Clecoed ribs to the right tank skin.
Katrin helped me get the first two clecoes in on all the ribs.
This is a difficult and painful task and requires two people, one aft of the skin for the brute force rib placement, and the other forward to place the clecoes. Placing the ribs requires two hands under a lot a strain, a second pair is needed for clecoing.
The process that seems to work best (for me) is:
- Mark crosshairs on the ribs at the two forward most top rivet holes. This provides targets in the heat of battle.
- Set the skin bottom side down on the table.
- Cleco a rib to the bottom skin with just the two forward most holes.
- Start pushing the rib/pulling the skin. Using a small diameter punch get the 2nd or 3rd top hole lined up.
- Push/pull harder until the rib is all the way seated. The punch is worked to pull the rib into alignment as the rib is worked back. Be careful with the small diameter punch or it will break (start the process with two!). A safety pin might also come in handy when there's just a sliver of overlap.
- While holding it in place, get the two front clecos inserted.
- Relax, curse, shake hands and shoulders out.
Repeat for the other six ribs.
Then finished putting in the rest of the clecos. Had to scavenge some from the wing in progress.
