- Joined
- Nov 25, 2007
- Messages
- 514
- Reaction score
- 44
Hi guys,
While drilling all the holes in my spars years ago, one of the I-strut hole (vertical tru spar) was drilled properly but by mistake reamed too big thereafter.
Not a big deal in itself, I just carried on with my built and thought I would pour some epoxy into the hole when the wing would be completed and re-ream properly.
Which I did recently. Bad idea. The reamer has no proper guidance and just ended enlarging the hole (and made it curved), notably the last inch before exit.
What I did to fix it was :
- glue a wood plug on the enlarged exit, then redrill at proper size (hole position slightly shifted but nothing serious)
- glue a fiber glass sleeve (molded after an AN4 bolt) into the hole to allow filling all the irregularities due to reamer wandering around earlier and provider a straight clean hole
I assumed that the mechanical efforts on the spar in that section are actually mostly carried by the spar doublers, totally unaffected by this little failure, so my "repair" looks acceptable to me however... Just wondering if some of you might have a more documented opinion on this ?
Damaging your wings once you've almost finished them...you can't imagine how stupidly frustrating it is
While drilling all the holes in my spars years ago, one of the I-strut hole (vertical tru spar) was drilled properly but by mistake reamed too big thereafter.
Not a big deal in itself, I just carried on with my built and thought I would pour some epoxy into the hole when the wing would be completed and re-ream properly.
Which I did recently. Bad idea. The reamer has no proper guidance and just ended enlarging the hole (and made it curved), notably the last inch before exit.
What I did to fix it was :
- glue a wood plug on the enlarged exit, then redrill at proper size (hole position slightly shifted but nothing serious)
- glue a fiber glass sleeve (molded after an AN4 bolt) into the hole to allow filling all the irregularities due to reamer wandering around earlier and provider a straight clean hole
I assumed that the mechanical efforts on the spar in that section are actually mostly carried by the spar doublers, totally unaffected by this little failure, so my "repair" looks acceptable to me however... Just wondering if some of you might have a more documented opinion on this ?
Damaging your wings once you've almost finished them...you can't imagine how stupidly frustrating it is
