attachment. Started drilling the steel bits as well.

Ordered some angle stock from Sandelving to make new and correct attachment angles. The ones that came with the Machined Angle Components was wrong due to error in the drawings. Can't wait for Sonex to straighten up and do what is right, have a feeling it may take ages.