Wings | Andrew's RV-7 Build Log

Some More Left Flap Work

October 23, 2011

Yes.

That’s the answer to the question “Hey Andrew, are you building an airplane, or what?

Yes, yes. Of course I am. But, I am taking my time. Not out of “choice”, but out of “holy crap, there are eighteen thousand other things I have to do today”…which was the theme of the day for the last two weeks…

But, I can’t complain too much. Last weekend, I was in Chicago for Zanetoberfest, and just yesterday, the girlfriend and I headed up to Virginia to a winery.

What a hard life I lead!

Anyway, I promised myself (and my girlfriend…no more middle-seat once the airplane’s done, I promise!) that I would get a little bit done today.

So, I headed out to the garage, dusted off two weeks of non-activity, and got to work.

Last thing I had done was to (very successfully) drill the flap hinge to the left flap. It’s still a little long, though, so I need to trim it up a bit.

I know I’m going to use the “secure-in-the-middle” technique, so I used some snips (with a wide berth) to snip the soft hinge, but left the pin intact. Once I can get the wing flipped over, I can figure out which middle eyelet to remove and trim down this pin, but for now, it’s going back on the shelf as a whole until I can get it figured out.

Here's the hinge just after snipping. Notice the intact pin.

Then, We cleco on the top skin and start matchdrilling.

Sweet.

I had to do a little maneuvering to get the spacer lined up (the sandwiched thin spacer below), but I ended up getting it matchdrilled okay, too.

The shadows make these parts all look distorted, but I assure you, they are not.

I also found the AA6x125x1.5x2x10 (whoa, that’s a hell of a part number) and started marking some holes and lines for trimming.

I drew both up before trimming.

I didn't trim the shorter flange down yet. It's 1.5" now, and it needs to come down to 0.75", but I want to wait and see how everything lines up first.

After matchdrilling the three right-most (in the picture) holes from the spar, I flipped it over and drilled the five left-most holes from the angle. I had previously drilled those from markings to #40, so it was easy to drill everything up to #30 all at once.

Aluminum shavings. I've been missing you in my life.

The other portion of this support is delivered from Van’s as a straight piece. Due to the wing-to-fuselage geometry, the spar-to-rib angle is 6.3° or something. Really?

They show you where the bend line should be, so I marked it, then clecoed the only matched hole to the rib, just to make sure the line would be in the right place.

Sanity check complete, let's bend!

Of course, I didn’t take any pictures of my bending, but it worked just like everyone else; one side in a vice, the other side sandwiched between two pieces of wood. Then, some big-a55 pliers…a little finesse…Perfect. 6.3°? On the dot.

OMG, THOSE PARTS NEED DEBURRING!

Then, some more match-drilling…

I haven't been building in a few weeks, but I think this is where I'm supposed to say "TADAAAAAA!"

1.5 hours. I hope this is the start of a string of building days. We’ll see.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: bending, cleco, flap, matchdrilling, wine | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Drilled Left Flap Hinge

October 9, 2011

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Today, I kind of accidentally worked on the airplane. I wasn’t really planning on it, but I was taking out the garbage (see lower left of first picture), and I just happened to drill the first hole.

Then, I kind of drilled half the holes, and had to go back inside to get the camera.

But wait, let’s back up. I spent a lot of time the other day and before starting to drill to really make sure everything was lined up really well.

Halfway done.

Here’s my technique. I had some c-clamps along the whole length of the hinge, and every few holes, I’d cleco the drilled holes, move my three sideclamps down, drill three more, then CHECK THE HINGE FOR FREE MOVEMENT.

I’m not sure what I could have done if it had gotten out of alignment, but I was paranoid about doing this right, and my paranoia turned out to be fore no reason.

Turned out great.

After drilling all the hinge holes, I took the clamps off and was rewarded with baby’s-butt smooth hinge movement.

Done!

There’s still a little on the end I need to trim, but I’ll figure that part out another day.

I'm taking the win while I can.

Time for football!

0.5 hours.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Clamp, drill, Football, Hinge | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Started the Left Flap

October 6, 2011

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THE CHANGING OF THE PLANS!!!! [triumphant music]

Wuhoo!

Okay, this time, I’m going to be smart, and start with the left flap (the one that’s depicted on the plans).

First, I found some parts, then pulled the blue vinyl off the spar and ribs.

That longer rib on the left is actually the wrong part. I assumed there was a L and R of the long ribs (forgot the part number), but those ribs actually are L-L for the left flap and R-R for the right flap. (The flanges of both ribs point outboard.) Weird.

Anyway, the directions have you mock the ribs up with the spar, then drill.

One thing that caught me was the #40 prepunched hole for the ribs, where they will be drilled to #30. Van’s doesn’t usually do this, but I confirmed on the plans (below) that LP4-3 blind rivets will go here eventually.

Weird, but okay...drill drill drill.

I love the very beginning of a new part because it goes together quickly.

See!? I'm already clecoing on the bottom skin!.

WHOA. Van’s basically tells you in the instructions that you will need shims between the “rear spar” and the aft end of the ribs. Why don’t I need any?

They must have tightened up the tolerances on the pre-punching.

I guess I don’t need to make those shims…

Anyway, after flipping it over…

It's starting to look like an airplane!

…I got a visit.

Ginger looking at the airplane, Jack sniffing.

Jack looking at the airplane, Ginger sniffing.

They also eat, sleep, and poo… (I can’t believe I used “poo” in my blog. Sorry, mom!)

Back to work!

I do need two spacers per flap, so I made four now.

Here's where they go. I'll drill the other hole later.

Next, they ask you to get the hinge out and start drilling it.

Hmm. I’m not quite ready for this tonight. I got it aligned with where I think it should be, but I want to sleep on it (and more importantly, surf some other build sites to make sure I’m on track.)

Hinge aligned, but not drilled yet.

Maybe tomorrow….

1.0 hour, and I feel like I got a lot done.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: changing, Drilled, flap, Ginger, Hinge, Jack | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Finished the Left Aileron

October 5, 2011

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Okay. I’m writing this the next day, and you’ve already seen all these steps, so the description that goes along with the pictures is going to be a little sparse. Of course, that’s better than the opposite, where there would be lot’s of description, but no pictures. (Except then, you get puppy pictures, so it’s kind of a win-win all around, right?)

Okay, stop blabbering, Andrew. Let’s get to work!

First up, let’s get those reinforcement plates onto the spar.

3 rivets on each side, plus two for the nutplate...

Then, a couple blind rivets on the nose ribs-to-counterbalance pipe.

The Main Squeeze making a cameo!

Then, They have you rivet the nose ribs to the spar, and cleco on the leading edge skin.

My right skin kind of bent like that too, but when you cleco it to the spar, it all straightens out, I promise. 6 more rivets here.

Then, even though I was sure I’d forget…I remembered to put some RTV at the aft end of each of the stiffeners.

Had to use the flash for effect. Sorry.

Of course, I needed to get both sides of the aileron skin riveted for the rtv to set up at the right angle (probably not that critical), but nevertheless, I was comitted.

I got the assembly up on my previously-built 2×4 stands…

50% clecoed, with rivets and tape in the every-other holes.

In case you didn't believe me, I took another picture. (Really?)

I guess this picture is after I got the 42 top skin rivets done. I did this the exact same was as last time….see the link from above.

No dings, scratches, dents, etc.

Umm, this next picture looks like it’s after I squeezed some nose rib and main rib to skin rivets.

That would be 5 rivets on the nose, times 2, plus 8 rivets for the main skin to main rib, plus two flush rivets on each side...then the whole thing gets flipped over an weighted down.

Next, let’s do the counterbalance pipe to skin rivets.

Nice dimples, nice rivets.

Then, the main ribs rivets (no pictures), and last, nut not least, the 42 blind rivets across the skin on the bottom side of the aileron.

O.M.G. my hand is so tired. 7 more to go...

All done!

(Oh, I also hand tightened the aileron brackets on with the AN3-4A bolts and associated hardware. I still need to buy an in-lb torque wrench…

Pretty left aileron!

I love days like this. I feel like I accomplish a lot.

2.5 hours. 166 rivets… (and my rivet count on the left matched the rivet count on the right. That’s a good thing.)

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1 Comment | Wings | Tagged: aileron, cleco, Finished, Rivet, Squeeze | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Primed Left Aileron Parts

October 2, 2011

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No pictures today, but I spent about an hour cleaning and priming left aileron parts.

As my punishment (and your reward) for not taking any pictures…a puppy picture!

From a long time ago (2009?) but cute nonetheless.

1.0 hour. Assembly next!

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Not Puppy Priming, Priming, Puppy | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Renaming of “the event”

September 30, 2011

It turns out, that for the last week, I’d been calling last Friday’s events “that time when the puppies mauled a pillow.”

I was wrong.

The official name, as of today, September 30, is “Feathergate 2011.”

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Posted by Andrew

Prepped Left Aileron Parts

September 29, 2011

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Well, the guilt of not working on the airplane very much recently finally got to me and I had to do something.

As it turns out, I got the rest of the left aileron completely deburred, dimpled, edge finished, and scuffed, which means next session will be prep for priming and final assembly after that.

Here’s a shot of the aileron main skin, after deburring, scuffing, and dimpling.

Nice dimples, right?

Not sure why I took this shot, but I had to break into my next pack of maroon scotchbrite. I cut them up into ~3 inch squares to work with.

This is good stuff. I wonder how much I've bought so far.

Then, I repeated the process on the spar, and finally the leading edge skin. In addition to the fingerprints, I also used my edge-forming tool to make a slight bend in the edge.

This helps the skin lay (lie?) flat against the other skin. You’ll see.

Sorry for the bad picture, but it's hard to get a good angle where you can actually see the bend.

Here’s the edge forming tool.

It might be time for new wheels. I think these are worn out.

After the edge was formed, I put the leading edge skin up on my bending brace because it is a good place to hold it, and went down the row with the hand squeezer with some dimple dies.

Action shot!

Halfway through, I noticed my blue-tape-on-the-die was wearing out, so I removed it.

Of course, I tried a few dimples again without replacing the tape, and I got circles.

Duh.

So, I replaced the tape, and got nice dimples again.

Circles on the left, no circles on the right.

Here's a new piece of tape. No more circles.

1.5 hours. Next up: cleaning, priming, and final assembly!

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Deburr, dimple, edge finish, prep, scuff | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Some Left Aileron Deburring

September 25, 2011

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Well, I’ve definitely learned something about myself this weekend. After I pass the initial excitement of a completed assembly, I have a hard time repeating all of those little boring steps to get the second one done.

I’m pretty sure I experienced this on the second elevator, I’ve definitely experienced this on the left/right wings, and right now, I’m having trouble motivating enough to get finished up on this left aileron.

BUT.

The other half of this airplane isn’t going to finish itself, so let’s get to it.

A few weeks ago, I left off on the left aileron after having matchdrilled everything, so today, I got it all disassembled, and started in on the tedious crap.

Here are most of the parts (except the skin) after disassembly. Let's start prepping.

The nice thing on this second aileron is that I’ve already done everything once.

No sweat here countersinking the counterbalance pipe.

A little deeper than flush, as usual, to make plenty of room for the skin.

Oh yeah, I had forgotten to flute the nose rib between the two x’s, so I marked them with…well…x’s, so I wouldn’t forget to flute, then drill them as I was taking everything apart.

I clearly went a little overboard on the flute there. I "unfluted" a little before matchdrilling.

Then ( I guess I was bad at taking pictures today), I clecoed the skin back onto the counterbalance pipe, balanced the assembly on a 2×4 (which was part of my bending brake I had attached to my workbench), and dimpled using the die from my borrowed c-frame.

They all turned out great, like the ones on the right aileron.

Then, I got to deburring and dimpling. I worked on the ribs and reinforcement plates, leaving the spar and skins until another boring day.

asdf

One kind-of-boring hour tonight. Maybe the next few sessions will pick up.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: aileron, boring, Deburr, dimple, scuff | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Finished the Right Aileron

September 17, 2011

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Wuhoo! As you can tell by the title, I got a TON of airplane work done today. I actually did everything in three 1-hour sessions. Worked out well for everyone.

In the first session, I unclecoed the work I had done last night, and built a little stand (like every other builder) to screw the spar to for riveting help.

I copied this from many builders.

Whoa, I guess the next picture I took was of some shop heads. Moving right along…

My old bucking bar (non tungsten) has an angled edge to it, so I could wedge it in here to buck. It worked perfectly.

In terms of shooting the rivets from the outside, I copied Mike Bullock (about 3/4 the way down this page), but instead of building a little wood stand, I just stacked 3 2×4 blocks. It worked for me with my gun size/flush set, etc.

I'm about halfway through the top skin-to-spar rivets here, demonstrating the technique.

To buck, you reach up, around, and under the lower skin to hold the bucking bar in place.

After you buck, you slide both hands down a few holes and do it again.

I’m glad I’m pretty strict about edge-finishing skins.

This is NOT a cry for help. Well, maybe it is, but it would only be for some sort of arm-hair control product. (I could braid that if I wanted to...)

Alright, moving on, here’s an eerily blue (LED flashlight) picture of the top spar rivets done.

Left side of the picture for the interesting bits.

I didn’t shoot and buck the inboard- and outboard-most rivets. I could easily squeeze those, except for the very edge ones, which tended to sit up from the underlying skin. I devised a little trick to hold the skin down while leaving enough space for a rivet set (of the squeezer) to do it’s magic.

If my side clamp would have been a little longer, I wouldn't have needed the washer, but this worked out okay. (Okay = perfect.)

42 rivets done with no mistakes!

Next up is to get the nose ribs and main ribs riveted on the top side of the aileron.

And thus starts the second session of the night.

CRAP, I forgot to prep the main ribs.

Deburr, dimpl- CRAP, I can’t use a regular die on the aft-most holes. Out comes my steel bar with a countersink in the edge. You remember this from my empennage posts however many years ago…

You stick a rivet in the hole to be dimpled, then put the underside in the countersink, and give it a few pulls from a rivet gun with a flush set.

Not very pretty, but it works great.

I love it when I already have solutions to problems.

This are going mighty smoothly.

So smoothly, in fact, that I HAD to mess something up. Can you see what’s wrong with this picture?

Yup, the two flush rivets on the right side of the picture shouldn't have gone in yet, they should wait for the rib. Dumb Andrew.

While I’m waiting on the ribs, let me set the nose rib rivets on the top side.

5 here, and 5 on the other side. (The two bad rivets are still in this picture, I can't remember when I ended up drilling those out.)

After those nose rivets, they want you to set the top rivets in the other ribs, then cleco everything together and flip it over.

I’m not quite ready for the main rivets yet, but I think I’m okay to cleco everything together.

HA! I TOTALLY REMEMBERED TO USE RTV AT THE AFT END OF THE STIFFENERS!

I remembered this for my first elevator, but then forgot it on the second one. I’ve been reminding myself for A YEAR AND A HALF to not forget it on the ailerons.

I bet I forget it on the left aileron.

Just a dab, behind the...stiffeners.

These pictures might be out of order. After the RTV, I clecoed the bottom part of the skin to the spar and then went outside to fetch the ribs, which were dry (although not primed in this picture below. Weird.)

Right Inboard and Right Outboard. Pretty complicated, right?

Okay, I think we’re back on track now. The ribs are dry, and they are now riveted to the top part of the skin.

16 more flush rivets. 8 on each side.

Then, the third session of the night, and the last few steps of the aileron!

First, flip that bad boy over and make sure it’s flat. I used the MDF workbench, an extra piece of MDF, and some stones.

Things were flatter than Kansas.

They first want you to set all the counterbalance pipe ribs.

This went great, and I didn't feel like I had to round off the rivet heads with a hammer after setting them like other builders...

After those 14 rivets, you’re supposed to set the 6 nose rib rivets, 3 on each side.

6x check.

This is a really long post. Are you guys still with me?

I hope so, this is the fun part.

After those, you set the main rib-to-skin- rivets (16 there, too), which are partially hidden by the top piece of MDF here, then move on to the skins-to-spar blind rivets.

Halfway done here.

A closeup after pulling those. Looks pretty good, right?

That was 42 more rivets.

Then, you step back and cheer!

Or don't cheer, and just take another closeup picture.

Okay, have you guys been counting rivets with me? I couldn’t keep track very well, so I started just writing them on the skins.

My final number for the evening?

150.

With about 10 minutes left before the next half-hour tick (cause I only log time in 30 minute increments), I decided to get the aileron brackets attached. All went well (with the usual AN3-4A bolts, some AN960-10(regular and/or L) washers, and AN365-1032 nuts, except there was one hole that wasn’t quite perfect. It was fine, but just stubborn enough that my pinky (the only finger I could use to slide the bolts in) couldn’t push hard enough.

My solution? Take my economy squeezer with no die in the yoke (the black part), and squeeze the bolt in. Since there is no die back there, the bolt just slides into the hole in the yoke as it’s squeezed.

Worked great!

After some fiddling, I got all of the nuts on, just past finger-tight. I need an in-lb torque wrench and some inspection lacquer.

This is the outboard end. The inboard end is similar, but a little different.

Then, I had to take a step back and look at my completed aileron.

(Triumphant music playing...)

Good day today, and I got to take an airplane part up to the airplane storage room, I mean, the exercise room…

3 hours. 150 rivets, 4 of them drilled out because I’m dumb and didn’t pay attention.

Time for bed.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: aileron, dimple, prime, Pull, Rivet, Squeeze, Trick | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Clecoed Together the Right Aileron

September 16, 2011

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Tonight, my main goal was to get the right aileron to a place where tomorrow I could start riveting on it. The last two paragraphs of the aileron section in the manual are pretty confusing, and you have to read them over and over to make sure you stick to the very specific order of riveting. I don’t want to get started on any of the confusing tonight, so I’m going to concentrate on prep work.

First up, get the right aileron skin deburred, dimpled, cleaned, and primed.

I wasn’t too good at taking pictures of the boring stuff up front, but here are the leading edge and aft aileron skins back inside (from the driveway) to dry after priming.

I had previously pulled the internal blue vinyl off the skins, so my priming lines weren't as neat as they usually are. That drove me nuts, but I resisted the urge to tape them off. Build on, Andrew!

While I waiting, I clecoed the right wing bottom skins. Now the right wing can be removed from the stand and moved to the cradle (once I decide how to build it/use it while I’m building the left wing).

I like how it looks like a wing.

After some drying time, I started following the instructions for assembly. First up, lay the counterbalance pipe and nose ribs inside the leading edge skin.

check!

Then, rivet the nose ribs to the spar. (6x check, although no pictures, sorry.)

Then, cleco the nose skin to the aft skin to the spar.

I was very careful to remember to use my edge roller to put a little bend in the edge of the overlapping skins. See where the cleco is missing? I used this (and the clecoed section to the right) to illustrate how well everything will pull together once rivets are set.

No gap there between skins to the right. Sweet. You can barely make out how I rolled the edge of the nose skin a little.

Once I got clecos in the top half of the aileron…

Whoa, clecos!

I flipped the aileron over and started clecoing the bottom. I know the first step when riveting tomorrow is to take all of these out so I can reach under and around for the top rivets, but I wanted to mock it up to confirm the bottom skin was going to lay together as nicely as the top skin.