Wings

Today I did more countersinking. And then some more. Then more still. The cutter would chatter no matter how I held it, but as it bottomed out it would smooth out and the holes would look great. Amazing. I got the shop vac and cleaned up the mess, and prepared to paint some primer on the exposed fresh aluminum countersinks.

All countersinks on both spars finally completed and ready for priming.

Oh no! As I cleaned up the surface with a scotchbrite pad to prepare for priming, I noticed the rough inside edge of each countersink. These really need to be deburred on the back side. But there's a platenut in the way. How am I going to clean these up? By the way, don't worry about the messy masking tape above the countersink. It will come off shortly.

This cool deburring tool is just the thing! It comes with several different cutters that you insert on the right end. This cutter swivels freely and should do the trick very nicely.

It will just fit into the hole made for the #8 screw. The #6 holes are too small, but they don't seem to have the need for deburring like these larger holes do.

Insert the cutter head and give it a clockwise turn around the hole, then another turn counterclockwise, and that's it. Very good. Very easy. Didn't even touch the platenut. The small flakes of metal blew right out of the platenut with my air hose.

All cleaned up! Ready now for some primer paint. The masking tape comes off now since the drilling is done.

I used some painters paper trim tape (it comes on a roll, with some adhesive on one side) to mask off the countersinks. I'm just going to spray this lightly with the rattle-can primer. I cleaned the surface first with some naptha and scotchbrite pad.

All finished priming, with the trim tape and the masking tape finally pulled off. Nice!

Close-up shot. I'm very pleased with this. I'm calling it good. I finished both sides on both spars and called it another night. Finally done with this biggest batch of platenuts. These spars are almost ready for action. By the way, this is gray primer. Funny how it looks kind of greenish in these photos.

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