leading edge skin fitting

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leading edge skin fitting

Postby racaldwell » Wed Sep 23, 2015 1:15 pm

I am starting to fit the skins around the nose ribs. Per plans, I drilled the lower side first. I flipped the wing over and pulled the skin down with ratchet straps. The wing spar holes line up ok on each end of the skin but the center 2/3's of holes only align about 1/2 to 2/3's of the hole. I thought inserting a clecoe would pull the skin the last 1/32" & make it line up but instead I just reamed the hole open with the clecoe. The skin at the nose radius is up about 1/4" up from laying on the ribs. Two long 1x2's & ratchet straps didn't seem to help but I was scared of really cranking them down & making a bigger problem. Next time I go back to the hangar to work on this again I'll try the plastic shipping bands that I have left over from my RV wing. It seems to me the LE radius is too big. How have others dealt with this?

Maybe making a wood cutout the shape of the nose rib and pushing that over the skin/rib to hold the skin down on the rib?

For you all that have not yet removed the LE skins from the box, be careful doing this. Mine were difficult getting out by myself and I creased one inboard skin a little on the bottom pulling up on one end to get it free. Another spot for microlight/epoxy.
racaldwell
 
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Re: leading edge skin fitting

Postby racaldwell » Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:48 pm

I'll answer my own inquiry. I ended up buying a set of four ratchet straps and used five for each section. I had two 1x2's under them. Still had to add wood wedges under some straps to put more local pressure down on the skin to get it down to the rib. The first one I did I have a bump at every rib top LE. So I was more careful to use minimum tension on the next & still got the bumps. In hindsight, I should have sanded off the top corner of the LE ribs.
racaldwell
 
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Re: leading edge skin fitting

Postby Bob » Wed Oct 07, 2015 2:28 pm

I had similar problems. Used ratchet straps and old road bike tubes to pull the leading edge skins in. Ended up with dents on the first one I did from being too tight over the nose ribs. Worked out most of the dents with a spoon and oil. Went back and filed off the edges of all of the leading edge ribs. I think the skins should have been maybe 1/8" wider but I am no designer. Bob Xenos #59 (Wings and tail done. Working on fuse-not ready to sit in it and make airplane noises yet).
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