Time: 2 Hours
Got a little work done last night on the VS skin. Did all the edges and hole deburring. I will get the skin dimpled next so it will be already for riveting once the ribs and spars are done.
Category Archives: Empennage
VS Prepped
Time: 8 Hours
This weekend saw more work on the VS along with some BBQ’ing and Chicago Blackhawks hockey! The work on the VS was of the boring and tedious type – edge finishing, deburring, dimpling, surface prep and priming. I will let the primer cute for the rest of the week and get to riveting this coming weekend.
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VS Begins
Time: 4 Hours
I had a week off of no building due to my flight schedule and a trip out to California to drive my parents car back to Nebraska. That was a little over 1500 miles in 29 hours, just me and two little yorkie dogs, fun!
Before I started riveting the HS skins I had all my work reviewed by an EAA tech counsler, Bill Shain. This gives an experienced set of eyes a chance to look at your work and document the inspection. When I got home from my trip the paperwork was in the mail. He was happy with my work and said build on! That’s a good feeling!
Today I was able to get in 4 hours working on the VS. I prepped and straightened all the ribs. Then I matched drilled all the ribs and doubler to to spars. I was able to also get one side of the skin matched drilled to the substructure. I will finish that process up this weekend and get some priming done too.
HS Skins
Time: 7 Hours
Saturday was great day if work! My good friend Glen V. came over to the hangar to help out with riveting the skins of the HS. He gave me some pointers on the rivet gun setup and pressures to use on the air line. He maned the Cleko’s and holding the work while I used the gun and bucking bar. After a few tips and pointers I was off and running.
Those 3 rivets on the rib are blind rivets since you don’t have access to the back side to use a bucking bar. Wow that’s a tight space to work in!
Glen popped a photo of me actually riveting.
She is a thing of beauty!
The perimeter rivets I used my pneumatic squeezer to set those making that job a breeze
Look at those clean lines! This kit is pretty awesome!
That’s a HUGE milestone, the first major section done! That’s one big smile!
Now to start the Vertical Stabilizer!
Forward HS Spar
Time: 4 Hours
I got a fair amount if work done this last weekend of the HS. I started by touching up the primer on the aft spar where my riveting scratched it. Then off to work on the forward spar. I was able to use the pneumatic squeezer for a few of the rivets but the rest needed the rivet gun and bucking bars. Whoa I haven’t used those tools yet except for a class at EAA’s OshKosh AirVenture. So off to practice I went, I will say all went pretty well. The first few were slow but worked well.
As I have read on many builders websites that you will get some “smileys” on your AN470 rivets. A smiley occurs when the concave rivet head of your rivet gun jumps off the rivet head and moves. This movement allows the rivet gun shank to hit the rivet head off center leaving a small mark resembling a smile.
Here is a view of that concave surface
Most builders will also tell you to resist the urge to drill out a rivet just because it has a smiley. Well I just couldn’t resist on one, maybe just because it looks a little deep for my liking. This was a rivet that tied HS-405, the forward HS spar and HS-404 together. It is a tight spot to rivet or drill out. The drilling went ok until the end where the hole edge on HS-404 got enlarged a little. Once that happens, trying to get a clean shop head on a rivet is tough under easy riveting conditions, which this area was not. Long story short, I tried 2 more times with 2 more drill outs. I then called for some advice from my fellow builder Glen V. He said bring the parts over and let’s take a look. He looked and smiled a little at my rookie mistake and assured me its one of many I will make. We then drilled out the rivet, again and enlarged the hole and riveted with the next size up. You can see the larger rivet in this photo.
After I got that learning curve finished I headed back to the shop and finished priming the inside of the skins for the next building session.