Bucking | Andrew's RV-7 Build Log

Right Wing Skinned!

November 18, 2012

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Hey, look at that!

We’ve got some major visible progress going on here.

Cousin Taylor came over today and we got the rest of the right wing lower skin riveted.

So shiny!

You get a landscape version, too.

It feels pretty good to have the right wing skinned. All that’s left now is some inspection ports, the pushrods (which I’ll probably postpone until both wings are done).

After that, I’ll get started on the left wing.

1.5 hours for two of us, so 3.0 hours. 178 rivets. Yee haw.

If I break down the hours so far:

Emp (total): 160.5 hours

Misc Wings: 10.5 hours

Spars: 19.0 hours

Ribs: 18.0 hours

Wing: 79.0 hours

Tanks: 46.0 hours

Ail: 27.5 hours

Flaps: 30.5 hours

Wings (total) 230.5 hours

Overall (total): 393.0 hours

HOWEVER. Some of this work (aileron, misc wing, spars) was some left wing work, too. I’m going to estimate time to finish the left wing as Ribs (18.0), Wing (79.0), and tank (46.0) hours. That comes to 143 hours remaining on the left wing. I’ll probably go a little faster than that, but this is a good estimate, and puts me around 550 hours when I’m done with the wings. That sounds about right.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Bucking, right wing, Riveting, Shiny, shooting | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

This is Not a Cry for Help

November 5, 2012

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No, I have not started cutting.

This is just me (and my hairy arm) working on getting some more of the right inboard bottom skin riveted.

Hairy arm!

Yup, it’s officially three days in a row!

I have to admit, though, that it’s a lot easier when you have all the rivets preloaded, and all you have to do is start banging away on them.

Tonight, I actually got two more bays done, in just 30 minutes. I couldn’t reach 5 of the rivets, so I really will need some help.

From this angle, the 5 rivets can only be reached from below, and my arm wasn’t long enough for both bucking and shooting. I’m sure I can get these with two people.

53 rivets in 30 minutes. Next time, I’ll probably be able to knock out the rest of the inboard skin, then start prepping and riveting the outboard skin. Wuhoo!

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Bucking, Cry for Help, Riveting, shooting | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Finished Riveting Right Wing Top Skins

September 3, 2011

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Well, today was an excellent day.

Joe was planning to come over to finish up the right top skins, so while I waited, I started in on dimpling the aileron skins (just the stiffener holes) with the c-frame.

All went pretty well, except for a place where I dropped the c-frame die on the skin (top surface, of course). It made a little dot impression, so I flipped the skin over on the MDF and gently tapped with a hammer until it came out.

(NOTE: do not put a bucking bar behind it thinking that will be better. The wood has a little give to it, so you don’t deform the skin. If you use the bucking bar, you’ll squish the skin. Ask me how I know.) I think I have to paint the ailerons now (instead of polishing).

Anyway, nice dimples.

Before Joe and I got started, I snapped this picture of the “every other” method I’m using.

The rivet row we're working on here is at the bottom of the gold spar flange.

After a whole bunch of bucking and shooting, we came up with this.

Tada!!!!!!

For the last three rivets, we switched places so Joe could get some experience bucking and I could say I shot a few of the rivets on the skins. Turns out, I like bucking better and Joe likes shooting better.

If you look really closely, towards the foreground on the inboard top skin, I wrote 38, 5, 80, 43. That’s how many rivets we bucked. 166.

0.5 hours on the aileron skin, then 45 minutes (or 1.5 man-hours) on the skins. 2.0 total.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Bucking, Joe, rivets, shooting, top skins | Permalink
Posted by Andrew