IowaRV9Dreamer
Well Known Member
I'm (finally) ready to do the first mating of the wings. My plan is to mate wings, attach the tail, rig ailerons and flaps, in a 1-2 week burst so I can minimize the time our cars are outside. Then I can disassemble everything and put the fuselage on the gear for cowl and FWF.
This weekend I made 4 drift pins out of 7/16" hardware store bolts. I also made 2 out of 1/4" bolts just for fun. I smoothed and polished the bolts, cut the threads off and rounded the ends.
Before actually mating the wings I decided to check how the pins fit in the wings and in the center section individually.
The pins drop easily into all the wing spar holes. They also go into the left side fuselage holes with light finger pressure. Same story on the top of the right side of the fuselage.
The bottom right part of the center section is a different story. The pins go in about halfway and stop. They are not hitting the gear bracket on the forward side of the spar - they stop when they reach their full diameter.
It appears to me that the bottom 2 parts of the center section are slightly misaligned.
I am 99% sure that I could lube them up and tap them in... maybe with not even too much effort. I haven't yet tried because I don't want to get them stuck in there. I'm going to climb into the fuse and see if there is enough access forward to get something on them to drive them back out.
Does anyone have any better ideas?
This weekend I made 4 drift pins out of 7/16" hardware store bolts. I also made 2 out of 1/4" bolts just for fun. I smoothed and polished the bolts, cut the threads off and rounded the ends.
Before actually mating the wings I decided to check how the pins fit in the wings and in the center section individually.
The pins drop easily into all the wing spar holes. They also go into the left side fuselage holes with light finger pressure. Same story on the top of the right side of the fuselage.
The bottom right part of the center section is a different story. The pins go in about halfway and stop. They are not hitting the gear bracket on the forward side of the spar - they stop when they reach their full diameter.
It appears to me that the bottom 2 parts of the center section are slightly misaligned.
I am 99% sure that I could lube them up and tap them in... maybe with not even too much effort. I haven't yet tried because I don't want to get them stuck in there. I'm going to climb into the fuse and see if there is enough access forward to get something on them to drive them back out.
Does anyone have any better ideas?