Today was a nice day to be working in the garage.  We had a slight breeze and temps in the 70's so it was a nice day to prime wing parts.  It is a sure sign of Spring being around the corner.  Having every other Friday off is a weird schedule, but it makes it nice for getting a full day of plane building in while everyone else is at work.

Before I got very far this morning, Jay Hauserman, retired dentist and president of Auburn's Airport Authority stopped over to see how the plane building was going.  The Airport Authority (which I am currently on the authority) is trying to obtain federal and state grants to concrete our two runways.  We are one of a very few public grass strips in the state of Nebraska.  If all goes well, Farrington Field will be concrete before I get the RV flying.

As far as building goes, this was an uneventful day.  The task of drilling everything for the rear spar is pretty straight forward.  Van's instructions state to dimple the holes in the upper flange of the spar above the reinforcement fork.  That was easy enough, but Van's didn't make any mention of drilling out to size and dimpling the flange holes where the spar center and end reinforcements are riveted to the rear spar.  Since those could not be dimpled after they were riveted, I dimpled those as well.  I hope that I didn't miss anything in the instructions to the contrary...

Below, you see a picture of the spar end reinforcement (W-707F).  On detail 'A' of DWG 10A, there are several holes that take a AN426 rivet (5 to be exact, but only 4 were supposed to be countersunk).  These 4-holes are countersunk so that the aileron hinge bracket assembly will sit flush on the rear spar.  All the holes are your standard countersink with the exception of the hole in the picture.  It was so close to the flange that the countersink cage prevented the cutter from lining up with the hole.  I removed the cage and then carefully used the drill press to control my countersink depth.  I would take out a few shavings, check it with a rivet for depth, and then do it over again until I got it just right.  NO PROBLEM...

Once I got the rear spar reinforcements drilled and deburred, the majority of the day would be spent on priming activities.  I really like the AKZO epoxy primer, but it is REALLY man-hour intensive.

This was my first priming session using the the Alodine dunk tank I made out of 4" PVC pipe after I fixed the leak I had in it the last time I filled it up.  The purpose of this dunk tank is to submerge the larger parts I will run into in the wing kit.

As listed in the picture below, it took 2.5 gallons of Alodine 1201 to fill the 4" PVC pipe up to about 40".  I use suspending ceiling wire to attach and hang the parts on the side of the PVC pipe.   It is very flexible so it is easy to make hooks and secure the parts to the wire (Don't want to go "fishing for parts" on the bottom you know).  This dunk tank WORKED GREAT and best of all it doesn't leak!!!!  The only thing it couldn't fit so far was the rear spar itself.  This will work great for the aileron gap fairing, the flap brace, aileron pushrods, etc.  (You get the idea).

Below is a picture of the rear spars after priming.  What I did here is take some left over plywood and laid it between two saw horses.  I found some painters paper at Home Depot so I covered the plywood with the paper.  When I am done, pull up the paper and throw it away.  Plywood is as good as new.

Below is a picture of all the tie down hardware for the main spars and the reinforcements for the rear spars.  I again laid down some painters paper and put the parts on top of that.  This was nice as I could prime one side of the parts, grab and rotate the paper 180 degrees to get the other side of the parts.  WORKED GREAT... 

[UPDATE> NEXT DAY : The paper works great BUT... remove the parts from the paper after they are tacky to the touch, but before they are fully dry.  The paper wants to stick to the parts or it wants to remove the primer.]

I will let these dry overnight as the epoxy primer is alot harder if it sets for several hours first.  It dries to the touch in about 1/2 hour, but is somewhat "soft" for several hours.

12 hours and all I did was drill some holes and prime some parts...  Doesn't feel like one of the more productive days.  Got a lot done, it just doesn't feel like it.