Current Progress

December 14 2024 - 1.0hrs - 4657.0 total. Glued in the 6 intercostals and 12 gussets that were made up way back in March. Have spent quite a bit of time scratching my head and thinking about how to make room in the shop to turn over the wing and align the gear legs. I'm thinking about hanging the fuselage from the roof joists. It would clear up quite a bit of floor space.
December 16 2024 - 1.0hrs - 4658.0 total. Sanded and marked six gussets and did some tweaking on the three intercostals that were made up a long time ago. Once they were ready, glued them in place.
January 1 2025 - 1.0hrs - 4659.0 total. Got a new laser lever for Christmas. Tried it out and it works so much easier than the old level. Aligned rib #9 SB, clamped in place and temp glue in place with 5 minute epoxy. Spent some more time planning how to turn the wing over and jig it in place for aligning the gear.

January 6 2025 - 2.5.0hrs - 4661.5 total. Realized the forward edge of the rib I just temp glued in place was a little out of alignment. Cut the front glue joint out and sanded everything down then re-aligned and temp glued it again. Once that dried, sanded all 5 min epoxy down and prepped for gluing in shims. Made up the ten shims and reinforcement strips and glued them in place on rib #9 SB. That's probably the last rib I'll do for a while as I need to concentrate on getting the wing turned over for next weeks gear alignment project.
January 7 2025 - 2.0hrs - 4663.5 total. While marking the locations for the intercostals between ribs 8 & 9 SB I realized i have one of them on the port side off by 3/4". Took a lot of measuring to figure out how to deal with it. Took three tries to get them marked properly on the SB side, but finally got them marked. Made up 8each gussets for the upper and 8ea for the lower. Gussets still need to me final shaped and marked - after the intercostal pieces are made.

January 8 2025 - 3.5.0hrs - 4667.0 total. Made up 8 intercostals and prepped 16 gussets, marked all for location. Glued in place between ribs 8 & 9 SB side.
January 10 2025 - 0.0hrs - 4667.0 total. My friend arrives in a couple of days to help me get the wing turned over and align the gear pintals. Spent several hours out in the shop putting away tools and cleaning up in preparation for turning the wing. Went through several drafts of different methods to accomplish the turn over and settled on making some guides that will get clamped to the spar at the wing attach reinforcement points and allow the spar to be rolled on a small table top. Once I get them started, I'll post some photos.
January 11 2025 - 0.0hrs - 4667.0 total. Worked on the "rollover jigs" for a few hours today. They are pretty much done. Now I need to make a table that can be adjusted for height very precisely and also put it on casters.
January 12 2025 - 0.0hrs - 4667.0 total. Drew up some ideas for the lifting table. Went to a couple parts stores looking for a specific type of jack that no one had. Settled on a scissor jack. Finished the rollover jigs and temp clamped them onto the spar to see how they looked.
January 13-15 2025 0.0hrs - 4467.0 total. My friend is here and we've spent the last three days getting the lifting table ready. He's an aircraft structures engineer so has been spend a lot of time sitting and going through the plans to get the specs for linear actuators that could work for gear retraction and potentially for locking the gear up and down without needing a separate lock mechanism. We got the lifting table finished today - after a couple of modifications - and were able to get the wing turned over and leveled.
January 16 2025 - 5.0hrs - 4472.0 total. Spent the day working on getting the port pintal axle aligned. Once it was set, drilled the collar in the front pintal plate and through the pintal axle and put in a temporary bolt to hold it in place. Also aligned the toe in/toe out on that side to withing 1/8" by turning the internal spline carrier in the upper strut.

Bruce's Spitfire

Current Progress Status and Updates

Gluing in 6 intercostals and 12 gussets.

Three more intercostals and six gussets glued in place.

Three more intercostals and six gussets glued in place.

Three more intercostals and six gussets glued in place.

Three more intercostals and six gussets glued in place.

Three more intercostals and six gussets glued in place.

Rib #9 SB being tacked in place with 5 minute epoxy.

Three more intercostals and six gussets glued in place.

Rib #9 SB being tacked in place with 5 minute epoxy.

Ten shim and reinforcement strips for # 9 rib SB

Intercostal locations marked (finally!) and gussets made.

Ten shim and reinforcement strips for # 9 rib SB

All shims and strips glued in place on rib #9 SB

Intercostal locations marked (finally!) and gussets made.

Ten shim and reinforcement strips for # 9 rib SB

Intercostal locations marked (finally!) and gussets made.

Intercostal locations marked (finally!) and gussets made.

Intercostal locations marked (finally!) and gussets made.

Four upper and four lower intercostals glued in along with 16 gussets between ribs #8 & 9 SB

Four upper and four lower intercostals glued in along with 16 gussets between ribs #8 & 9 SB

The "rollover jigs"

Four upper and four lower intercostals glued in along with 16 gussets between ribs #8 & 9 SB

Wing right side up, leveled and clamped in place. Ready to start gear alignment.

Wing right side up, leveled and clamped in place. Ready to start gear alignment.