Ken's Sonex 1243

[Sonex1243]

Right aileron finished, a little trimming to do on the tip after install to clean / fair the edges. Laid out the left aileron rib locations and fell off the wagon. Been flying some cross countries, instrument safety pilot for friends and some instrument currency fun for myself, great motivator to get the sonex done and play in it all the time!


right aileron awaiting polishing along with the flaps


Left aileron layouts in work. Like ground hog day...

[Sonex1243]

Left aileron ready for deburring. The tip rib seemed a lot harder to fit, but, got it as good as I could. Went ahead and filed the skin on both ailerons to get a good clean fit to the tip rib since I put it off while building the right one.


awaiting up sizing


Up sized and fitting tip rib


Another pile o parts to deburr and edge finish

Now to resist the temptation to rivet everything before polishing first!

[ScottM-Sonex1629]

Looks like you made some good progress Ken.

I just polished my ailerons here a few weeks ago some 2 years after building them. I didn't find polishing them completed to be any problem...and actually the riveted structure made them much more solid then the raw skins.

[Bryan Cotton]

I polished my ruddervators after riveting. Then I came up with an idea to mount a board on some standoffs to polish the ailerons and flaps. That worked great. Keep going Ken, sharing the misery of getting through all the polishing makes it easier. And that statement is a handy self-delusion feature that does actually help.

[wlarson861]

Polishing the control surfaces are as easy after construction as before. With the bends in the surfaces it is hard to support the control surface skins without custom cutting backups to fit under the skins. The large surfaces that can be held down flat (such as wing and fuselage skins) polish much faster flat on the bench.

[Bryan Cotton]

I agree it can be done either way. I did both on different surfaces and prefer before. On page 55 of my thread is a good picture of my setup:
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=578&start=540
Look for the picture of Adam polishing with C. Spent ~$7 on wood and made the standoffs from scrap.

[Sonex1243]

Thanks everyone, great idea's. I think I will polish everything before final riveting using some sort of stand-offs like Bryans once I get the deburring and edge cleaning done. I don't have an extra set of hands to hold things and wasn't sure how I would hold the assemblies down while polishing and keep them from flying across the garage! Besides, I still have to polish all the completed tail feathers and that might be just enough misery trying to do it alone.

[Sonex1243]

After a brutal lesson in deburring and almost scrapping all of the ailerons and flaps, I finally mustered up the ambition to work on the project again.. It was pointed out by Sonex tech support (thankfully!) on a submitted picture for an edge distance question that I was very aggressively deburring holes and the parts should be replaced! Luckily, an over sized 1/8" cherry max rivet will cure the problem after reaming everything with a #27 bit. This will leave a nice clean, bevel free over sized hole for riveting. Guess I will have a unique aircraft with cherry max'd flaps and ailerons.


Bryan Cotton's stand idea!


Don't debur like this!! So embarrassing, but, a must share...

[Sonex1517]

Ken

I think everyone who has or is currently building understands - and it's good that you shared this.

Personally I bought a lot of replacement parts due to my own learning curve.

Keep going!! It's so worth the effort and energy expended!!!

[Bryan Cotton]

Like Robbie I have bought replacement parts. Like you, I have bought oversize Cherrymax rivets. The most important skill in building an airplane is perseverance!