Sonex #823 project underway!

[iancshippee]

Finally, after several years in various states of being assembled/disassembled, Sonex # 823 is back underway! This particular Sonex was started by a good friend of mine back in 2005. He was very meticulous in his work, and between '05 and '11 assembled all the control surfaces, the tail components, the wings, and started on the fuselage. However, having to move a few times for the military, the project often needed to be disassembled and packed into a trailer. finally, it ended up being stored in that trailer at his parents' house until late 2019, at which point he gave me the project. It came home with me and I transferred everything from the leaky box trailer to my workshop, checking for damage and corrosion along the way. all was well, so everything was packed away until some of the larger house projects were finished. finally this summer the major projects were finished, and I could turn my attention to the Sonex! I decided to start with re-assembling the wings. I built a large table with 2 4x8 plywood sheets over 2 16 foot scaffolding planks, all on 4 sawhorses. Thankfully my friend marked everything very well, and within an hour I had all the ribs clecoed onto the left spar. seeing that everything lined up, I disassembled them again and cleaned the spar and ribs, and then reassembled them all and attached the rear spar. putting all of this together was such a fantastic feeling; seeing a stack of parts in a box suddenly take shape after being stored so long made bot myself and my friend feel phenomenal. I plan to start pulling rivets next weekend after going over the plans thoroughly to make sure I didn't miss anything. The adventure begins!

[Wood]

Congratulations. Looking forward to some pics.

Mark

[Gmoney]

Great story.. can’t wait to see your progress.

G


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[iancshippee]

Thanks! once I sort out posting pictures (can't remember password for image hosting site I was using) i'll show my progress thus far. I'll start a video log of it too and will post it once I'm happy with what I'm rambling on about.

Ian

[Gmoney]

Ian, do you have a builders log with the EAA?

G


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[iancshippee]

Gmoney not yet, but it is in the works!

this weekend I pulled my first rivet on the project! I riveted the rear spar to the ribs on the left wing and started working on the main spar, have all but 5 ribs secured. need to figure a way to get onto the rivets for the inboard 4, the rivets for the gussets are in the way. For rib 9 I may pull from the front if it's safe to do so, can't fit my gun in with the aileron bellcrank there. I'm very happy with how it's coming together! I've only had to drill out 2 rivets, sadly on the second (bottom on rib 12) my drill bit broke inside to make it more fun.

[Gmoney]

Gmoney not yet, but it is in the works!

this weekend I pulled my first rivet on the project! I riveted the rear spar to the ribs on the left wing and started working on the main spar, have all but 5 ribs secured. need to figure a way to get onto the rivets for the inboard 4, the rivets for the gussets are in the way. For rib 9 I may pull from the front if it's safe to do so, can't fit my gun in with the aileron bellcrank there. I'm very happy with how it's coming together! I've only had to drill out 2 rivets, sadly on the second (bottom on rib 12) my drill bit broke inside to make it more fun.

I have a hand riveter I used when I did suspended ceilings. Gets into some tight areas.
Not sure why I keep broken drill bits but they seem to come with the territory.
Great to see the build progress. I try and work on my builds at least five days a week. Shooting for that magic 30 hours a week. Let us know when you get your builders log established. I’ll make sure I add you to my favorites..


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[iancshippee]

No physical progress just yet, but I do have a builder's log page started! it can be found at:

https://eaabuilderslog.org/?blproject&proj=7qhPBxg0B

progress is halted at the moment due to my wife offering my services to someone to rebuild their old tractor. thankfully, that project is nearly finished and will be out the door shortly. It'll be good to have my workspace back!

[iancshippee]

Now that several other projects are out of the way, and some tools procured, I was able to finally return to the left wing and finish off riveting the ribs to the spar. I bought a wedge tool and ground the end down to clear the gusset rivets, and that gave me the clearance I needed to pull the top and bottom rivets on ribs 1-4. After 2.5 hours of work, there were no more clecos holding the ribs, it was all rivets! It’s such a great feeling passing a snag and completing the task. Pictures will be up on my Builder’s Log once I convert them.