Wing Aluminum Parts

To cut the capstrips and spacers, I used an aluminum carbide abrasive blade in my miter saw. I set a stop and cut everything in short order. Remember to debur and polish.

For the spar plates and splices, I again used the routing technique. I drew the plates in AutoCadd, and glued the pattern to a piece of 1/2" MDF. After tracing around the template, I rough cut the blanks using a plasma cutter. Instead of drilling holes through the plates and bolting the templates together, I used vice grip clamps, and by moving them around, I was able to reach all of the edges. After doing it this way, I do not recommend this to anyone. It is very dangerous. I think cutting on the bandsaw is much better.

Routing main spar splice plates. Deburring and polishing the rear spar attach plates.

Completed spar attach plates, splices, spacers, and doublers. I used a throatless shear from Harbor Freight to cut the flap and aileron gussets as well as all of the spar blanks. I put duct tape on next to the cut to eliminate small scratches that the shear was leaving. This shear worked very well and I am more than pleased with the results

I bulk cut attach angles and stiffener angles on a four foot shear and then cut to length by setting a stop and using the throatless shear. I didn't want to cut into a new sheet of .025, so I am going to use .032 for all of the angles. This will add less than 1lb of weight. I'll need to diet to make up for it. Seems like a whole lot of pieces. Hate to even start thinking about all those rivets!