Horizontal Stabilizer Cleco'ed together for drilling!

 Got myself two more countersink cages so I can leave them setup for #30, #40, and have one for misc. holes.  This should save some time in the end.

 Then I had the pleasure of removing the blue film from the inside of the HS skins.

 Got the HS skins all setup in the cradles I made.

 Then I cleco'ed in the front ribs.  Takes some patience and there is a ton of pressure pulling these sides apart.  Be careful not to make any dents, dings, or creases in the skin.

 Next I added in the front spar and cleco'ed it to the nose ribs.

 Then I cleco'ed all the front spar flange holes to the skin.

 Cleco'ed two sets of stringers out of the parts I made a while back.

 Match reamed the outboard 5 holes on each end of the stringer assemblies.

 Added the stringers to the assembly.  Just had to make sure it was aligned properly and it fell right in.

 Next comes this stringer web to the assembly.

And finally used almost all of my 3/32" cleco's to cleco in the inspar ribs and the rear spar flanges to the skin.  I had to only cleco every 4th hole on the spar. I have about 840 ea of the 3/32" cleco's and I only have about 20 left in the bucket so I have about 820 in this assembly at this point not counting the 1/8" ones.

I know I don't have to put one in every hole but I like to uses as many as possible since I have them.  It can't hurt but might help keep everything straight and true.  Just takes time and makes my hands sore!

That's all for today.  Tomorrow I hope to get all the holes match reamed!

Horizontal Stabilizer Support Fixture

 Tonight I had only a short time to work so I built the fixture required to support the HS during riveting.  I copied something similar to what Jason Ellis used.  Just some scrap 2x6's and some ripped 2x4's.  The uprights are 1.5"x1.5"x18" long.  The bases are 2x6's 24" long.  Nothing special!

 I don't want any chance of the edges of the uprights to put a dent or crease in the skins so I rounded them on the belt sander.

 Here they are all screwed together.  I put the uprights set in 6" from the ends of the bases, centered on the width.

Then I added the support slings to each upright.  I measured the droop to ensure they were all at the same length to properly support and share the load.  I screwed them to the uprights with sheet rock screws.  I used a ratchet strap's webbing to make the slings.  Overkill but that is all I could find and these straps are cheap.  Lowes did not have any other kind of webbing.  I only used a short part of the ratchet strap so I have plenty left for its original purpose.  Finally I wrapped the top of each one with some electrical tape just to keep the webbing centered as it comes across the tops of the uprights.

Looks like they will work great for the purpose they are intended for!

That's all for tonight folks.

Horizontal Stabilizer Skeleton Prep

 Started tonight by adding a radius to the tip of the nose rib flanges.  Suppose to help keep the distortion of the skin to a minimum.

 Next I cleco'ed on the inner most inspar ribs and the tip ribs to match drill some holes with the spar.  They have you do this with a smaller 1/8" bit first.

 Here they are all match drilled to the spar.

 Then you go back and finalize the holes.  I used a #30 reamer to do the nose ribs.

 And a long #30 drill to do the inner most ribs.

 Next they have you cleco on the inspar ribs.

 Then I match reamed them to the spar.

 Here it is all match drilled/reamed.

 I went ahead and fluted the ribs.  See the curve in the rib?  These special pliers do a great job putting a little flute in between the holes on the rib flange.  A light squeeze at each location top and bottom is all you need.

And like magic, the rib is straight!

That's all for tonight!