Construction Details - Ribs and Gussets




All the ribs that will be pre-drilled for fabric rivets are aligned carefully and clamped together on a flat surface with the curved part of the ribs over the edge. Lightly running a sanding block over all the ribs strikes a bright centerline on all of them at one time. While they're still clamped together mark the interval for the rivet holes on one rib then mark across all with a framing square. Marking centerlines and hole centers this way takes about ten minutes for all the ribs including setup

If you are installing boxed wing tips, leave 16 ribs unmarked; if not, leave 8.







Blocks screwed to the workbench hold a rib in alignment for punching.







A similiar jig on the drill press table holds the rib centered under the bit. Total time to punch and drill all the ribs is about an hour.







Using a very fine belt on an inverted belt sander to round off the corners and bevel the edges of the wing rib gussets. This process puts a lot of fine aluminum dust in the air. After reading up on possible health hazards from aluminum exposure, I now treat power sanding aluminum with the same caution as spraying urethane, use a positive pressure mask, and do a thorough wet cleanup of the shop afterward.







Three stages of shaping gussets. Left, unshaped as they come with the kit. Center, corners rounded off, Right, edges beveled. Total time to do all the gussets about an hour. Hard to tell - seems like forever.







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