Drilling the Wings

[svyolo]

I am a bit cautious to do that in this case. It is a very thick hole, maybe about an inch. I don't have any way to guide a 23/64 bit, and the chance of getting off course through 2 pieces of steel and 1 big hunk of aluminum kind of concerns me. I really don't want to rely on my skill with a drill. I want to set up brain dead way to drill it that I can't screw up.

Did you fab up some type of guide for the bit?

[rodsmith]

By all means, get the drill guides from Mark , there is one each for front and back fitting, and the 7 page instruction pdf. I drilled in 1/16th increments from the original 3/16" holes. I went a step further and machined some stepped plugs to center and anchor the back side of the drill guides in the hole so I didn't have to worry about it moving while I was drilling.

[Mark Goldberg]

I have requested from the factory a couple sets of the drill guides with some of the incremental size bushings required to step up to the final size. But will not have these for a few weeks. Mark

[JimParker256]

Mark, that's a great idea. I can't wait until I'm ready to borrow a set to do my wings!

[svyolo]

Mark, that would work great. My inability to do that myself is why I didn't drill undersize and ream. My holes are very accurate for location, but I think I would change one thing to make them better holes.
I do have tool marks inside my holes in the aluminum. I wish, in hindsight, that I had drilled as far as I could, removed the drill motor, sprayed WD 40, and pushed the drill bit out the other side. I believe the drill marks were made removing the bit, not drilling the holes. That was one thing I did not foresee. The drilling was very smooth. Removal a bit rougher.

BTW, I did have to do some extremely minor straightening in the fuselage fittings to get them concentric. Very little. After that, mounting the wings with 3/16:" rod, bushing them with tubing to pin them to the center of the holes, here is what I measured (dozens of times).

Incidence probably within 1/2 degree or less. I couldn't measure any difference. Water level, digital level, bubble level.

Sweep, within 1/4" (tolerance is 2")

Height of bottom of spar, again immeasurable with a water level. Actually multiple water levels.

Really good quality control. Made the job drilling easy. Well, as easy as it can get.