SonexBuilders.net

Has anyone purchased and used the Wing Pins from AirWard. I need to upsize at least one pin due to sloppy drilling. Along with this admission is a request for the proper way to drill the pin and bolt holes to prevent this problem.
Thanks
Paul

Paul,
I have the top spar pivot bolts on my per built spar with too
Much clearance. I contacted Sonex tech about 3 weeks ago.
They are working on it. My suggestion is that bolts designated for the
Left / right be checked and the holes reamed to match and bolts
Be designated " left and right" and not switched. Kerry informed me
This is going to or already has been done for the pre hilt spars.
As far as the lower holes for the pins, the jury is out.
My first thought on the pivot bolts (AN6) is to up-ream the holes
To an AN7, using a micrometer to match the bolt to hole.
Second idea to Kerry was to use a large taper pin set up / taper
Reamer so as the wings / holes wear the castle nut can be adjusted
To take up the slack. My thoughts, only.
Frank

Eckenroth wrote:Along with this admission is a request for the proper way to drill the pin and bolt holes to prevent this problem.
Thanks
Paul

The April 2014 edition of Sport Aviation magazine has a good article on drilling holes for bolts.

http://www.eaa.org/en/eaa/aviation-educ ... ion-browse

I used the Airward oversized pins. You guys may remember that I made quite a stink about the pre-drilled holes in the spars being too large when we still had our Yahoo forum. I'm am amused that Sonex finally seems to take this subject seriously. At the time my problems were pooh-haad away by Jeremy. Nevertheless, I received a number of emails directly at my address from people who experienced exactly the same! Beware those who claim they have no problem: this may be a false sense of safety if the upper and lower holes "work against each other": individually they may still be too large and wear out quickly by up-down movement of the outer wing in flight (turbulence).
So, I ordered the larger pins, reamed out the lower holes and it works as a charm.
For the upper holes I use AN7 bolts; they have an advantage inasmuch that the larger size prevents the head from turning under the edge of the top spar angle. So you can easily screw the nut on without holding the head. As for edge distances: an AN 7 is less than 1 mm larger, therefore its radius, hence distance to edge, is half that. That leaves sufficient margin.
If now Airward would also make fiberglass covers for the aileron counterweights ... (this whole alu bended contraption is everything but beautiful).

Robert, Onex 81

I posted a query under ONEX progress and completion heading but it never showed up as a new post so I will ask the question here since I don't know how to copy the post to this post. Should I use a dowel pin reamer to ream the AN6 wing attach holes or should I use a different style reamer? Also, what should I use for cutting fluid? Should I hand ream or use power? Thanks.

David

David,
This may come a little late, but, here is some type of answer.
I'm mot sure what a dowel pin reamer is, but I'm using a 6 blade reamer from McMaster-Carr. You can order the size range needed for your bolts. Great people to do business with great customer service and delivery.
If you have a problem with the locking pins, the place to go is AirWard. They offer a wing pin AND reamer kit to fix the problem. This guy is also great (Mr. Ward himself)
If you mess up reaming the pivot bolt holes, AirWard offers bolts and reamers for that also.
Hope this helps some. By the way, is your spar pre-built? I have been assuming, maybe wrongly so, that it is.
Frank
ONEX 090

Hi Frank, thanks for the response. I finally used the the .373 dowel pin reamer (6 blade , 1 3/4"long cutting surface) for the AN 6 hole and a .376 reamer (6 blade, 2 1/2" long cutting surface) for the locking pin hole. I used a tap wrench to hand ream using lubricating oil. For the rear hole that I drilled to 1/4" andI progressively up drilled using O, P, Q, R, S, T and U drills before reaming. I finished the left wing today and there is absolutely no play or wiggle in the connection. I hope my right wing finishes the same. In my opinion, hand reaming is the way to finish the holes, much more control.

Yes my spar was prebuilt. I'm not able to work on the plane year around (because I'm old and slow and trying to be perfect) so I chose the prebuilt route. I hope to finish it next summer.

David
ONEX 28
N951X (reserved)