Nails and pre-nailing gussets

Gussets need pressure after the epoxy is brushed on the part and set on the rib when it's on the jig. This pressure can come from 3 primary methods.

1.) Weights
2.) Nails
3.) Staples

I decided to use nails. The nails came from Aircraft Spruce and they are 20 ga coated aircraft nails 1/4" long. I ordered a pound and that's a few thousand nails.

After giving this some thought and asking some questions on the Biplane Forum I decided to pre-nail the gussets. I did this because the nails act act as a handle when brushing the glue. The basic idea here is to find a small scrap block of wood and nail in the nails just enough so they poke through a tiny bit, this keep them from sliding.

It was kind of a learning curve and at first I actually marked out a 1/4" line on the gussets so I could hit the center with the nails. But after a few of those I decided to forget the pencil line and just use my good eye. It worked just fine and took a lot less time.

So I pre-nailed all the gusset pieces for the facing side and the back once it's pulled out of the jig. The nails are small but once I found my groove I moved pretty fast. I put a small hammer on my right side and a small needle nose pliers on the left. The nails I put in the middle. I developed a habit of grabbing a nail with my right hand and holding the pliers in my left hand. The gusset sit on the block and I hammer them in....lightly!

Once the entire rib assembly had enough gussets pre-nailed to produce a rib I moved to the next step.