Wednesday, August 5, 2015

RH Stabilator Structure Part 1 (2.5)

2.5 hours

I've got the RH stabilator structure pretty much assembled now, pending updrilling to the final hole sizes and solving one issue that I ran into!

Laying this assembly out was actually easier than I thought it would be.  I figured I should start by constraining the dimensions that are called out on the drawing.  So the first thing I did was attach the forward and aft spars to the tip rib (far right side in the first picture below).  Then I attached the aft end of the inboard rip to the aft spar.


The forward end of the inboard rib attached to the rib clip that's bolted to the forward spar.  This allows you to slide the rib flange and the clip relative to each other in order to properly space the forward and aft spars.  This was tricky with only two hands, but after some serious finagling I got it pretty much perfect so I drilled and cleco'ed that corner together.


With all four sides together, all that's left is to put the four remaining ribs in the middle.


This is where I ran into my issue.  The longest of those four ribs (T11-09) was a little too short, so I had to add a 1/16" shim between the rib flange and the forward spar for it to reach the spar and still be square with the aft spar.  I'm not 100% sure if this is acceptable or not, so I'm going to find out before I actually rivet anything.  But I don't really see why not...


Once I decide what to do about that, though, this assembly will be just about done!  I just need to go back and drill most of the holes to #30, and wait for my dimple die to arrive since some of the joints call for flush rivets.



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