Front wing spar hole access

[racaldwell]

I installed the wings on the Xenos this weekend and after drilling the 3/8" pilot hole through the front angles, I saw that there was no way I was going to get a drill motor & bit lined up with the hole on the front side to drill the rear angles. The tapering in of the side skins just don't allow the needed clearance. So I used a 3/8" transfer punch to mark the center of the hole on the rear angles and drilled them up to 3/8" on the bench. This worked. I was able to reassemble the angles and tunnel and drill up to 31/64 ths and then ream to 0.499", all drilling for the entire operation from the rear.

Rick Caldwell
Xenos 0057

[trwolf]

I read your suggestion and followed your plan, except that I updrilled the wings on the "bench" to 31/64" and then used a piloted reamer to 1/2". Your idea saved me a lot of headache in drilling. BTW, to finish the other holes I then used a series of inserts to up drill the carry through holes and not damage the spars, and finished up with the reamer. Thanks for the idea.

[racaldwell]

I'm glad this method saved you frustration and the job came out well. Thank you for the feedback.

Many of my posts have received no feedback so my thinking is people don't care what I'm doing so I just don't post as much. I don't need to fill up this forum with things I've done when there is this:

With the free EAA project site, I have added my Xenos project and I have been trying to populate it with some of the things I've done differently. So if you're interested, check it out.

Rick Caldwell
Xenos 0057