Dimpling | Andrew's RV-7 Build Log

First Avery tool order

December 25, 2009

Dec 25, 2009

I made another tool order last night. This time from Avery. I’ve heard really good things about them, but they tend to be more expensive for some things. Merry Christmas to me (and all of you…).

POP RIVET DIMPLERS – 3/32″ – These dimple dies are for hard to reach places in the aft end of ribs. You can also use them on the skins, if you don’t really want to buy a c-frame, (or are planning on borrowing one, and haven’t gotten around to it.) I know a few people on the forums who have done all of their skins with pop-rivet dies. I definitely need them for the ribs, so if they work out, I’ll try them on the skins. Otherwise, I’ll get the c-frame.

3/32″ TANK DIES – This is for dimpling the understructure (ribs, etc.) with a slightly larger dimple (dies were made for dimpling the fuel tanks, where the pro-seal required to seal the tanks prevents the rivet head from sitting flush). I’ve decided, after reading Brad Oliver’s post on the tank dies here, and then confirming that many builders have gone this route, that this will be a good idea.

EXTRA LONG DOUBLE OFFSET BACK RIVET SET – I need a backrivet set anyway, so instead of ordering the cheap (pronounced “great value”) one from the Yard, I decided to just get one…one that will work when I need to backrivet something (in the wings?) with a double offset. People rave about backriveting the wing skins, and while I am a long way from those steps, at least now I’ll only need one backrivet set instead of two.

DRILL STOPS – #40 Drill Stop – I tried to make my own drill stops out of tubing, but it didn’t work. I hope these are nice.

DRILL STOPS – #30 Drill Stop – Needed the #30 size, too.

MONOGRAM AIRCRAFT SHEET METAL FASTENERS (CLECOS) – 1/8″ CLECO – Ha. I bought 18 of these to bring my subtotal to $100.02. Free shipping over $100! I’m so clever.

Avery tool order that came in. Wuhoo! Apparently I had already put away the pop rivet dimplers. Sorry. They come in a little plastic baggy about the size of the drill stop bags with about 6 extra nails in it.

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Leave a Comment » | Builder's Log, Tools | Tagged: Avery, Backriveting, cleco, Dimpling, order, Tools, yard | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Saw RV-12 at EAA 1114

November 21, 2009

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A couple things for the last few weeks. Per my last post, I’ve been increasingly interested in polishing. I think it is a a great look. Even though it is a ton of work, and everyone will flock to the airplane with their dirty little fingers, I think it would be an amazing look for the RV-7.

Also, I’ve set a date for the ordering of the empennage kit. Dec 12, 2009. We’ll see how that goes, but everything seems to be falling in place.

Today, I managed to scoot over to Cary, NC and check out the east coast RV-12 demonstrator (the “blue ship”). Wow, it was beautiful. Mitch (Vans’ east coast representative) was a really nice guy, and explained a lot of things about the RV-12. A couple things of note:

555 hours from first kit to first flight
65 hours for both wings to be completed.
“100 or so” holes to be drilled (almost all match-drilled)
Most of the holes on the kit are prepunched to final size (no drilling, deburring, dimpling)

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Leave a Comment » | Other | Tagged: Dimpling, EAA, Polish, RV Pictures, Tip-up | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Practice Kit – Finished

October 4, 2009

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Sunday morning, I managed to finish off the practice kit. Here are the pictures.

Here are the skins riveted to the spar. Notice how I didn't make the jig to hold it to the table.

Another shot of the skins riveted to the spar.

After the skins were riveted to the ribs and the trailing edge wedge, I rolled the leading edge and clecloed it together. I haven't edge formed the top skin yet, hence the ripples.

The finished product.

Overall, I am happy with the results. I don’t think they are airplane worthy (I don’t know if I will ever be happy with the final product), but I feel like I am ready to start on the real kit. All of the riveting came out nice, but some of the other aspects (dimpling, countersinking, edge rolling) are still not up to par.

Biggest lesson so far:

1) Go slow, take your time, read the plans, and be careful.
2) The skins don’t look too bad, but I have a feeling there will be too many scratches to polish the final airplane. I’m planning on paint anyway, so I should be okay.
3) Other things, I want to acquire some of the tank dimple dies for the understructure. Some of the skin to rib seams didn’t sit as nicely as I wanted, and I think the slightly deeper dimples in the ribs will accept the dimple in the skin better.
4) Buy a bigger backriveting plate. I just have a 1 x1/2 x 36 inch steel stock. I had to be really careful to keep the rivets lined up. With a wider plate, I wouldn’t’ have had to move the skin around, which caused…
5) …scratches in the skin. Next time I removed the vinyl from the skin, I am going to immediately replace it with painters tape. All of the scratches on the skin are where I removed the vinyl. This can be prevented.
6) Priming. Using the self-etching primer is so easy, I think I may do all of the interior skin next time ( I only primed the rivet lines, where two pieces of metal would meet this time).
7) I need a no-hole yoke for the rivets near the rear of the trailing edge. I managed with a thin bucking bar, but I didn’t like the results. A no-hole would make this a non-issue.

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Leave a Comment » | Practice Kit | Tagged: Countersinking, Dimpling, Practice Kit, Priming, Riveting, Vinyl | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Finished the first assembly in the Practice Kit

September 29, 2009

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Tonight, I finished the first assembly in the practice kit. Only a few notes, and some lessons learned.

Big lessons learned:

The soldering iron leaves a mark if you aren’t careful, be gentle, and go slow enough that it melts the vinyl.
Deburring holes was very easy, even with just an oversize drill bit.
Buy a nice countersink. I faked it with a drill bit, and the results will not be acceptable on the real project.
Less scratches tonight, but still a lot. I need to get some scotchbrite pads and self-etching primer to rehearse the prep and priming phases.
I want to experiment with priming before dimpling. I’ve heard people have had good results (said another way, no bad results due to priming a weirdly angled surface in the dimple.)

I got out the soldering gun and tried my hand at removing the vinyl covering in a straight line.

MY FIRST RIVET. AN426AD3-3. It is so beautiful.

Three more rivets. I squeezed and bucked with flush and cupped sets. I am using a 4X gun, which means I had the pressure all the way down to 20 psig. It worked really well for the AD3s, but I might need more pressure for the AD4-4s.

The final (and blurry) product. It's probably for the best that you can't see the fingerprints and scratches on it.

I am very happy that I did this part of the practice kit first. Now I know how to proceed on the real kit, and nothing with drilling, deburring, dimpling, countersinking, or riveting will be new to me, even on the practice kit. (I plan on displaying the practice kit prominently, so it better look good.)

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Leave a Comment » | Builder's Log | Tagged: Countersinking, Dimpling, Practice Kit, Priming, Riveting, Vinyl | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Ordered some more tools. Again.

September 15, 2009

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Ordered some more tools today. I’ll update the post when they come in. I’ve been ordering from The Yard, given the price advantage. Until I run into bad quality, I’ll probably just continue along that route. I’m sure some of you may have some comments about that.

Here’s the list. So far, project costs is $596 dollars. I have a spreadsheet I keep with estimated cost for each tool, then my actual costs, including shipping (free if order is over $100 with the yard). Then I calculate how much I save for each tool or item. I’m estimating I’ve saved about $678 by shopping around vigorously.

K Series Spring Cleco 3/32″ (0-1/4″)
K Series Spring Cleco 1/8″ (0-1/4″)
Cleco Pliers with Grip
#30 High-Speed Jobber Bit – 135 degee Split Point
#40 High-Speed Jobber Bit – 135 degee Split Point
Auto Center Punch Large
Safety Glasses Clear
Plastic Spring Clamp Small
Plastic Spring Clamp Medium
12″ Drill Bit High Speed #30 AED
12″ Drill Bit High Speed #40 AED
Dimple Die Set 3/32″ Male/Female
Dimple Die Set 1/8″ Male/Female

9/18/09 Update: The above ordered tools arrived, and I am again happy with their quality. I added some more spaces to the right of my rivet/squeezer/dimple set tool holder of sorts. Here are a few pics of the tools and their new home.