Lots o’ spinner drilling
Lots of drilling and deburring. I riveted the nut plates to the tabs and the tabs to the filler plates. I just need to rivet these to the spinner back plate.
I then drilled all of the holes in the back plate out to #19 for #8 screws. I was in the middle of using the nut plate jig on the back plate when I realized I made a mistake. Instead of drilling for 14 screws around the whole spinner, I drilled for 14 on each side. I guess I just zoned out when I was measuring out the holes. I knew things were going too smoothly. Frustrated is a huge understatement for my mood. I don’t want to re-fabricate that stupid back plate and remove & re-install the prop. I’ll call up Vans and see what they say about it. I know it looks obvious in the picture, but it wasn’t so obvious before I drilled for the nut plates.
I took a break for a while and thought through the issue. I was thinking of just leaving out every other screw, but that wouldn’t work. I’d end up with a big gap at one end or the other. The only fix is to re-drill, which means a new back plate.
[5/26/2006: Miles at Vans confirmed the extra screws aren’t a problem. I’ll just have a very unique (and secure) spinner.]
I moved on to something else. I drilled the holes for the front plate. That went pretty smoothly. I laid out the holes on the plate, drilled them, and then using a flashlight drilled through the spinner into those holes. Worked well.