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[January 30, 2007]


In trying to work towards finishing up these wings, I am knee deep in prepping everything to be riveted together. It is amazing how much work this is to get everything prepped. It it not complicated by any means, but very repetative and time consuming. Today I wanted to get all of the spar countersinking done, which will make the leading edge and skin dimples sit flush on the spar. I rigged up my electric drill with the countersink cage and went at it. I kept my drill on constantly at about 1/2 speed and zipped through the holes one by one. Then I took my test dimple and checked out each hole. Every now and then one needed to be cleaned up. The whole time I am bend over and my hands are just killing me now. No way I was going to continue the punishment any more tonight.


This was the pile of shavings I made from just one side! I look at it as weight savings!


Man, I still have a ton to do: countersink left spar, re-rivet some spar-rib rivets, dimple ribs/rear spar, prime all countersunk holes, devinyl top skins, dimple top skins, and I am sure I am missing something. Each of those steps will take a while. I am hoping I can get enough done to start riveting the right wing this weekend. I am borrowing a backrivet bucking bar and a long backrivet set from local RV-8 builder Jack Savage. I was very impressed at how wonderful his top skins turned out using this method. Plus it takes out of the equation any misscommunications between the bucket and shooter that would leave dings in the top skin.
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Last Modified: August 13, 2023