Gluing, Gluing, Gluing

I spent 3.5 hours in the shop today.  I confirmed an important safety lesson.  There is a theory that attempting to hold a very small part, with your finger tips, against the belt sander fence is almost guaranteed to result in considerable pain and bloodshed.  But part of my brain was not satisfied with theory and was determined, in the absence of empirical evidence,  to go ahead with the attempt. I am pleased (well, "pleased" is not exactly the best word) to report that the theory works out perfectly in practical application.

I have here a photo of a gusset glued up and ready to install.

This view also shows the bit of business card I use to spread the glue and the razor blade whose function is to scrape the parts prior to gluing.  The objective of the scraping is to remove oxidation, grime and what-have-you that accumulates on the wood surface and can weaken the glued joint.

The reason the entire back side of the gusset is spread with glue has to do with the need to seal the wood parts against moisture.  Once all of the wood parts are fabricated and generally assembled, they will be treated with a high quality spar varnish.  However, getting to the backside of the gussets with the varnish will be essentially impossible.  So, a layer of glue is applied to the entire back side, thereby sealing that side of the gusset.

The next photo shows the gusset stapled in place.

The number of staples used for any particular joint depends on how well the gusset snuggles down onto the cap strip.  I try to use the minimum number of staples possible in order to make the job of pulling them out easier.  Yes, the staples are removed once the glue has dried.

There has been considerable discussion within the Wag Builders Yahoo Group, resulting from confusion on my part, regarding the number and location of reinforcing blocks to be installed on the #1 rib for the purpose of attaching the wing root fairings. 

After much poking around, photographing Piper rag airplanes, and just plain scratching my tummy, I came up with an approach.  The following photo shows the 1"X1" blocks that I have installed.

Though the plans call for only 5 of these blocks, it is not made clear whether that is 5 per rib, or 5 total.  In any event, 5 does not appear to be enough.  There are actually 14 per rib on my airplane.  Is that the right answer?  I don't know.  One of the challenges of building from plans is that there will be problems that require solutions before one has a complete grasp of the problem.  This is one of those situations.  We will find out if it is the right answer when it comes time install the wing root fairings.