Time: 2 Hours
I spent a whole day just getting orginized in the new shop and figuring out where to place things.
Next I needed to figure where to put the blueprints since I don’t have the counterspace like I used too. What I decided was to use some sort of easel and started to look for ones to buy. What I found I didn’t like so I decided to build a simple one to suit my needs. After making some measurements I headed to Home Depot to get the supplies. I spent a good part of the afternoon cutting and building this thing.
So I was ready to do some riveting. First up was to final drill the remaining holes for the windscreen rollbar where I had left off around 6 months ago.
Next up was to rivet the lower and upper forward baggage sides to the gear tower cross brace. Here we go starting off riveting the AN470 rivets which are the toughest in my opinion. I couldn’t use the squeezer so it was gonna be the gun and bucking bar. So i grabbed the tools and took a deep breath. With a gentle squuze of the trigger I set the first rivet perfect followed by the second. Feeling good I headed to the 3rd rivet and let my guard down with the gun. If you dont hold good pressure on the gun it can bounce off the rivet head and damage parts. This is exactly what I did and put 3 dents in the lower baggage side as can see in the photo. Ugh I hate when I do dumb things but this is what happens when you take 6 months off! The good thing is that I will probably cover this area with some type of carpet since it will take a beating with bags and tools for flights.
Well I took a 10 minute break to clear my head and sulk in my error. Well they say these things add character to your aircraft, all I can say is my aircraft will have a lot of character! I then riveted the bottom baggage side to the side walls.
At least these set perfect and look good! 🙂 I decided to clean up the shop and head out to have date night with my girl. Minor ding that will never be seen by most people and some progress. I feel good about getting back into the swing of building.
