(6-4 step 7):
Had a little fun with some rivets tonight :-) I thought I'd
get a little more done than I did, but oh well... I had a little fun
tonight! This is the rear spar assembly for the vertical
stabilizer. It is what carries the main loads of the vertical
stabilizer, and is also where the rudder attaches to the plane.
|
The
rudder hinge brackets attached with 4 rivets each. The two that
fit closest to the bend in the bracket proved to be a little too close
for the diameter of the dies we have for our squeezer. So, what's
a guy to do... bust out the rivet gun & bucking bar for the first
time! Btw: what's wrong with this picture?? The experienced
ones in the bunch are probably already snickering...
|
Well,
when you precariously suspend a part between two tables with no clamps
or any other method of holding it still, unless you're lucky (as I
guess I was on the other 10 rivets) this is the result! On my
second to last rivet, as soon as I pulled the trigger the gun bounced
across the part (DOH!)... live and learn (again...)
|
Here's
the completed rear spar assembly. One thing of note: I stepped up
a rivet length on the rudder hinge brackets. The longer ones were
a little long, but by the same amount the shorter ones were short (make
sense?)... so posed with the option of a little short, or a little
long, I chose a little long. Also, the previous picture shows the
hinge doubler called for in SB 06-2-3.
|
| 4/19
UPDATE: After browsing a few of the other builder's sites I
realized something... Other than the flush mounted rivets, there is no
specific indication in the plans of which direction the rivet head
should face on the rear spar assembly. This means I should've
thought about it first before just simply inserting the universal head
rivets the same direction as the flush ones. Had I done that, I
would've realized that the side I have the shop head on is the exposed
side (open to the rudder) and simply turning them around would've put
the shop head inside the vertical stabilizer skin never to be
seen. Plus, I wouldn't of had to use the rivet gun. Bet I
remember to think about it in the future! I guess if it was going
to happen sometime, this was probably one of the best assemblies it
could've happened on. |
