Started the flaperon assembly today. I first drilled the inboard and outboard holes in the counterbalance tube after clecoing the parts and skin together. I drilled the holes in the tube using the suggestion of Jerry Greenberg. He drilled a dimple in the tube using the hand drill and then finished the hole in the drill press. This worked very well for all of the holes in the counterbalance tube. Then riveted the nose ribs to the counterbalance tube. Cleco-ed all of the parts together and then used the hand drill to dimple all of the holes in the counterbalance tube. Disassembled all and finished all of the holes in the tube using the drill press. Match drilled the nose ribs and have to confess that I elongated one of the holes in the skin here. Not bad but another lesson to be learned. When match drilling thru a skin into a harder material, ensure that the drill is vertical so it does not have a tendency to slip one way or another. Disassembled all and deburred all of the holes. Tried my best to debur the interior holes in the stainless steel tube using a round file taped to the end of a long dowel. Riveted the A-1208 bracket to the A-1210-L Inbd nose rib which I had separated earlier. Then attached and match drilled the pivot brackets and the actuation bracket to the spar. Removed all and deburred all holes.
Have a suggestion for Ken Krueger and the engineering folks at Van's. The outboard holes in the A-1207-L actuation bracket are a bit to close to the web of the bracket. I have not set the rivets yet but setting these rivets will be a bit difficult. Will be hard to get the manufactured head of the rivet to sit flush with the surface of the bracket due to interference of the bracket web. The last 4 photos show my actuation bracket (2 photos) and a photo from Jim Cone's website and Jerry Greenberg's website. All show the exact same condition. Will try to be careful when setting the rivets.
Time - 5 hours Total - 160 hours
