First day of work on the Elevator!! The first step in the plans was to separate the E-1008A and E-1008B Ribs. The two Ribs came attached together and needed to have some "connecting" material removed to separate the two pieces. The picture below shows the two pieces after being separated. I used a dremel tool to initially cut the pieces apart and the 6" Scotchbrite Wheel on the bench grinder to clean them up.
After being separated, 12 sets of parts A & B were clecoed together.....
Here are all 12 sets of parts A & B. You can also see the three E-1022 Shear Clips. They also needed to have some "connecting" material removed to separate them into individual pieces. The second picture shows the illustration from the actual plans.
The next step was to flute the E-903 and E-904 Tip Ribs and make sure the flanges were 90 degrees to the web. The E-904 Rib's needed some work to make them flat, but the E-903 Ribs only need some minor adjustments.
The 903 Rib, 904 Rib, and E-913 Counterbalance Skins were then clecoed together. The #30 holes in the web of the 904 Ribs and the #40 holes common to the Skins and Ribs were all Final-Drilled.
I've considered, on several different occasions, about purchasing a benchtop band saw. Seeing the next step in the plans, I finally gave in and purchased a Porter Cable 9" band saw from Lowe's. I got a pretty good discount, which made it just over $100. I suspect I will have many uses for it prior to completing the build (I wished I had one a few separate occasions already). Anyway, we had to fabricate eight E-00924 Trailing Edge Ribs and three E-01408 Trim Tab Ribs from the PVC-750 Foam Blocks. The plans include templates, for each type of Rib, that had to be cut out. I followed the instructions and sprayed the Foam Blocks with adhesive and glued the templates to them. The picture below shows the templates glued to the Foam Blocks.
And after they are cut apart. INCREDIBLY easy with the band saw.....I made a great choice.
Moving on.....The E-01406 and E-01407 Trim Tab Skins needed to have some extra material removed. The first picture shows the excerpt from the plans and second show the two Skins.
Both of the Skins have Close-Out Tabs that need to be bent toward what will be the inside of the Elevator. To do this, you have to clamp the Skins between the workbench and a block of wood. The Close-Out Tab is positioned to just overhand the edge of the workbench and gets bent downward with a separate block of wood. As recommended in the plans, I also used my rivet gun (with a flush rivet set, on its lowest setting) to finish the bend by tapping back and forth along the Tab. Finally, I used my hand seamer to finish the bend to 90 degrees. As it turned out, the process was MUCH simpler than I thought it was going to be. Here is where we called if for tonight.....more to follow tomorrow.