Center Spar - Ready for Drilling and Rivets

Finished ALL the pieces for the center spar assembly.  Next I will clamp the pieces together, mark the drilling locations, and set up the work table for drilling.

Here is the center spar laid out with all the pieces

I will do the same for each wing spar.  Not done fabricating the wing spar vertical stiffeners yet.  Want to concentrate on getting the center spar done.  Two reasons for that; 1 - everything builds from the center spar on the CX4 and 2 - It's good practice to build the center spar first before turning to the main spars.  If I screw up on the center spar I'm out a few bucks and time to rebuild, if I screw up the main spars it's a major expense in materials and time.

Web Spars

As mentioned in the last post - I cut out the web spars today.  Used my handheld jig saw and it was quite easy.  Getting MUCH better at holding a straight line on my cuts.  This was important for the web spars.  Cutting a 93 1/2" length of .040 aluminum to form these webs it is important to keep a true line.  I have some de-burring to do now on the edges.

 One cut - one marked and ready to cut

A view of the spar parts scattered about the work table.  Clamping together and initial setting up is next.

I will be de-burring and getting spar parts ready for assembly next.  Plan to set up for drilling and riveting the parts next.

Thanks for looking.

Center Spar Web -

Cut and finished the center spar web today.  Ready to assemble and drill the center spar. Here are pics of my center web spar:

Cut from .040 sheet per plans page 1.  Found using my hand held jig saw worked great.  Easy to control and kept a straight line.  Will probably cut the wing spar webs tomorrow.  Did goof off a bit today and took the ol' Cessna out for a short flight.

Made a dumb-dumb error.  Ordered a rivet squeezer and sets from ATS.  Now I know it won't work for me on the spars.  Tried to go cheap.  So I'm returning the squeezer and have ordered a rivet gun, sets, and bucking bar in preparation for spar riveting.  Of course I will be doing some practice on scrap to hone my riveting skills -

Stay tuned!

Greg.

Center Spar Work - Continues

It was a little warmer in the workshop today.  So I finished all the parts required for the center spar - except for the spar web.  And just to see what it would look like before drilling - I clamped the pieces together to take a look.

 Clamped the sandwich of materials together - cross checked with the plans and noticed I had it laid out wrong.  Hope I don't make that mistake when I start doing some permanent things - like drilling... Could be costly.  Will take extra care to measure twice (or more) and cut once.

 But I did get the .040 sheet unrolled.  Plan to cut out the center spar web and while I'm at it cut the main spar webs tomorrow.

.040 66061-T6 12x4' Sheet Unrolled and ready for spar web cutting

Temperatures outside should be a bit higher tomorrow.  Should make the workshop bearable.  I did use a space heater today to warm things up a bit.  But I kept blowing the circuit breaker in my power strip. 

Thanks for looking -

*** Update 2/20/13 - Didn't get the spar webs cut from to .040 sheet.  To darn cold in the shop.  Should warm up tomorrow - will try it then.. ;)

A Little Warmer

Per my last post - It is COLD in the workshop.  I did get some insulation around the door.  But the temperature is still running 45F - 50F.  Mostly on the low end.  So it is still a bit rough working in the cold environment.  I did put up with it for some time this week.  I did a lot of re-organizing and inventory of supplies and tools.  Plan to get into cutting the spar caps and tapering the long pieces of extruded angle to form them.  Will probably use the hand held jig saw with an appropriate blade.  Seems to work the best for me.  Also will be unrolling the .020 sheet to start cutting some rib blanks.

Update later on the progress -

Greg.