With the Ribs all set I need to pull down the tank skins to separate the splice strip. Snips work great and a quick hit on the belt sander and the strips are ready for use.
I deconstruct my old horizontal stabilizer cradle to use for the OLE. Honestly while it worked, as you can see in the video I did end up grabbing the part I cut out of the crate to help pull the skins into the ribs a bit. I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to change the cradle for the other OLE and Tanks or continue with the current setup.
I then work to cleco all of the ribs and the splice strip into the OLE skin. This did take a while and required a little persuasion on the rib nose. Using the template form to help push the skin against the ribs helped and once you get a number of clecos in things seem to pull together well. Since the holes are slightly undersized it does make the job a little more difficult until you final drill.
I then follow the plans and final drill all the ribs as well as the other holes called out. I then add in the J-stiffener and match drill all the holes using the center line I drew earlier to ensure it’s centered correctly.
With that done, I’m ready to start disassembly, deburr, and prep for primer. I’ll take care of that once the weather warms up