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Well I have been able to kale some progress on my wing ribs. I have formed all of the nose ribs and aileron nose ribs. I have also cut out all of the center ribs. That created a big pile of silver sawdust. I was originally cutting out the rib blanks with a Delta router/shaper table that I had. I was getting excessive chattering with it. I switched to using a variable speed router to a homemade router table. I was getting superior results. I am using a 1/2" solid carbide spiral bit for the main parts and a 1/4" solid carbide for the aileron nose ribs. I had very good success here. I also cut out the lightening holes with the router.
For the aileron nose ribs I used the rubber pad with the 20 ton press. I made a forming jig and undercut the sides about 8deg to account for springback. It worked perfectly. The ribs came out with perfect 90deg bends and good bend radius. I used the same process that I showed on a video I posted here a few weeks ago. The only addition I used was that I sprayed lemon pledge on the piece to act as a lubricant as they did on the EAA video. Side effect was that it made the shop smell better. Take a look at the results below.
For the aileron nose ribs I used the rubber pad with the 20 ton press. I made a forming jig and undercut the sides about 8deg to account for springback. It worked perfectly. The ribs came out with perfect 90deg bends and good bend radius. I used the same process that I showed on a video I posted here a few weeks ago. The only addition I used was that I sprayed lemon pledge on the piece to act as a lubricant as they did on the EAA video. Side effect was that it made the shop smell better. Take a look at the results below.
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