Who has two thumbs and gets to drill out every wing rib/rear spar rivet and rebuild the rear spar? This guy!
Unfortunately, some miscommunication with a helper who wanted to try his hand at building ended up with a ruined rear spar today (as per Van's). I was just at the point of getting ready to start riveting on the top wing skins, and the last step was to dimple the rear spar flanges. Since he had already dimpled all of the ribs with the pneumatic squeezer, I walked him through the rear spar and set him loose. Unfortunately, my comment of "don't dimple next to this inboard doubler, because those are already dimpled" didn't stick. With 99% of the dimples done, all of the sudden I hear a monsterous thwack! He had tried to dimple the holes next to the doubler. There's no room here, and the pneumatic squeezer popped over the top of the fork of the doubler and slammed BIG TIME into the rear spar flange. It was so fast that it literally pushed the dimple die through the flange. Ouch.
It's a bummer, but given everything going on in the world these days, there is just no way to justify getting upset about an oops on something as trivial as an airplane. I'll get a new rear spar (only $45, but waiting to see how bad shipping will be) and do a "part II" of getting things ready for the wing skins.
Lesson learned - I should have taped off the areas to stay away from. It’s a lot to ask of someone to remember every instruction when building is new to them. I suppose the lesson could easily be not to let new people help, but nah.
Unfortunately, some miscommunication with a helper who wanted to try his hand at building ended up with a ruined rear spar today (as per Van's). I was just at the point of getting ready to start riveting on the top wing skins, and the last step was to dimple the rear spar flanges. Since he had already dimpled all of the ribs with the pneumatic squeezer, I walked him through the rear spar and set him loose. Unfortunately, my comment of "don't dimple next to this inboard doubler, because those are already dimpled" didn't stick. With 99% of the dimples done, all of the sudden I hear a monsterous thwack! He had tried to dimple the holes next to the doubler. There's no room here, and the pneumatic squeezer popped over the top of the fork of the doubler and slammed BIG TIME into the rear spar flange. It was so fast that it literally pushed the dimple die through the flange. Ouch.
It's a bummer, but given everything going on in the world these days, there is just no way to justify getting upset about an oops on something as trivial as an airplane. I'll get a new rear spar (only $45, but waiting to see how bad shipping will be) and do a "part II" of getting things ready for the wing skins.
Lesson learned - I should have taped off the areas to stay away from. It’s a lot to ask of someone to remember every instruction when building is new to them. I suppose the lesson could easily be not to let new people help, but nah.
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