A Little Plans “Gotcha” – SNX-T04-06

[Ironflight]

Not a huge deal, but as we were building the stabilizer skeletons, we dutifully built the -09 clips as shown on the drawing – this included the four pilot holes to match up with the nose rib.



I then grabbed the nose rib out of the pile of pre-made kit parts, and noticed that while on the drawing it was shown as blank, the actual part (a Sonex part) is pre-drilled. Unfortunately, the holes aren’t a nice rectangle – they are tapered – like the rib – so they don’t match up the previously built clip.



I am guessing that Sonex is trying to help out by having the pilot-drilled part all ready for you – but unfortunately, the clip needs to be revised. Fortunately, they supply a little extra material for building spares….
Onward!

Paul

[Bryan Cotton]

Paul,
I am finding that anytime I am told to drill pilot holes, it is a good idea to see where the part is used later in the build and see what it mates to. Even if they don't sneak in tapered spacing, I am not a machine (nor is my 13 year old build partner) and often the holes won't match. Last thing that got me was the phenolic flap pivot blocks. Adam did a great job of laying out the holes and fabricating those parts. Too bad we didn't use the CNC mount angles from the machined angle parts optional kit to lay out those holes with a transfer punch. They didn't fit.

[Rynoth]

Ditto what Bryan said. As a rule (that I learned the hard way also) , make sure any holes the plans say to mark and drill don't have a matched part that is already laser drilled.

[Bryan Cotton]

Ryan and were trying to say the same thing, but he said it better!

[racaldwell]

This makes me feel like I'm loosing my mind. I was just making those parts about 9 months ago & don't remember this issue. I think my filing cabinet upstairs is getting full these days so the little life details are just discarded when the day is done. Maybe when I drilled them out to #30 it swallowed up the mismatch. I'm riveting everything I can with solid rivets. I hope I can save some weight that way. I have all the riveting tools from previous projects so might as well use them.

Rick in FLA
Xenos #0057

[Rynoth]

This makes me feel like I'm loosing my mind. I was just making those parts about 9 months ago & don't remember this issue. I think my filing cabinet upstairs is getting full these days so the little life details are just discarded when the day is done. Maybe when I drilled them out to #30 it swallowed up the mismatch. I'm riveting everything I can with solid rivets. I hope I can save some weight that way. I have all the riveting tools from previous projects so might as well use them.

Rick in FLA
Xenos #0057

It depends on how old your kit is I think. They've added a lot of additional laser cut holes in the past couple years to the kit parts, which really is an upgrade to the kit itself, but the plans don't necessarily reflect these new additions. Once you figure it out, it can/does make things easier... but it can end up being an early stumbling block.