Michael – Page 92 – RV8-Hangar

Tank Ribs Done

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 5 Hours

I was able to finish up the rest of the deburring on the nose tabs. Next up was to hit the rest of the edges on the scotch-brite wheel and remove all the imperfections from Van’s stamping process. I also grabbed the 1″ scotch-brite wheel and hit the lightening holes. With those tasks done I screwed down my flange tool to straighten the flanges to a 90° angle to the webbing.

With all the flanges now at 90° I was able to use my fluting pliers to take any curve out of the ribs. Before I called it a day I wanted to get at least one of the tanks assembled so I grabbed the leading edge cradle and grabbed the left tank skin. I have read several different builders sites and it seems that it’s 50/50 on how easy the ribs go in. Well for mine I was with the 50% that had trouble! I couldn’t get them slide in far enough to get the holes lined up while in the cradle. So I removed the skin from the cradle and really had to apply pressure to get the holes close. I’m worried about this as when it comes time to assemble these with the nasty Pro-Seal tank sealant on them. Here is a view with the left tank on the spar, has a pretty tight fit between the tank and outboard leading edge for the initial fit.

We will see how the right ribs go in their skin and see how worried I need to be!

Right Tank Ribs

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 3 Hours

Yes I actually got back in the hangar yesterday! This holiday season was very busy and I happened to throw in two weeks of the flu as well! But now I’m back and will get back into full swing as long as the weather cooperates, it’s been really cold here in the Chicago area! My heater has trouble keeping up with -15° temps and wind chills as low as -40°. Yesterday I spent the morning cleaning the hangar out from all the dust and road grime my truck managed to bring in. Tools got reorganized and parts were laid out for the future work. My goal was to get the right wing fuel tank ribs started. Like the other leading edge ribs that I have finished these too have all the tabs on the forward portion that need deburring. These are no fun and are time consuming to get all the edges between the tabs. So I turned on the heat, found a good movie on and sat down with the files, emory cloth and strips of scotch-brite pads and went to work. Not a whole lot to show but here the finished stack for the right tank.

I laid out the ribs for the left tank to start them.

Then I had a visitor show up for the weekend, my beautiful girlfriend! She’s in town for work and a post holiday party for our EAA chapter 95.

So that was a good place to stop working so I could take her out for a glass of wine and visit. It sure felt good to get back into the Hangar!

Holiday Breaks

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Between Thanksgiving, flying and Christmas my work on the -8 has been very very slow! I’m looking forward to spending the Christmas break with my kids and my girl in Chicago. It’s going to be a fun filled week. I’m also looking forward to after the holidays so I can relax and slow down and get back to building. I did receive an early present from Van’s aircraft, my flop tubes!

These two tubes will be in the fuel tanks, one in each. They are flexible and will “flop” to the top and bottom of the fuel tank depending on if you are upside down or not. They are what allows fuel to continue to flow to the engine while you fly upside down for an extended amount of time. Next I will need an inverted oil system, doing the same job but for the engine oil. I had a chance to help out my friend Glen, a fellow -8 builder, install his -8 landing gear.

I now see why so many builders make a modification to the gear towers so that getting to the gear bolts is easier (that’s easier compared to an unmodified tower) they are a pain either way. Happy Holidays to everyone and enjoy the time with family! I know I will!!

Leading Edges Done

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 6 Hours

I was able to repeat the process from the other day on the right wing leading edge. Once I had both leading edges in place on their spars I brought out the #40 reamer and hit every hole to match drill them. The rear flanges of the ribs that connect to the web of the main spars needed a #30 drill. Due to those holes being close to the main rib webs I decided to use my 12″ #30 bit so I could bend it and not scrape the ribs. That process took a little while due to all of those holes. Once done I removed the leading edges to clean up the drill shavings and then reinstalled them. That a theme with this project! Install and uninstall and install! With the main bottom skins reinstalled I was able to extend those lines I made to find the center point of the tie down bracket. Once I had those lined up I removed the main skins and put them back on the shelves. I then removed the leading edges and laid them flat on the workbench so I could drill them to final size with my unibit.

It’s hard to tell in that last photo but the hole was pretty close! The nice thing is that the tie downs that I bought from Cleaveland Tool cove the hole completely and make for a very nice finish!

The next step is the fuel tanks! I probably won’t get started on those for a week or so since next week is Thanksgiving holiday and I will be spending it with my kiddos and amazing girlfriend! 😉

Leading Edges Start

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 4 Hours

After taking care of some office duties until noon I was able to get into the Hangar for the afternoon. Today’s tasks were to treat all the leading edge ribs. This included edge deburring, scuffing, flanging and fluting. There are a lot of tabs on the forward edge of the ribs that take a lot of deburring. Then I started with the left wing and put the skin in the cradle I made.

You just work from the outboard ribs to the inboard except the most inboard one.

The inboard most rib comes un-drilled and you have to create a splice strip that will help tie the fuel tank skin to this leading edge skin. I measured and marked a line on the 1.5″ splice at a .5″ mark which allows the splice to extend past the skin 11/16″. With the rib and splice in place, the .5″ mark will show through the skin holes, you match drill the splice and rib.

Each rib has several holes that are not drilled so I matched drilled those with the skin. There are a couple of ribs where the rear flange is not drilled so I matched drilled those as well. In the last photo you can see the square hole that is in the bottom of the skin. That is for Van’s stall warning device. I do not plan to install that since I’m using an AOA (angle of attack) device since I’m used to flying with it in the Lear 45. Unfortunately Van’s makes the cut and you can’t get a skin without it. So I will install the plate as it should be and deal with the few rivet holes in the leading edge later. I decided to call it a night and clean up the Hangar to watch MNF. Tomorrow I will match drill all the holes and repeat the whole process on the right wing.