Lift Strut Bracket

Well Surgery is over.  It went well.  Margins clean!!!  SO, I'm back to working on my project.  But first I spent 2 weeks after the Surgery on the computer Spending Money!  Aircraft Spruce is happy.  I purchased, my ELT, EarthX Battery Box, All wire and connecters that I anticipate using. From Stein Air I purchased the tools I should need, and From Perihelion Design, Switch guards, Snapjacks (diode), and light weight battery cable.  Thanks Ben Schneider for tipping me off to them!

 Lift Strut Bracket complete. As you can see I installed the end rivets on the top row, so they had to be drilled out to accommodate the fabric packing plates.  I'm just in a hurry to finish this project.

I may have shown this before, but this push pull debar tool is awesome.  I de-burred the entire lift strut bracket in 10 minutes.  The only snag was that I bite into the I-Beam with it, and the I-Beam moved.  I got it back in place and immediately Hysol and Riveted the bracket.

Lift Strut bracket and Aileron/Flap hanger slots

Front Strut Bracket Hysoled and riveted in place.  Leading Edge Hysoled in place as well.  I took a 5/8s Forstner Drill bit to cut the end of the hanger slots.  Then used my multi tool with a half moon cutter to finish the slot.

DeBurring, and Aileron and Flap Hinges

In the top picture I show the best tool I've purchased from ATS tool.  It's a push/pull debur tool.You can debur the whole lot of the lift strut brackets in less than 10 minutes!!!  Pricy though

The next 2 pics show how I aligned the Flap/Aileron hinges.  I clamped 1 hanger to the rib for span wise alignment and used a square, with a 1/4 inch bolt clamped to it, for fore/aft adjustment.  I also used tape to hold the hinges, temporarily, before pipe clamping.

Trailing Edge

The manual doesn't spell it out, but I countersunk the web and dimpled the trailing edge AL.  I sanded the trailing edge of the rib to fit snugly on the AL.  Obviously the above Pic is where the 2 pieces of trailing edge join

Oratex on the trim tab

My son is a huge fan of the Luftwaffe. So when he saw Coltin Brown's OD Highlander at OSH he said that we should cover ours the same and add German Storch markings.  Here is a test piece of Oratex on the trim tab.  As Paul "BDA" on the Wings forum states, there IS a learning curve.  I'll re- do this later when we initiate the covering process.

Left wing drilling

Rear lift strut bracket, and jury strut clecoed in place.  Since I had the factory rig the wings to the fuselage, I didn't bring in the lift struts and match them to the brackets.  Just factory had a 53 inch mark for the jury strut placement.  I did match the brackets to the jury strut prior to drilling.

January work left wing

I went out to the hangar to fabricate the Tip brace tubes.  I misplaced one of my faceplate protectors, so I used a paint scraper.  This keeps vice marks off of the al tubing. .5 hrs.

I'm back in the basement with the wing.  It's too cold to be in the hangar.  I don't want to pay for the propane to warm up the shop.  It's 10 degrees today.  Above are the lift strut brackets.  I had to use a threaded angle #30 bit to get under the anti-drags tube, and a long #30 bit to get past the tiedown loop. 2 hrs.