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Aileron
construction begins with the stiffeners (where else?). Cut the
individual stiffeners from the long stock, trim and de-burr. I
generally de-burr the long edges of stiffeners, skins, ribs and spars with a
Vixen file and finish with either sandpaper or the ScotchBrite wheel.
File
and de-burr the edges of the aileron spars, then de-burr the insides of the
lightening holes on the drill press.
Cleco the stiffeners to the aileron skins and ream
the holes. Remove the stiffeners and de-burr the holes.
Prep
and prime as desired. I have had good results spraying AFS
Primer-Sealer with this little HVLP detail gun (from Harbor-Freight, of all
places). Very little over-spray, and on small parts I waste a lot less
paint than with my full-size DeVilbiss FinishLine-3.
Back-rivet
the stiffeners to the skins, then complete the trailing edge bend. When
the aileron skins are bent correctly, the forward edges should just touch the
spar flanges. The aileron spars are not symmetrical. Decipher the drawings and mark the left and right spars.
One
of your hardware bags had two slightly rectangular scraps of 0.040" sheet with no numbers or marking of any kind. Use
these pieces to make the aileron spar shims. They are sheared to the proper size, but need to be de-burred and
match-drilled to the spars.
Cleco
the aileron attach brackets to the spars and ream the holes for #12 bolts. Take it all apart, marking the parts as you
go. De-burr the holes and edges and prep and prime as desired. Mark the holes that attach the ribs and rivet the
nutplates and reinforcement plates to the spars. Cleco and drill the main ribs to the spars.
Dig out the aileron nose ribs and mark for left &
right, inboard & outboard. Remember the labeling conventions for ribs?
The -L & -R in the part number designates the HAND OF THE RIB, not the left
or right side of the airplane (dummy). Flute, flange and de-burr the ribs.
Cleco the nose ribs to the spars and ream the rivet holes. Take it
apart and de-burr the holes.
Clean up the main ribs. Ream them to the spars and de-burr the holes. Cleco the main ribs to the spars again. Cleco the aileron skins and spar assemblies to the leading edge assemblies. Ream the skeletons to the skins. Match-drill the counterbalance pipe thru the holes in the leading edge to #40, then ream to #30. Note that the holes along the bottoms of the spars are also reamed to #30 for CS4-4 rivets.
Remove the trailing edge skins and main ribs, then cleco the nose ribs and spars back into position. Use a long drill to drill the hole thru the lower counterbalance flange to the pipe. Leave the upper hole un-drilled.
Take
it all apart, de-burr, dimple and prime as desired. I used the micro-stop cage in the drill-press to countersink the pipe
for the CS4-4 rivets.
Stand a chunk of 2x4 on its narrow edge and screw or clamp it to the edge of the bench. Lay the counterbalance pipe on top of the 2x4 with the countersunk holes facing up and drop the leading edge skin over it and cleco it to the pipe. I used a rivet and the 2x gun to tap the dimples into the LE bend.
Remove
the LE skin and use blind rivets to attach the nose ribs to the
counterbalance pipes.
Cleco the LE skins and spars to the
counterbalance/ribs assembly and rivet the nose ribs to the spars. Rivet the nose ribs to the spars.
Remove the trailing edge ribs and cleco the top of the trailing edge assemblies to the top of the leading edge assemblies. Leave the bottoms open to allow access for riveting. Rivet the leading edge and trailing edge skins to the tops of the aileron spars. Rivet the leading edge skins to the tops of the nose ribs.
Cleco the trailing edge ribs in place. Rivet the ribs to the spars and to the top skins. Install the hinge points.
Turn the aileron over and weight it down on a flat table. Blind rivet the counterbalance pipe to the leading edge skin. Rivet the nose ribs to the bottom sides of the leading edge skins. Check to make sure that the aileron is still straight and rivet the bottoms of the trailing edge skins to the ribs. Blind rivet the bottom skins to the spars.
The ailerons are finished!