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I wanted to thank everybody on this forum. This has been of tremendous help. I have read everything I could find on how people have been building their aircraft. I have also been scouring the web for information from other builders, including Sonex and RV builders to pick up hints and tricks. I would like to particularly thank Eric Newton for his wonderful builder manuals, Rus Erb for his excellent reference CD and Dave Bottita for his very helpful videos and facebook page. These have been of great help to me. I have put in lots of hours restoring certified aircraft and have helped on many experimentals but this by first jump into the experimental build myself.
I started working on my rib forms on September 22. I have now finished all of the necessary form blocks and routed out and deburred all of the ribs. I have also pressed the flanges on all of the lightening holes. I have finished all of the ribs for the flaps and ailerons along with their nose and pocket ribs. I have also finished half of the center and nose ribs. I only have 1/2 of the center and nose ribs and full length ribs to flange around the edge. Another day should finish those.
I am a bit of a tool nut and also like to try and find new ways to do things. I have put together a series of videos that show how I went about building my ribs. I did a few things differently. I used a rubber mat press made from a 20 ton hydraulic press to press the lightening holes and aileron and flap ribs. I used a flange straightening tool I have seen some RV builders used and I used a flow forming tool from TN Tech to bend over my ribs flanges. Please check out my videos if you are interested to see what I did. I hope some of the information may be as helpful as everyone else information has been for me.
Video 1 - What form jigs I made and how I made them
Video 2 - How I routed the rib blanks using a 1/2" and 1/4" solid carbide spiral router bit
Video 3 - How I formed my lightening holes (center ribs shown) using a harbor freight 20 ton hydraulic press and 2 1" thick rubber sheets. The mail sheet is a piece of 1" 60A hardness polyurethane rubber from McMaster Carr
Video 4 - How I formed all of the ribs for the aileron and flaps on the rubber pad press
Video 5 - How I formed some of the edge flanges using the MT Tech flow forming tool in my 4x rivet gun. This is probably the one tool I would not but again if I had it to do over.
This board is a wonderful collection of nice, helpful and extremely knowledgeable builders. I hope to get to meet some of you guys in person. If anybody is ever in the Denver area, stop by.
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