Stabilator Forward Spar Assemblies Part 2 (3.5)

3.5 hours

I got a reply from Sonex this morning, and I'm on the right track after all.  Based on the wording in the Waiex revision log, I thought there would be an updated T10 drawing to depict the new spar cap (T11-03R/L) in the assembly, but the updated spar cap drawing is actually the only new document.  So I'm good to continue, just acknowledging that the forward spar assembly will look slightly different from the drawing since the bend in the spar cap no longer lines up with the clipped corner of the spar channel.  The locating dimensions remain the same, so there's nothing else I need to do differently.

Anyway, back to work!!!

Today I worked on drilling the many holes needed to assemble the forward spars.  After carefully locating the spar cap on top of the channel, I drilled through all the laser cut pilot holes in the spar cap and through the channel, clecoing the holes together as I went along.

I found that my the #40 drill bit gets clogged up with aluminum after a few holes and then the point does not penetrate the channel very well (it updrills the pilot hole easily, but has trouble getting started on the sheet metal below).  I started with my cordless drill, but after clogging up a few bits I gave the drill press a try, and that made it much easier.  I'm going to have to find a way to de-clog my bits though or I'm going to go through a lot of them!

Once the #40 pilot holes were drilled all the way through, it was easy to updrill to #30 with the handheld drill.

Once the RH assembly was all drilled to #30, I repeated everything on the LH side.

The next task was to assemble the two small clips that are bolted to the end of each spar assembly.  These four aluminum angle parts come pre-built as part of the kit.  The T10-6 clips are simple 90° angle, but the T10-5's have been opened up to 100°.  My T10-5L was perfect, but my T-10-5R was off by a few degrees.

It was easy enough to adjust the angle using a clamp and an adjustable wrench, as demonstrated in this video.  Next time I will use a few more layers of tape on my wrench though.  I just covered the jaws with one layer of duct tape, and it still left some small marks on the part.  I'll be able to clean them up with the Scotch Brite wheel later anyway.

Once that angle was fixed, I clamped and drilled the clips to each spar assembly.  My clecos aren't long enough to grab all four layers at once, so once I got the pilot holes drilled I just checked one clip at a time as I updrilled from #40 all the way up to 3/16" holes.  These parts will be attached with AN3 bolts.  The 3/16" holes are a really tight fit, so I might enlarge them later to #12.  But I don't have a #12 bit on hand so I'll deal with that later!