With the edges finished and the flanges straight on the wing ribs, I only needed to get the webs straight before I could finally move on to the next major portion of the wing build. Time to break out the fluting pliers.
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| Before and after. |
Using my trusty metal ruler, I went along the flanges of each rib and placed flutes where they were needed to line up the holes. Compared to the empennage ribs, the wing ribs are pretty severely distorted. I only had to place a flute every couple of holes at most on the vertical stabilizer ribs for example, but most of the wing ribs required a flute between nearly every hole to get them straight.
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| The difference in straightness is pretty noticeable after just a few ribs. There's an equal number of ribs in each pile here. |
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| ...and this is after half were finished. One wing down, one to go. |
The leading edge ribs were the worst offenders. Even on the main ribs I would have to put a very big flute in any one place, but the leading edge ribs each required some DEEP flutes toward the forward holes to bring the curved area in line with the rest of the rib.
With the fluting finally done, I organized the ribs by type and put them all back on the shelf. Next step: get them on the wing spars.
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| Clean and finished. Finally! |
You may notice that I haven't touched the fuel tank ribs. I'm going to save work on the fuel tanks until I get the rest of the wing done, mainly because it's a little too cold out in the garage to make working with tank sealant practical but also because I'm sick of working on wing ribs and I'd very much like to move on for now.
