more corrections.....

So back to the shop on yesterday, looking forward to flanging the root rib lightening holes.

When I set the flanging die up on the bench, I noticed that although my lightening holes are cut to a perfect 65mm diameter as per the plans, the outside diameter of the flanging tool above the shoulder (the one on the left) is also exactly 65mm, making it too tight a fit in the hole, and impossible to work correctly:

The flanging die put together

This means the holes I cut in the rib will need to be expanded just slightly.

There are a couple of ways I could accomplish this.  To sand/grind the aluminum away to make the hole bigger would be quicker, but next to impossible to maintain a perfectly round circle.

Going back now with the flycutter set slightly wider presents an issue because there isn't any metal in the middle of the hole to centre the flycutter on and there is an increased risk of tearing.

I really didn't like the idea of ruining the perfectly symetric holes by grinding and hand sanding would take forever.  Flycutter it is then!

To make another cut, I needed to add a piece of scrap aluminum to the back of the rib.  Luckily, I have just the piece left over from the damaged rear channel (always save stuff you might use later).  Here the sacrificial piece is riveted in place on the back side of the rib:

Finding the original centres of the holes was easy - scribe an arc from 4 different edges equal to half of the diameter. Where the arcs meet is your centre. My highschool geometry teacher would be so proud!

With slow and careful application of the flycutter, the new diameters are cut, maintaining the centricity of the circles.  Now I know to make the lightening holes slightly larger to fir the dies.  I'm pleased it worked okay, I was real concerned removing such a small amount may lead to a tear in the rib:​

"Front" side with newly enlarged lightening holes

"Back" side, showing where the flycutter was almost working it's way through the scrap.

A quick drill out of the attachment rivets and voila, one rib ready for deburring (again) and flanging:

Deburring the lightening holes is very time consuming.  I think I'm going to investigate what 3M Scotchbrite wheels will work on them.

The process to flange the holes using a die is much quicker than working them by hand tools.  First, set the rib on the male side of the die:

Place the female side of the die on top, making sure the flange will press out in the correct directions according to the plan (in this case the same as the outside edge flanges):

Although it would be much faster in a hydraulic press, enough force can be exerted using a C-clamp and the bench top edge to accomplish this.  For this size die, one clamp is enough, but on larger dies, multiple clamps would be used:

Squeezing of the clamp leaves a wonderfully even and clean flange:

Now that understand the process, making the ribs for my 750 will be much quicker.

I finished the day by doing further final work on the missing wing root doubler.  Lots of back drilling of pilot holes, final match drilling and thinking about what can be riveted ahead of other items etc.  I'm to the point of having everything ready for final fitting.  I flipped the wing over to get better access to the doubler.  The wing attach fitting in the lower left is the bent original with the terrible out of round bolt hole.  I've clecoed back in place as a guide for backdrilling out the web doubler and new wing attach bracket: 

So far so good.  I'm really getting a handle on what it means to pilot drill, cleco, match drill, cleco, take apart, deburr, cleco again and final drill.... just to take apart again for deburring, cleco and final rivet.  All  important steps that mean a well built airplane.... something that the previous builder didn't seem to understand.