Wing Kit

Tonight I cut my next pushrod to the correct length, and then spent time modifying my tools to build a better clamp for the drill press.

I trimmed some material off my pipe clamp, and then mounted it on a block of wood. I found a bushing that I can use to keep the drill bit centered, and then clamped everything down firmly onto the drill press tray. I tested with some scrap, and the hole was straight and true. I always end up coming back to the same rule; clamp your work.

Well, my pushrod didn’t work out. Tonight I spent time locating and riveting the threaded ends onto the pushrod I made lay night. The rivets are tricky to set because they are so long, and not fully supported inside the tube. They have a tendency to tip over, and the advice Vans gives it to use a hand squeezer and go slow. My first rivet didn’t work, so I drilled it out and tried again. The second attempt was better, but I realized that the holes I had drilled were not precise enough, and not exactly through the center of the tube. The result was a rivet shop head that wasn’t uniform in it’s distance from the tubing. It was essentially set on an angle. I pressed on, and set the next rivet, and noticed my imprecise hole alignment again. But the real show-stopper came at the other end where for some reason, the fitting had rotated slightly between drill holes, and the holes just didn’t line up well enough. So, now it’s time to make another one and put this one on the “experience” pile.

Tonight I pop riveted on the rod ends for the longer two aileron pushrods, and cut and drilled pilot holes for the shorter two. I also primed the threads of the rod ends for the longer pushrods. I didn’t get started until 10:30pm, as I’m quite busy at work this week.

Pop riveting the ends was straightforward. I needed to sand down the primer inside the tubes for two of the 4 ends, but they eventually all fit nicely.

With that done, I cut the two shorter pushrods from the supplied powder-coated steel rods. Then I marked and drilled the holes for the rod ends on these shorter two rods. I was getting quite tired, so I decided to finish by priming the threads on the rod ends.

After a week away, I came back to the garage tonight. I drilled the first set of aileron pushrods, and deburred the ends. None of the rod ends needed sanding, they all fit easily into the ends of the tubes.

To my surprise, I found that the template Vans supplied for drilling the holes was not to scale. I made my own out of some graph paper. I also used an off it to practice drilling using my pipe clamp on the drill press. It all worked ok, so I moved onto the real parts.

Tonight I added the flap hinge bearings, hung the right wing aileron, and marked the long aileron torque tubes for cutting. It was getting to late to attempt a cut tonight. I’m tired, and it will be quite noisy.

The plans have you squeeze the flap bearings in using a c-clamp, with a small socket set. The socket set allows you to squeeze the bearing through and have it protrude evenly on either side of the mount.

Hanging the aileron was not too difficult, just annoying trying to get all the washers and bearings on at the right place and time. A little patience and it was done. The aileron has a counterweight in the leading edge, so it rests against the stop in a full upwards deflection.

The torque tubes that run through from the wing root to the aileron bell-crank are 64.25 inches long. I marked the cuts I need on the two 6 foot lengths of tube.