Monday, June 17, 2013

Weekend work

Lots of time in the hangar this weekend.  I started the weekend by taking the right fuel tank up to the point of sealing it with ProSeal.  This is suppose to be a very messy process and the instructions suggest that you do both tanks at the same time to be most efficient.  So I decided to hold off on the sealing until I have the left tank ready to go as well.

As part of the final dimpling of the right fuel tank I noted that the dimples for the mounting screws were much bigger than the holes I had countersunk on the main spar.  So, I removed the wing skins and using my countersink bit I re-worked the depth of the holes.  I thought I had used a gauge to do this the first time but I don't think I used the correct gauge aluminum sheet so I made a new gauge and now the holes are correct.  I did have to re-prime the holes but with the 7220 rattle can primer this was a pretty simple task.

After that was complete I decided it was time to do the cutting of the leading edge for my landing lights.  This was a little nerve racking as I had to cut into the skin with my Dremel cutting bit and try to keep it nice and strait.  It turned out to be a very satisfying task.  The end product came out nice and doing things that are not in the plans was new to me.  I liked it.

After finishing the landing light openings I moved on to the left fuel tank.  I'm struggling with getting the skin attached again.  My clamping method is not working as well as it did the first time....  Oh well I will get it figured out tomorrow night.
top skins removed so I can get to the holes I need to countersink deeper.
After countersinking and with new primer covering.

Landing light cutouts in both leading edges

Left fuel tank in the jig to be cleco'd together.