So - Where is Spring???

First full day of spring.  Weather still in the 40's during the day and high 20's at night.  Not good for working in the shop.  I is COLD in there.  Can't get much work done so things have slowed down a bit.  Hands and fingers get cold after a few minutes.  Not to mention the feet on the cold concrete.  Okay - Maybe I'm a wuss.  ;)  But I find it difficult to work in such an environment.  I have been practicing my riveting skills though.  I am ready to rivet my spar pieces.  A bit apprehensive on undertaking the riveting.   Don't want to mess up my work with bad rivets.  I asked a good friend about it (an experienced aircraft mechanic) and he said to practice, practice, practice.  Makes sense.  So I have been banging some rivets into scrap pieces of aluminum.  I think my touch is getting better.  Maybe a few more dozen practice rounds before committing to the real deal on the spars I've worked so hard on.

I will probably be in the shop later today or this evening to get some more practice.  I'll snap some pics and add to the blog here for documentation.

Till then -

As always -- thanks for checking in.

Greg.

BTW - you will see ads on my blog.  These are put there by Google (owners of blogger.com)  If you find them interesting click on them.  If not - click on them anyway.  The more clicks I get - the more $$ I get to offset the price of rivets and other trinkets that I need for my CX4!  Really - just kidding - I would appreciate it though.

Be safe -

** Update **  Here are two pics of my rivet practice...

I need to get a rivet gauge to see if I'm getting them set correctly

- Two of my practice rivets - 

More Center Spar Drilling

About 2 more hours spent on the center spar.  Placing and drilling another vertical angle.  Getting a bit better.   Only measured and cross checked five times before committing to the drill.  I have found that drilling up from 1/8" works best.  Here is the work done this evening.

Also spent some time cleaning my work table.  It was getting quite cluttered and messy and I was having a hard time locating tools and parts as I worked.  A congested work area is not conducive to efficient and accurate work I have found.

Tomorrow I will drill the rivet holes - if my rivet spacing tool gets delivered on time :)

Thanks for checking in.

Greg -

Center Spar Drilling

4.5 Hours.  Two holes, two bolts, and a lot of learning.

That should be the title of this post.

I checked each part of the center spar to be sure it was de-burred and smooth.  Clamped the pieces together.  And drilled two holes tonight.

Clamping

Drilling first hole

I used my high speed electric drill for the first hole.  Pilot drilled with a 1/8" first then up drilled to 3/32" for the bolt.  I used six clamps and still had some minor material shifting problems.  Lesson learned here - you can't use too many clamps when drilling important parts.

I went into the shop at about 10PM and next thing you know - it's 2AM...

Gonna call it a day now before I do something stupid and mess things up.

Good night.

- And thanks for checking in.

Greg. :)