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I started on the ribs for the ailerons…there’s a lot of them. 8 per skin, 16 per aileron, 32 in total, that all must be separated and trimmed down. I started using the Dremel, but I could see that was going to take a long time, go through several cut off wheels and there’s a good chance that I would mess something up. So, I bit the bullet and got a tabletop band saw. I like my WEN drill press, so I stuck with the same brand. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a metal cutting blade, so I had to order that separately. It was taking a long time for the blade to get shipped, so I started on the other aileron. I drilled the 4 screw holes. The when the blade arrived, I finished cutting the ribs…so much easier with the band saw. I could have used this a long time ago. I rough cut on the band saw, then used the belt sander to clean it up to the line. The ribs are so thin that they heat up supper quick. I ended up sanding off a little, then moving to the next rib to let them cool down. After about 4 loops through the whole set, I was able to finish them up with the scotchbrite wheel for deburring.
My friend Dan who has been working on his RV-12 for several years after I gave him a ride did his first engine test this week. Everything worked and sounded great. What a nice milestone to have completed. Congrats Dan.

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