One of the great joys of teaching is to see a student come up with a clever idea, all on their own!
The other day, Louise was busy dimpling and countersinking the lower outboard wing skins on the -3B project, and I was piddling around with other little tasks in the shop. Occasionally, she?d ask a question on technique, and we?d walk through the thought process towards an answer. When it came to where the skin overlapped the spar, I pointed out that the spar was too thick to dimple, so she?d have to countersink it ? but then I asked her to consider how she was going to use a standard countersink cage to do that with the ?step? from the already-installed skin so close to her line of rivets. I showed her a picture of a modified countersink cage intended for the job, pointing out that we didn?t have one, and that she should be able to get by without it - then walked away to let her ponder the problem.
Shortly, I heard the sound of the countersink drill doing its repetitive task, so I wandered over to see what she had come up with. Sure enough, she had built herself a tool! A scrap of wing skin with a ?U?-shaped cut-out gave the countersink cage a flat surface on which to rest!
I?m sure she isn?t the first one to figure out this little trick, but I don?t remember seeing it documented anywhere here before, so here it is for the archives!
I love having a student who can take the basic techniques and extend them to solve problems on their own!
Paul
The other day, Louise was busy dimpling and countersinking the lower outboard wing skins on the -3B project, and I was piddling around with other little tasks in the shop. Occasionally, she?d ask a question on technique, and we?d walk through the thought process towards an answer. When it came to where the skin overlapped the spar, I pointed out that the spar was too thick to dimple, so she?d have to countersink it ? but then I asked her to consider how she was going to use a standard countersink cage to do that with the ?step? from the already-installed skin so close to her line of rivets. I showed her a picture of a modified countersink cage intended for the job, pointing out that we didn?t have one, and that she should be able to get by without it - then walked away to let her ponder the problem.
Shortly, I heard the sound of the countersink drill doing its repetitive task, so I wandered over to see what she had come up with. Sure enough, she had built herself a tool! A scrap of wing skin with a ?U?-shaped cut-out gave the countersink cage a flat surface on which to rest!
I?m sure she isn?t the first one to figure out this little trick, but I don?t remember seeing it documented anywhere here before, so here it is for the archives!
I love having a student who can take the basic techniques and extend them to solve problems on their own!
Paul
