(7-8 step 3): This morning I
riveted the stiffeners to the left side rudder skin. That was my plan,
and then off to work (a late day today). Well... I still had a bunch
of pressure left in the air tank and it just wouldn't have been right
to drain it all out :-) So I decided to continue on. So I also
attached the top rib halves to both skins, and the bottom rib half to
the right side skin.
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Here's a shot of the bottom rib half attached to the right rudder
skin. The squeezer worked just great until I got to the rivets shown.
The one toward the rear (right arrow in the picture) was impossible to
get to because there was no clearance whatsoever. The squeezer yoke
would barely fit in between the two flanges, let alone allow the shaft
of a rivet in there too! I eventually just bent the opposite flange
out of the way, squeezed the rivet, and then bent the flange back. The
forward most rivet (left arrow in the picture) couldn't be reached with
the squeezer because of the rudder horn. The rudder horn forced the
body of the squeezer to sit at an angle which wouldn't allow it to
press straight down on the rivet. The rivet gun with a standard flush
set wouldn't sit flat on the rivet either. So, I used the back rivet
set to give me enough reach to get past the rudder horn, and a bucking
bar on the shop head side of the rivet. It's noticeable that it's
different, but I think it set ok.
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(7-9 step 1): Ok, so I'm off
to work now... but out of curiosity I just want to take a peak at the
plans to see what's left on the rudder before we need to proseal the
trailing edge... oh... just the shear clips... well I can knock that
out pretty quick! So there I go, pop riveting the shear clips in place.
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Here's the right side rudder skin with all the internals in place...
next step... black pookie (that's Angela's word for proseal)!!!
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(8-2 step 1): After all the
chores are done, and work is done, it's back out in the garage for a
little bit. Angela's keeping a watchful eye on me, but letting me do
my thing. Yet she's gettin' antsy again... so she starts looking ahead
in the plans. Horizontal stabilizer here she comes! The first step as
usual is to debur parts. This is one of those beefy structural parts.
It's the doubler for the rear spar.
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(6-5 step 3):
Over dinner I took one final look at the rudder plans to make
sure we're ready to proseal the trailing edge. Turns out the only
thing left was to put the slight bend in the trailing edges of the
skins... Let me tell you, that was slightly nerve racking for me...
don't know why, but it was. I think it actually went ok
though. So, now, done with the rudder... only thing left before
busting out the pro seal is to assemble the vertical stabilizer
skeleton. Then we'll call it a night and pro seal tomorrow.
Kewl!
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