Spar cap drilling sequence

[dbdevkc]

Question for anyone who assembled their own spar, and recalls the order of drilling the spar caps.

When initially setting the height of the spar (using the spacer tools, and verifying with 2 squares), do I have the entire stackup of webs, or use only the main web all the way up to the root? Then add the stackup after the caps are drilled?

Or, do I do the initial drilling of the caps with the entire stackup of webs in place and clecoed together?

Thanks.

[NWade]

Kevin -

My kit (from ~2011/2012) had pilot holes pre-drilled in most of the spar stack-up. So basically what I did was:

• Use the spacer tools and squares and blocks of wood drilled into my worktop to hold the main web and the spar caps in alignment
• Drill a few pilot-holes through the main web into the spar caps, cleco'ing every hole or every-other hole
• Re-check the alignment every few holes at first, then every 10-20 holes as I got further outboard and the alignment was more-and-more assured
• After all pilot holes were drilled, disassembled the main web & caps
• Deburred the caps
• Cleco'ed the entire stack-up together through the pilot holes
• Began updrilling as-appropriate

Here's a link to an early photo in the process; the whole photo album should be public so feel free to scroll through it (newer photos are further towards the top).

Hope this helps!

--Noel
Sonex #1339

[dbdevkc]

Yes, my spar webs are all pilot hole drilled as well. I just couldn't remember if there was any reason not to stack them all up to drill all the holes in the caps after the initial few were done for alignment. Thanks for the reassurance!

Kevin