7-2, Step 1 calls for separating
the R-1003 top ribs into individual components, R-1003A and
R-1003B. Here Angela is knocking off the remaining tabs left
after separating the two pieces.
After that comes the two rudder bottom rib parts, R-1004A & B.
Cruising right through the shear clips, Angela jumped right into Section 7, page 3, the rudder stiffeners.
Angela continued cutting &
deburring stiffeners until I finished deburring the skin. There
are still a few more to do, but we're making some good progress.
Can't wait to continue tomorrow...
First step is finishing the R-1015
stiffeners (7-3 step 1). They're all cut to length, but still
need the triangular portion removed fron the angled end. These
will eventually be clecoed together with shear clips like the ones at
the top of the picture.
Next step is to debur the R-1005 Rudder Horn (7-4 step 2), and then countersink 4 holes in it (2 on one side, 2 on the other.)
7-4 Step 3 has us clecoing the
R-1005 Rudder Horn to the R-1004 Bottom Rib Assembly. This is so
we can match-drill the 6 holes in the Rudder Horn to the Bottom Rib
Web. Once done, we use these new holes to cleco the assembly
together. Here you can see the assembly and the countersunk holes
from the previous step.
And this is a shot of the whole assembly after 7-4 step 3.
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After deburring the R-1002 Spar,
Angela clecoed the R-1005 Rudder Horn, the R-1007A Striker Plates, and
the R-1004 Bottom Rib halves to it. This proved to be quite
challenging, as there were a (relatively) large number of parts in a
small area. Once mated it was time to final drill the common
holes.
Unfortunately, it seems everyone
has to learn at least one thing the hard way. Well, this was our
time... The Striker Plates were proving to be quite difficult to hold
in place while drilling. They only have two holes, so that means
while you're drilling one, the plate is only being held with one
cleco. This would not work since the plate would move as soon as
the drill was powered up. So, Angela tried a few different
clamping arrangements and eventually got one to work... that is for the
Striker Plates. Well, it turns out that the R-1004 Bottom Rib
Halves were allowed to move out of position slightly. They were
on the underside, and in all the work put into the getting the Striker
Plates to stay put they were forgotten about. This resulted in
the holes being slightly out of position. This pic will be sent
to Van's tech support Monday morning just to give us the warm fuzzies
that everything is ok to proceed...
Sheet 5 of section 7 had Angela
clecoing the R-1015 Stiffeners and the R-1010A Shear Clips to the
R-1002 Spar as well as the R-607PP & R-608PP Reinforcement
Plates. Once all together all the holes were final drilled.
Ahhh yes... now the rudder starts
taking shape! 7-6 had Angela clecoing and final drilling the
Counterbalance Rib & the Top Rib to the top of the Spar. Once
these were done, all the internals of the rudder were in place just
begging for the skins to be put on! The next step is to cleco the
R-1006 Trailing Edge in place in order to mark it for cutting to
size. So after attaching one of the skins, the trailing edge goes
on. Tomorrow we'll mark it and get it cut.
Here's a close up showing the trailing edge in place and how the end of it now follows the lines of the skin.
Ok, maybe she coerced me into helping her with some of the clecoes...
Per 7-6 step 6, final drilling the
trailing edge should be done perpendicular to the rudder chord instead
of the skin surface like all the other holes. We found a simple
method of determining this was for me to stand at the end of the rudder
and let Angela know when she was pretty close to the right angle.
With her concentrating on the up and down, and me concentrating on the
left and right (or is that the other way around??) we whipped through
the trailing edge pretty quick.
(7-6 step 11):
Angela was experimenting with dimpling techniques on the rudder
parts. I think she was enjoying playing with the vice-grip
dimplers we picked up at Sun-n-Fun more than anything ;-)
Continuing on with deburring, Angela decided to give the countersink bit in the drill a try... she liked it too!
(7-6 step 13): Nothing
special here, just scuffing up the inside of the rudder skins in
preparation for priming. This took a little longer than it should
have because I had to remove those scratches I put in them last
night. I think I'll just clean them up a bit and put off the
dimpling until tomorrow night...
(7-6 step 12): Man,
almost forgot about this one... I figured we were all ready for
priming, and then a quick check of the plans before turning in for the
night I realized we hadn't countersunk the trailing edge yet... ugh...
seems like the tasks never end! Well, I decided to try the
countersink in the drill press this time around. In order to do
it I needed a method to hold the surface of the trailing edge to be
countersunk, flat. I think the angle of taper on the trailing
edge comes out to be about 12°, so I cut a couple of 2x4's
lengthwise at this angle and them bolted them together to form a
V-shape. I also had to cut a little bit out of the center in
order to allow the microstop cage, which hangs over both sides of the
trailing edge, enough room to come all the way down to sit on the
trailing edge. Seems to work ok...
Now, we're finally done with all
the prep, so we had our first big Alumiprep party... I say Alumiprep,
and not Alodine because as we were finishing up some of the neighbors
decided to drop by and check out the progress. Turns out they
stayed for what seemed like hours! By the time they left, it was
after 11:00 at night, and there was no way we were going to go through
that whole process again for the Alodine... argh! We're
tired!! Looks like it'll be tomorrow.
Ok, back from the chapter
meeting... some good info on fiberglass work, and met a lot of new
people (only our second time there). I also took one of our parts
affected by the screen door fiasco with us and showed it to our tech
advisor... he seemed to think it was fine, especially since we still
plan on priming it. That's my plan for the rest of the day, to
get all this stuff primed! First, I needed a nap... we didn't get
much sleep last night... I guess I needed it more than I thought
because 2+ hours later, I still wasn't ready to get up, but I
reluctantly did. Anyway... I roll out into the garage, and start
getting things set up for priming...
I haven't ever used a spray gun
before, so that took a little getting used to! I think I still
need some work though... a bunch actually!! Man... this was a
frustrating week for me... it was a learning week... a lot of time
spent on stuff that didn't seem to produce a lot! And the stuff
we did do, didn't seem to come out to our expectations. I primed
tonight for the very first time... it left a lot to be desired. I
planned to get it all done tonight, but that didn't happen. It
was windy, so I wasn't able to open the garage door for fear of stuff
blowing all over the place (yes, it's that windy outside). I
usually open the door about 6 or 8 inches in these cases, and even then
you can feel a breeze inside the garage. That being the case I
decided we were good to go for priming so I went at it. After the
first round I sprayed some thinner through the gun to clean it out... I
don't know if anybody reading this has used the AKZO recommended TR-19
thinner before, but let me tell you that stuff is POTENT! I
didn't realize it at the time (my filter mask eveidently works
exceptionally well!) but the fumes from this stuff were
phenominal! I came in the house, took off my mask, and inside of
30 seconds, Angela was remarking about the fumes... from the other side
of the house! Lesson learned... All priming will be done outside,
or at the very least with the garage door completely opened!
We're letting the garage air out now, and will continue the priming
later! Another lesson learned/decision made... our original
priming strategy was to Alodine & prime all non-Alclad parts, and
only prime the Alclad stuff. We completely forgot that most of
the spars and ribs are made out of Alclad sheet
(DOH!) If we'd realized this, we'd have saved
ourselves a lot of time this week by not having to Alodine 90% of what
we did... oh well... frustrating. Good thing is I've learned a
lot this week... a lot!
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Ah-Ha! I figured it out... the AKZO primer directions indicate there is a 30-minute "induction time". I have heard this implies mixing the 2 parts and then waiting 30-minutes before using it. Last night I did not do this. Tonight, after returning from Easter with the family, I decided to finish up the priming. This time I did let the mixture sit 30-minutes prior to using, and the results were immediately noticeable! This looks more like it!
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So, cool! Now we're ready to get on with some actual assembly... things are going to be exciting next time :-)
Here's a shot of it after it's done. You can also see a pretty decent
sized nutplate attached to the backside of the horn. This is where the
lower rudder attachment hardware goes.
(7-7 step 3): Next on the
assembly list was the reinforcement plates on the rudder spar. You
can also see a couple of nutplates here too. These are the other 2 of
the 3 total rudder attachment points.
(7-7 step 5): After the spar
assembly came our first experience with back riveting. We had both
done a little in the Orndorff sheet metal class back in November, but
this was the first time with our own tools, and the backing plate a
friend cut for us. Well, we were doing so well that Angela felt I
could work unsupervised for a bit... I guess she was wrong! While she
was inside checking on dinner, I was marveling at my back riveting
ability... those are some pretty nice rivets, eh! Problem is, most
rivets are used to JOIN pieces, not just fill holes... somebody forgot
to tell me that (add another point to the 'bonehead' column!)
So anyway, I was forced to learn how to drill out rivets tonight... it
actually wasn't too bad. I was able to maintain the original hole
sizes, so I'll claim that as a success!
A little reluctant to leave me alone now, Angela decided to come back
and help out ;-) We alternated stiffeners (she'd do one, I'd do the
next one) that way we shared the fun. Here she's checking our work.
Putting on the finishing touches. It really is amazing how much that
flimsy .016" skin stiffens up with these guys in place... with no real
appreciable weight gain!
Finished with the right-side skin stiffeners. Now its time to eat!! I
think we'll call it a night and do the left side-tomorrow.
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.
(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.
Here's the right side rudder skin with all the internals in place...
next step... black pookie (that's Angela's word for proseal)!!!
(7-9 step 4): Once I got the
angle iron all drilled we went back to figuring out our plan for the
pro seal. We got our roles down, and mixed the stuff up... we were
off!! That stuff is thick! It doesn't spread well, and as everyone
else has said, it sticks to everything. We basically smeared the
trailing edge, layed it in place on the right rudder skin, and then
while Angela held the left rudder skin up out of the way, I began
placing a cleco in every other hole in the trailing edge beginning from
the bottom. When we got a couple of holes away from a stiffener, I
would pop rivet the rear of the two stiffeners together. I would then
put a few more clecos in until we got to the next stiffeners, and pop
rivet those. This continued all the way to the top. At this point
Angela took over and put in the remaining clecos in the trailing edge
while I turned my attention to the vertical stabilizer...
(7-9 step 5): Once done with
the pro seal, it was back to the rudder to pop rivet the stiffeners to
the shear clips. Angela started these but wasn't pleased with her
results and asked me to continue it... not really sure if I did any
better!
(7-9 step 8): Here's a shot of
the rudder with the trailing edge clecod to the angle iron and the
weights Van's recommends to hold the trailing edge straight. Once this
stuff cures in a couple of days we'll rivet the trailing edge, insert
the rudder spar, and see about installing the counter weight... so
there's still a little bit to go... but it's starting to look like an
airplane part!
(7-10 step 3): Next was attaching the bottom rudder rib assembly and the striker plates to the spar.
This is a shot of the bottom rudder rib assembly and the striker plates
riveted in place. All rivets that fall above the bottom rib web are
pop rivets since the backs of them can not be reached for bucking. All
those below the web, are solid rivets and were squeezed.
(7-10 step 4): The last step
on the rudder before calling it a night was to rivet the top rib
together and to the spar. I adjusted the squeezer and set as many of
the rivets as it would reach. The remaining ones were done with the
rivet gun and bucking bar. This was the first time using a universal
head set, and also bucking an 1/8" rivet. The results turned out
rather well! That is until the very last rivet (why is that!!) This
is a picture looking up inside the top of the rudder where the top rib
(on the left) attaches to the spar (on the right) I had the bucking
bar firmly pressed against the rivet while the gun was on the achine
head on the opposite side of the top rib. During the 1-2 second burst
the rudder moved and the bucking bar pressed right up into the top rib
web while the rivet gun stayed nicely planted on the rivet head. This
caused a deflection in the web of about 1/8". I taped the head of a
hammer (to protect the metal) and with a bucking bar on the underside
of the web used it to tap the web back roughly flat. I sent these
pictures to Van's and their feeling was that it was ok, so onward we go!
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A pic down the rivet-line. The squeezer definitely does a nice job!
(7-10 step 6): A quick look at
the clock and I'm past my pre-determined stop time... but it won't take
that long to put the counterbalance rib in real quick ;-) Pop riveted
it to the spar, and then riveted all but the front 3 holes along each
flange. Ok, now I'll turn in!
I
took my sweet time doing this, as I did not want a curved or 'hooked'
trailing edge on the rudder. It might have been overkill, but I
checked the straightness of the rudder after every rivet.
I
had also heard that one good defense against a 'hooked' rudder was to
do every-other rivet from one side, & the others from the other
side. This made sense to me since the reason a hook occurs is
because of the rivets putting more stress on one side than the
other. If you could divide that stess up equally to both sides,
then it seemed this would help counter the problem. I know its
possible to do a perfect job with them all from one side, but I'm sure
that takes a bit of skill... and as of right now, I don't have a whole
bunch of that! So I'm trying to put the odds in my favor.
After partially setting the first batch of rivets I flipped the rudder
over (per the plans) and finished setting the rivets on their
manufactured head in more or less the same order I did them
originally. This produced a nice flat head on the shop side, and
as a bonus, the longer-than-called-for rivets actually filled up the
dimples much better than the rivets we did on our training project back
in November. Here's a shot showing the manufactured head side
after the first batch. The other holes will be filled with rivets
from the other side. You can also see the 'slight bend' Van's
calls for in the trailing edge. We decided this probably wasn't
necessary since it remained after we completed the trailing edge.
All-in-all, the trailing edge turned out pretty nice. I didn't take a picture of it, but trust me... it did ;-)
After cleaning the leading edges up I closed them up with clecos to see
how they fit. There were some bulges between clecos in a couple of
places so I'd pull the leading edges back apart, massage them a little
by hand, and cleco again. This took a while but I was eventually happy
with the results. After that it was time to final drill the holes for
the AD-41-ABS pop rivets that would eventually hold it shut. Original
thought was to simply drill the holes while the rudder was laying on
the table, but in order to keep as much of the aluminum shavings out of
the internal part of the rudder I decided to stand it up and tilt it
towards me while I drilled. This would allow the shavings to slide
down the leading edge as opposed to fall back through the lightening
holes in the rudder spar.
(7-11 step 2): Since priming,
as most builders will tell you, is mainly for peace of mind, we decided
early on that every part of this plane will be primed. Well, since the
rudder leading edge skins overlap each other, one of them wouldn't be
exposed for painting later, so we decided to put a coat of primer on it
before closing it up. I roughed up the surface with a scotchbrite pad,
mixed up some of our AKZO primer & brushed it on before clecoing
the leading edges in preparation for riveting.
Since the final drilling left the holes exposed I also dipped the
rivets prior to popping them in... may not take the time to do this
step in the future, but I wanted to try it & I was in the mood.
Since I already had the primer mixed up, this added negligible time to
the process. Here's a shot of the leading edge after it was complete.
Now all that's left is the counter balance!
(7-12 step 3): The
only thing left to do was dimple the skins for the countersunk screws,
countersink the lead weight to accept the dimples in the skins and
finally install the hardware. Here's a shot of the finished
product! The plans indicate if you close the skins up over the
counterbalance and the outer skin buldges between the two screws, you
can place another screw in between. Our skins laid flat.
Also, one other thing... since this is another place where the skins
overlap, we needed to put some sort of protection on the skin
underneath. I had just picked up our Alodine 1132 pen, so I used
it for the first time here. So now... YES! We're DONE WITH
THE RUDDER!!
And... drum roll please... here
they are... Our completed vertical stabilizer and rudder! Some
day these babies will be controlling the yaw in our very own
airplane!! Ahhh we can dream can't we... Is it too early to
make airplane noises yet ;-)
