Preparing to skin the HS

Temporary hinges are installed in the rig as well as a new member for the skinning. Read through the skinning procedure, but how to hit the center of the ribs and at the same time between the fluting, is still a bit of a puzle. I also have to decide if I should dimple or countersink.

A lot of thinking to do and decisions to make. In the mean time I have to make some wooden clamps and rivet together the skeleton.

The P05 Strontium Chromate epoxy primer is also ordered and should come within a couple of weeks. It is yellow in color.

HS ribs primed

Deburred and primed the ribs for the HS. Fixed the sligthly conical shaped HS-406 by strightening out the ribs. The HS-406 ribs had an oval shape when looking from top to bottom making them point outward when riveted on to the spar. Just by making them straight made them parallel by approximately 1 mm.

Now I have to decide if the HS-407 spars are to be riveted on now or later - solid flush rivets or pulled rivets on the skin on the HS-404, hmmm ....

HS skeleton ready for deburring and priming

Lots of hard to reach drilling and difficult alignments (3 pieces needs to be aligned simultaneously horiz, vert and in angle before drilling). Still need to check the angle of the 406 ribs, they shall be perpendicular to the aft spar and parallel, but no tolerances are given. Mine have a slight angle outward so I may have to make new flanges on the fwd spar, but when the 406 ribs are not a perfect shape, and I do not know the tolerances, this may be unnecessary?.

HS skeleton

The skeleton is coming together. Lots of very hard to reach drilling. The angle drill from Averytools comes in handy.

Riveting hinge brackets on HS

Hinge brackets are riveted in place. Laid out marks for rivets on the ribs for fluting.

Positioning and drilling hinge brackets

Positioned and drilled the hinge brackets on the HS. Used a nylon wire (fishing line) to align the brackets. Also used the Sioux pneumatic drill for the first time, the battery drill was too big.

Drilling and riveting the main hinge on HS

Riveting rear spar on HS

Rear spar on the HS is riveted together. Used the squizer. Just placed the hinges for the elevator to see what it will look like, they are next.

Riveting front spar on HS

Started riveting with the manual squizer. The front spar is done, have to finish the rear spar.

Priming

Had a can of Zinc Chromate laying around, so I decided to give the HS-409 a thin layer of the stuff on top of the WG6650, giving them a real chemical corrosion protection, since it is non alclad and will be almost like an external surface. The surface of the Zinc Chromate is semi gloss while the WG6650 is matt, which will make it very difficult to remove grease and oil.

I will order some P05 (Strontium Chromate epoxy) and Derinoxal. According to the conversation I had today with a representative from the factory (Monopol in France), that is what is used on airplanes - period. It will take some 4-6 weeks to arrive, so I will use what I have for now. Untill I get the real stuff I will use WG6650 on all parts and a thin coating of Zinc Chromate on some places. (If this actually is better than bare alclad and zinc chromate along contact lines, I don't know).

Priming spars for HS

Parts for the front and aft spar on the HS were primed this evening. The primer used was the WG6650 Wash Primer from Monopol.