Aug 2023 to Nov 2024

August 13 2023 - 2.0hrs - 4588.5 total. Glued two cap strips to first side of both #20 ribs. Started clearing space on other side of spar to allow beginning to glue the starboard ribs onto the spar.
August 17 2023 - 1.0hrs - 4589.5 total. Removed clamps from#20 ribs and sanded profile. Laid out remaining four capstrips for other sides. Inspected pile of ribs for SB of the spar. Most have been sanded on the profile, but about seven of the big inner ones have not. Started sanding them. Four left to do.
August 18 2023 - 2.0hrs - 4591.5 total. Glued last four caps strips onto #20 ribs. Finished sanding profile on remaining SB ribs.
August 19 2023 - 4.5hrs - 4596.0 total. Removed clamps from #20 ribs and sanded down. Check level on spar for baseline before starting on SB side. Removed jig support from SB wingtip allowing the SB ribs to be loosely loaded onto the spar. Had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning and sanding the interior of some of the spar holes in the ribs from extra glue from spar cap installations. Eventually got all the SB ribs dry fit on the spar. Re-installed jig support and re-levelled everything.

August 20 2023 - 1.0hrs - 4597.0 total. Double checked alignment again and made some tweaks. Laid out rib attach points for ribs 5 through 10 SB. Aligned rib #5 SB and tacked in place with 5 min epoxy.
August 26 2023 - 2.0hrs - 4599.0 total. Made up the ten shim and reinforcement strips for #5 rib SB.
September 10 2023 - 2.0hrs - 4601.0 total. Glued the ten reinforcement strips around #5 rib SB. Aligned #6 rib and tacked in place with five minute epoxy. Started making up the reinforcement strips for #6 rib.

September 11 2023 - 1.0hrs - 4602.0 total. Made up strips for rib # 6.
September 15 2023 - 1.5hrs - 4603.5 total. Glued strips around rib #6 to spar.
September 17 2023 - 1.0hrs - 4604.5 total. Aligned spar again then aligned rib #7 and tacked in place with 5 min epoxy.
September 23 2023 - 2.0hrs - 4606.5 total. Sanded down 5 min epoxy. Made up strips for rib #7
November 11 2023 - 6.0hrs - 4612.5 total. My friend is here for a week visiting and we plan to spend several hours each day working on the project. We both worked for about 3hrs each so I'm putting the total 6hrs of our combined effort into this log. I glued the 10 reinforcement strips around rib#7 while he started transferring the flap rib templates to cardboard. We both did some tracing onto scrap 1/4" stock, I cut them out on the bandsaw and sanded to final shape while he located and drilled holes for the lightening slots in some of the flap ribs.
November 12 2023 - 4.0hrs - 4616.5 total. Made up an adaptor plate so I could mount the small hand router on a full size routing table that I bought at a garage sale last year. Cut our and shaped the lightening holes in the flap ribs.

November 13 2023 - 6.0hrs - 4622.5 total. Finished sanding the lightening holes in the flap ribs by hand. Re-leveled and aligned spar. Aligned and tacked rib #8 in place with 5 min epoxy. Started making stiffener plates for flap hinge locations.
November 14 2023 - 4.0hrs - 4626.5 total. Picked up some of the landing gear parts that need de-burred. Got one of the spline receivers cleaned up. Completed both flap hinge stiffener plates. Started on aileron ribs. Cut out templates, started tracing on 1/4"material.
November 15 2023 - 4.0hrs - 4630.5 total. Finished deburring the spline receivers. Finished the aileron end plates. Continued working on the aileron rib templates and started transferring them to 1/4" ply.
November 16 2023 - 6.0hrs - 4636.5 total. Finished cutting out the aileron ribs. Started cutting the lightening holes in them. Finished deburring the gear parts - all except some hard to reach parts that will need some more Dremel grinding bits to reach. Started making the reinforcement pieces that go near the wheel wells on the SB side.

November 17 2023 - 1.0hrs - 4637.5 total. Continued cutting lightening holes in aileron ribs. Finished deburring upper gear struts. Pulled pintal cases off spar to give to machinist.
November 18 2023 - 6.0hrs - 4643.5 total. Finished lightening holes in aileron ribs. Got out small router and used it to put 1/8" radius on all lightening holes in aileron and flap ribs. Finished reinforcement pieces for landing gear well, cut lightening holes, and used router to put radius on those as well. That's it for the work frenzy. My friend is going home tomorrow. Let's see what my work rate is like after he leaves?!
January 7 2024 - 1.0hrs - 4644.5 total. Spent about two hours yesterday cleaning up the shop. Started stacking up all the aileron pieces to store them away and noticed one of them was the wrong length? I'd printed out a new copy of the template page, as the original got cut up to make templates, so I laid all the parts out on the new sheet to take inventory. Turns out we had made three of the #9 ribs and only one #10. Fortunately the #10 is slightly smaller than the #9, so was able to modify one of them to be the needed #10. Then I noticed nose rib 17A was completely missing? Checked the garbage, and sure enough, there was the template, and it hadn't been trimmed to shape, so hadn't been used to trace the pattern onto ply. Went ahead and made up the two needed #17A nose rib pieces. Need to continue with attaching the ribs to the spar on the SB side. Checked and marked positions for three reinforcement pieces that go behind the gear bay.

January 8 2024 - 1.0hrs - 4645.5 total. Put some pictures (above) of some of the work the machinist has been doing on the main gear. Today I intended to glue in the three reinforcement pieces for the gear bay, but realized I would need corner bracing strips for each side of each of these - 12 in all - before I could glue them in. Made up the 12 strips.
January 11 2024 - 1.5hrs - 4647.0 total. Glued in the three reinforcement pieces behind the SB wheel well along with the 12 corner brace strips.
January 12 2024 - 1.5hrs - 4648.5 total. Lightly sanded the spurs off the glue from yesterday so they don't catch me later. Made up the 10 reinforcement strips for rib #8 SB.
January 13 2024 - 1.5hrs - 4650.0 total. Glued reinforcement strips around rib #8 SB.
January 18 2024 - 1.0hrs - 4651.0 total. Made up six intercostals for between ribs 5 to 8.

One of the 12 corner brace strips being dry fit

Three reinforcement pieces and corner bracing glued into SB side

Reinforcement strips for rib #8 SB

Three reinforcement pieces and corner bracing glued into SB side

Reinforcement strips for rib #8 SB

March 22 2024 - 1.5hrs - 4652.5 total. Hey I'm back again! Had surgery on my shoulder at the end of January and have been unable to do anything with my left hand until now. Still pretty limited on range of motion and can only lift a couple of pounds. Tried to do some work out in the shop a couple of times over the last six weeks, but my shoulder wouldn't cooperate. Anyway, at least partially back at it now. Cut notches into twelve gussets and fit them to shape, labeled and laid in position to be glued in with the intercostals. Also traced, cut out, and sanded to shape about 45 more gussets. Still need to cut the notch into them.
June 21 2024 - 1.0hrs - 4653.5 total. My friend is visiting and wanted to help me with my project while he was here so he made up 17 gussets while I started making intercostals for the upper wing surface.
June 23 2024 - 2.5hrs - 4656.0 total. He made up 20 more gussets while I marked all of the cap strips on all the ribs for their scarf joints that will ne needed after installing the trailing spar.
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November 17 2024 - 0.0hrs - 4656.0 total. Hi everyone. Thanks for the e-mails and calls from people wondering if I had died or something as I haven't done any work on the project for a while. Just some other priorities that needed to be addressed. I've cleaned the shop up and cleared the working surfaces to get going on the Spit again. A couple of important things are happening soon:
The machinist has been working diligently for several weeks and the gear legs will be done within a few days. We modified the design to allow the wheel axle to be removed from the lower strut so the aluminum inner strut guide could be serviced in the future. Without this change, there is no way to service this aluminum piece.
In order to get the final alignment - which gets welded into place (no alignment changes later) we need to mount the gear on the spar. This means we will need to turn the wing over and get it perfectly aligned and level.
If I'm going to turn the wing over I should go ahead and get the rest of ribs installed now, as the wing is already perfectly aligned (upside down) now to allow installation of the ribs. If I turn it right side up for the gear alignment, I'd just have to turn it back upside down and align it all again to finish up the ribs later.
The machinist leaves the state in the beginning of February and is usually not available to work on my project until the next October or so. That means I need to get the ribs installed and the wing turned over by early January at the latest.
We're engineering the concept of linear actuators rather than hydraulics for the gear. This means we might not need to make the very complex gear locking mechanisms in the plans - that are based very closely on the original Spitfire design.
I'm retiring from my 45+ years of IT Management and Consulting as of Jan 3, 2025. which means I should have more time to work on the Spit? We'll see how that works out!

Twelve gussets fit to shape waiting to be glued in with intercostals

Gear leg with removable axle trial fit with wheel and brake

Twelve gussets fit to shape waiting to be glued in with intercostals

Trail fitting inner strut into outer strut with splines in place.

Twelve gussets fit to shape waiting to be glued in with intercostals

Trail fitting inner strut into outer strut with splines in place.

November 18 2024 - 0.0hrs - 4656.0 total. Picked up one of the gear legs form the machinist and borrowed a couple of tires so that I can work on getting accurate weights and measurements for the determining the specs for the linear actuators. Will get the other gear leg on Thursday with the brake and wheel attached and should be able to get good weights then. So far, without the brake, wheel and tire on there the legs weigh about 37 lbs each. Not light. Wanted to see how it would look so I temporarily put the leg onto one of the pintal axles and put it on the spar. It looks a little weird as the interior strut is not aligned yet and the strut is completely compressed because the spring isn't in there yet. Still - its significant step!
November 22 2024 - 0.0hrs - 4656.0 total. Picked up to port gear leg with brake already mounted. Determined there is something going on with the SB leg and pintal axle not fitting so will take it back to the machinist tomorrow. Mounted test tire and tube on port leg along with brake. Pulled strut out to full extension and determined full weight and balance point. Will use this info to size actuator. Weighs 63.5 lbs! Managed to get it onto the port pintal and on the spar for a couple of photos.

Current Progress Status and Updates

Gluing caps strips to first sides of both #20 ribs

Ribs #1 through #19 loaded loosely onto SB side of spar

Gluing caps strips to first sides of both #20 ribs

# 20 ribs completed

Ribs #1 through #19 loaded loosely onto SB side of spar

Gluing caps strips to first sides of both #20 ribs

Ribs #1 through #19 loaded loosely onto SB side of spar

Ribs #1 through #19 loaded loosely onto SB side of spar

Ribs #1 through #19 loaded loosely onto SB side of spar

#5 rib SB tacked in place with 5 min epoxy

Ten reinforcement strips ready to be glued onto #5 rib SB

Ten reinforcement strips ready to be glued onto #5 rib SB

Ten reinforcement strips ready to be glued onto #5 rib SB

Ten reinforcement strips ready to be glued onto #5 rib SB

Ten reinforcement strips ready to be glued onto #5 rib SB

#5 rib strips glued on, #6 rib tacked in place

Ten reinforcement strips ready to be glued onto #5 rib SB

#5 rib strips glued on, #6 rib tacked in place

Reinforcement strips for rib #6 ready to be glued in place

Reinforcement strips for rib #6 ready to be glued in place

Reinforcement strips for rib #6 ready to be glued in place

Strips being glued around spar at rib#7

Reinforcement strips for rib #6 ready to be glued in place

Reinforcement strips for rib #6 ready to be glued in place

Making the flap ribs

Reinforcement strips for rib #6 ready to be glued in place

Making the flap ribs

Deburring some of the landing gear parts.

Aileron rib templates cut out, starting to trace onto 1/4" ply

Aileron rib templates cut out, starting to trace onto 1/4" ply

Aileron rib templates cut out, starting to trace onto 1/4" ply

Aileron rib templates cut out, starting to trace onto 1/4" ply

Aileron rib templates cut out, starting to trace onto 1/4" ply

Reinforcement pieces for SB wheel well

Aileron rib templates cut out, starting to trace onto 1/4" ply

Reinforcement pieces for SB wheel well

Parts deburred and ready to go back to the machinist

Parts deburred and ready to go back to the machinist

Parts deburred and ready to go back to the machinist

All aileron and flap ribs finished up

Parts deburred and ready to go back to the machinist

Parts deburred and ready to go back to the machinist

The missing piece!

Parts deburred and ready to go back to the machinist

The missing piece!

Testing fit after deburring

Top angle cut into upper gear leg

Top angle cut into upper gear leg

Top angle cut into upper gear leg

Top angle cut into upper gear leg

Top angle cut into upper gear leg

Starting on the axle pieces

Top angle cut into upper gear leg

Starting on the axle pieces

One of the 12 corner brace strips being dry fit

Three reinforcement pieces and corner bracing glued into SB side

Three reinforcement pieces and corner bracing glued into SB side

Three reinforcement pieces and corner bracing glued into SB side

Three reinforcement pieces and corner bracing glued into SB side

Three reinforcement pieces and corner bracing glued into SB side

Reinforcement strips for rib #8 SB

Three reinforcement pieces and corner bracing glued into SB side

Reinforcement strips for rib #8 SB

Twelve gussets fit to shape waiting to be glued in with intercostals

Twelve gussets fit to shape waiting to be glued in with intercostals

Twelve gussets fit to shape waiting to be glued in with intercostals

Gear leg with removable axle trial fit with wheel and brake

Twelve gussets fit to shape waiting to be glued in with intercostals

Twelve gussets fit to shape waiting to be glued in with intercostals

Trail fitting inner strut into outer strut with splines in place.

Twelve gussets fit to shape waiting to be glued in with intercostals

Trail fitting inner strut into outer strut with splines in place.

SB gear leg temporarily mounted on spar just to see how it looks

Port gear leg with brake, wheel, tire and internal spring. Determining weight and balance point.

Looks a little strange with the strut fully compressed and wheel axle skewed a bit. SB side.

Looks a little strange with the strut fully compressed and wheel axle skewed a bit. SB side.

Port gear leg with brake, wheel, tire and internal spring. Determining weight and balance point.

Looks a little strange with the strut fully compressed and wheel axle skewed a bit. SB side.

Port gear leg with brake, wheel, tire and internal spring. Determining weight and balance point.