My bandsaw is small enough that it can only cut up to 9 inches of material at a time, meaning that I had to cut the aluminum sheets to size with multiple cuts instead of just one. The rest of the sheet won't be used for anything as far as I can tell, so I decided to go ahead and slice it up and use it for scrap.
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| I needed a little table to support the rest of the sheet as I cut it. Some scrap 4x4s and my rib flange forming tool turned upside down and covered with carpet took care of that. |
Seriously, why waste this much aluminum for such a relatively small piece? Why they couldn't have cut them to size at the factory is beyond me, but whatever.
My wing skins had been hanging on the wall for well over a year at this point so it felt good to finally start taking them down. For each of my inboard top wing skins, I clamped a doubler flush with the inboard edge and 9/16" aft of the forward edge to keep the doubler from interfering with the main spar once everything is put together. Out of curiosity and just to be safe, I measured the distance between the holes and the edge of the doubler and determined that there will definitely be an adequate gap between the doubler and the spar.
One by one I match drilled and clecoed each hole...
...and pretty soon I had some finished doublers.
