Devin W.C. Ryan

Wing Bolt Holes Top

Building Aero 3D Day 53: Wing Bolt Holes

Wednesday, made some more progress on getting the wing bolting system in place.

First thing was to get the hole locations marked on the wing hold down plate (FUE). Since I already had the holes drilled into the wing I used the 1/4” bit to place through the holes, while the wing was held in place on the fuselage with clamps, to make markings on the  hold down plate (FUE). Next, I put the fuselage, with some support, on the drill press and made sure the plate (FUE) was perpendicular to the drill bit (size 5/16“) and drilled the holes.

Once the holes were drilled I filled the T-Nutts with vaseline to ensure no glue got inside and mixed up some 30 minute epoxy, which I applied all along the buttom of the nutt and up the shaft before pushing it (from the bottom) into the previously drilled holes. Used a C-clamp to squeeze the nutt into place. Checking and adjusting the clamp as we went. You can see the result in the featuerd image (top view) and right imge below (bottom view).

The next thing was getting the supports of the wing bolt tubes in place. This is to provide some substance for the tubing to glue to. The purpose of the tubing is to prevent the bolts from getting lost under the sheeting when putting in and taking out.

For this I used some 1″x1/4”  balsa material, first marking the center line at one end. I then measured from the WE piece on the wing to where the center of the bolt hole in the wing is. I then marked this on the center line, previously drawn. Once that was done I was able to use the drill press to drill a hole into the balsa that was 3/4“. I then measured the width required, cut and sanded to fit. 30 minute epxoy and pins were used to glue the piece in place… along with a piece of balsa clamped on. This can be seen in the left image above.

The reason for skipping a day in numbering this post is that I spent a different session trying to make one of the W-ST-2’s and wasn’t able to get the rounding right. Hoping to make another attempt and hopfully a successful one at some point this weekend. That is my next task along with finishing up the tubing and getting W-SH-6 in place.

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