Drilling nutplates for z-brackets - 2 hours

I started drilling the z-brackets for the nutplates. I quickly figured out that I do not have a nut plate jig that works for the AN3 bolt. I have access to a friends Brown Tools 12 piece nut plate kit and nothing in there worked. The AN3 bolt is a 10-32 size, so I dug into my nuts and bolts collection and found 10-32 X 3/8" machine screws. Tried it in the nut plate and it was perfect. Bit too tight. So i got out the 10-32 tap and ran a tap through 3 nut plates. Now the screws go in nice and smooth.

I installed 3 nutplates on a given z-bracket and carefully lined up the rivet attachment holes with the line I had originally drawn.
 
 Then tightened the screws. Once everything was set, I placed the assembly under the drill press and drilled the holes with #40. This process takes some time to set up but it worked extremely well. The nut plate attachment holes came out perfect and precise.

I got through about 3/4 of the z-brackets

Finished drilling z-brackets to spar - 2.5 hours

I really didn't have motivation to work today, but I forced myself out into the garage. Better to get a little bit done than nothing.

I clamped the z-brackets down on the accessible edge and then started to drill the holes to #12 for the AN3 bolt.


 I used a piece of 1 1/2" 1 1/2" oak as a poor mans drill guide. The oak piece has a couple of holes drilled with a #12 hole.
 
 It does a good job of ensuring the hand drill hole is straight and perpendicular to the surface, however it is a tad tricky to work with as you have a tenancy to add some side pressure to the bit with it when drilling like you do in this application. Two holes in the spar web ended up being ever so slightly oblong. (Left wing top holes #6 and #7 bracket) Not as nice as I wanted but it will be ok. From my research on the oblong hole I had with my tie down spacer this one is not a big deal and no cause for alarm. 
(I really hate drilling through thick material with a hand drill though. Nothing beats a good ol' drill press for precise holes).
 After drilling was complete, I then removed all of the z-brackets to blow out the loose chips from drilling. It's good that I did this step as chips do manage to find their way under the bracket.

Another Shipment of Tools and Goodies

I had ordered a few supplies from Aircraft Spruce in anticipation of doing the fuel tanks. Polywipes...At the recommendation of an aircraft mechanic friend, he swore by these. They are like baby wipes but with polygone gel on them. He said they are great for working with proseal as they make cleanup a snap! He says you can grab a wipe with proseal all over your gloves and clean them off, clean tools and keep going.


I also ordered 30 3/32" and 20 1/8" stubby clecos. I just love em for those tight spaces!!!

Marking out and drilling Z-brackets - 4 hours

I dove into laying out the center lines on the z-brackets and quickly figured out that if I set the offset 1/16" from the center line, it placed the shoulder of the nutplate into the radius of the corner between the flange and web of the bracket. After taking measurements and drawing it up on AutoCAD. I decided to reduce the offset to 1/32". We are not taking about big distances here, but with these pieces I feel much more comfortable. Seems that this 1/32" distance vs 1/16" is similar to those observed by Mike Bullock in his blog...he too found that the larger offset distance places the nutplate quite close to the web.
This is how things line up with the 1/32" offset from centerline. (Blue is the AN3 bolt. Magenta is the nutplate). 

So...Here is the revised isometric view showing the corrected 1/32" dimension.

Once I had my dimensions all worked out, I marked all the z-brackets out. Then, very carefully i used a center punch and marked the first hole location.


Once all the brackets where marked I set up the drill press and a drill jig, and drilled the first holes with a #50 bit. Then I opened them up to #40. After that...#12.


I bolted the brackets to the spar using AN3-4A bolts, washers and nuts. I snugged them up and then squared each one up to the spar. Using a thin sharpie I marked the edge on the spar as a reference.



All done. Ready to match drill more holes.

Finished the right wing W-423 joint plate - 3 hours

Again, not as big a day that I wanted to get done. but it was still good to reach the finish line with the leading edges. I fit up the W408 rib on the right wing leading edge and installed the W-423 joint plate. For some reason it felt as if this side was being more difficult than the left side. Although, I didn't have the stall warning hatch hole to work with. Again, the process for fitting was identical as the left side. I was sure to get a nice tight fit against the leading edge skin and I am also quite pleased with the alignment of the joint plate and rib. Once i was happy with the fit, I started match drilling and clecoing each hole as I went. Checking, adjusting, and checking again.


Once that was done the next move was to open up the hole for the right wing tie down. Just like the left I started with a round file and reworked center.

Then I used a unibit to open the hole. I had to stop and remove the leading edge so I could remove the plastic as it was difficult to tell how centered I was.
 

 I quickly refitted the assembly on the spar to check alignment  and it looked good. So I took it off and completed drilling with a unibit to 3/8". However when I put the assembly back on and started to cleco, I could tell that my alignment was a tad off. so I readjusted, used the circle template to find the proper correction. I decided that I was going to go up one step on the unibit to 7/16" to allow clearance for the bolt and the skins when painted. Fortunatly the 7/16" hole placed correctly will allow for my slightly off 3/8" hole. So i broke out the files and went to work re-centring the hole. Once it was good, I finished off both holes (left and right wing) with the 7/16" unitbit.

Match drilled the Right Wing W408 rib - 0.5 hours

I really wanted to do much more than match drilling the right wing W408 rib. But that's all that happened. At least it came out really nice.

Tank Z-Brackets Research

Time to figure out how to do the z-brackets. Reading the construction logs, it can be a tad bit difficult to figure out what the best course of action is here. Everyone is on board with the Hurlbut method that Dan Checkoway had popularized. But I was unsure on where the center line was derived from. Was it the top of the flange or the bottom of the flange. Different build logs have center lines on either side. Great response to questions on Van's Airforce. The method and procedure started to fall into place.

Center lines are drawn on the bottom flange (The face that sits against the spar). From that point....The holes are offset to one side 1/16". The offset is towards the web for all the outboard flanges. This places the nutplace close to the web, and thus maximizes the clearance for the pop rivets that are later installed. For the most inboard z-bracket though. The offset is opposite and is 1/16" (away from the web). This places the AN3 bolt such that there is room for the socket head.

I'll give it my best shot and see how things turn out. Worst case is that I just need to re-order more z-brackets.