More Right HS Riveting

January 17, 2010

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After a nice day off (had to work), I got back in the garage this morning for some good progress.

I started off by assessing the damage from the other day’s skin denting fiasco. I contemplated removing HS-707 entirely (from the top skin, too) so I could really get in there and smooth this sucker out. I even got everything mocked up in the c-frame again to look at the feasibility of getting rid of this dent. Then I decided I would have probably caused more harm than good, and that it looked a lot better today than it did the other day. After re-clecoing HS-708 into the skin with HS-707 and re-riveting the bottom skin to HS-707, I took this picture. The dented area is between the bottom two rivets in the picture. It’s really not that bad.

The denting between the bottom two rivets is really not that bad. And, it's on the bottom of the right HS. No one will look there. Unless you are reading this, and come to see my airplane, and want to see the dent on the bottom of the right HS. Damn you.

Anyway, with that done and behind me, I clecoed in the front spar assembly from Friday.

Upside-down HS assembly after starting to cleco the front spar (already riveted to the left HS skin) into the right HS skin.

CRAP! I forgot to remove the blue vinyl from the inboard bay before clecoing everything together. Okay, let’s un-cleco, remove, the vinyl, and recleco. Great. After inspecting (admiring, really) the assembly, I noticed a loose rivet (as opposed to a prude rivet. Hehe.). It was one of the two forward HS-707 rivets (by the denting). Grrr. Okay, should I un-cleco everything, and risk scratching everything in the process, or drill out two small rivets in the HS-404 to get my arm in there. I decided to go with drilling, since apparently I am really good at drilling rivets out. Without any issue, I got HS-404 removed and reached in to replace the offending rivet (second from the right in the picture).

HS-404 removed so I could reach in to replace the loose rivet.

Then, I reinstalled HS-404. (But took this picture before I actually riveted it to HS-702 (front spar) and HS-405 (aft root rib) behind the spar. Just pretend there are perfectly driven rivets there.

HS-404 reinstalled and the rest of the skin clecoed together.

Time to skin rivet. I like this part. Here is my technique. I stick the appropriate sized rivet in the hole, cover with blue tape, then reach in with the bucking bar, and shoot with my flush set, which is also covered in blue tape. Then, I remove the rest of the clecos, put rivets in again, and move all this little pieces of blue tape over one. (Then I figured out that on the second round, I could remove all the blue pieces of tape and run a whole line of tape along the line. I just had to make sure verify which rivets I had the bucking bar behind by pushing up on it a little. you can then see the rivet pushing up behind the tape. Bucking bar in place, I can set the gun down on the rivet and shoot.)

If you were counting, you noticed there are now two pieces of blue tape between the flush set and the rivet (and my fragile HS skin). This worked well for me, prevented further damage, and gave me some friction to help keep the set in place.

Rivets ready to set, covered with blue tape.

So, I knocked out all of the rivets needing to be bucked (I think it was 42 per side) before inspecting all my work for any issues. I think I found 5 skin rivets I wanted to replace. Here is a good example. The shop heads of all of these look great, but I want those rivets perfectly flush. I didn’t take an after picture (sorry), but I assure you, the one on the right now looks like the one on the left.

Bad rivet on the right. Replace.

After bucking all of those, I moved the now very big HS assembly to the floor while I cleaned off my workbench. Nice and clean again.

Clean workbench!

Then, I brought the HS back up on the table to squeeze the rivets that could be squeezed on the HS-601PP (skin) to HS-404 (inboard tip rib), HS-405 (inboard aft rib), and HS-706 (tip rib). The instructions have you leave 5 holes open on the inboard lines for the empennage fairing attach holes on the top only, but I decided to leave the same holes empty on the bottom for now, just to have clecos there on both sides to hold the HS off the table.  I also left some clecos in both sides of the tip ribs (although I left less on the right than I had on the left the other day, so I squeezed a few more on the left. ) Anyway, the HS is upside-down here. Left side is in the foreground.

Oooh, pretty.

Another shot. Still need to get that rear spar done. Look in upper right side of the picture. The dented area (I really shouldn’t call it dented anymore) is in the middle of the leading edge there. (I know the picture is from a distance, but the point is it’s not that noticeable.)

More pretty!

And after I flipped the HS right side up.

Shiny and clean.

After a hard day’s work, I stood back and admired the almost finished product.

I need a bigger workbench.

Good 3.5 hour day today. 146 rivets set, 14 drilled out.

Next up:

1) Remove rest of blue vinyl from inside of HS.
2) Rear spar work.
3) Finish riveting holes in HS.
4) Figure out what is going to “fly” when I finish the HS.
5) Hang HS for storage

I also decided that I am going to keep a separate page for tips. I keep learning these little tricks along the way. I should write them down.

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Posted by Andrew

Started riveting right HS

January 15, 2010

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I managed a couple hours in the shop today, even though I was as sick as a dog. In between frantically running to the bathroom to pray to the porcelain god, I did get a couple things done. I planned to get some of the right HS done today, which needed more prep on the skin, and then some riveting.

First, I cleaned and primed right HS skin interior.

Right HS skin all primed and such. Well, on one side, at least.

After flipping, priming the other side, and letting it dry, I decided to fix some of the bad rivets from the other day. They look better now.

HS-710/HS-712 to HS-702 rivets fixed.

Then, I grabbed the right HS ribs and front spar and clecoed some of them to the left HS. I

Right spar clecoed to the left HS assembly. This thing is getting big.

I started by riveting the front spar to HS-710 and HS-714. This time, I was following the directions a little more closely. All of the rivets today turned out great. I had switched from my offset cupped set to a straight set, and they were all perfect. (Don’t mind the two empty holes on the far left, I remembered them later and shot those rivets, too.)

Great rivets if I do say so myself.

Then I riveted HS-405 and HS-404 to front spar. Again, no mistakes. Then, I turned back to the skin once it was dry. On the left side, I waiting until riveting HS-707 and HS-706 to the skin before I devinyled this area. On this skin, I figured that I wouldn’t be holding a bucking bar (that I could drop and scratch the skin) in this area, so why not take the blue off before making it hard on myself. Much easier this way, but I could only do it here. (I have to admit, those nice straight primer lines make me happy.)

Back to the skin. Devinyling the easy way.

The directions have you cleco in HS-707, rivet to the bottom skin, then cleco in HS-706 and HS-708 (to help the skin take shape and sit tight against the aft holes of HS-707), and then rivet HS-707 to the top skin. Just like the left side, I needed AN426AD3-4 rivets where they sometimes call out an AN426AD3-3.5.

The, I let this happen.

Uh oh...

What? Don’t see anything? Try this angle.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:-(

It was completely my fault. I was getting confident, and was holding the rivet gun with my left hand. I had the pressure set near 50psi (I usually use 40psi for the AD3- rivets) and the gun got away from me.

I stared at it for about 5 minutes, realizing that it was probably okay, but would essentially force me to bondo and paint the tail, which would not have been the end of the world, except I still might want to polish the airplane.

I decided to drill out the 4 rivets I had set in the bottom skin to see if I could help it any with a flush set from the back side. I managed to get my backrivet set in there a little, and it helped, but I came inside as I was getting chilled and frustrated.

Later, I realized that I have a c-frame, and with two flush sets in there, I may be able to very gently hammer it back into shape (or at least get it close). I’ll have to re-dimple, too, because I flattened out the dimple while trying to fix the dents.)

…so…mad…

Maybe this weekend I can fix it up a little and keep going.

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Posted by Andrew

Right HS – Primed skeleton, Dimpled skin

January 14, 2010

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Today, I used my lunch hour to swing by NAPA to pick up some more self-etching primer and then get a few minutes of work done before playing with the puppies. Jack and Ginger love it when they get to go outside and play during the middle of the day.

Anyway, I finished edge-prepping, cleaning, and drying the right HS ribs and front spar before priming them.

Then, I broke out the c-frame and finished dimpling the right HS skin. This time, I put a piece of blue painter’s tape (sticky side toward the male (exterior side of the skin) dimple die) between the dies and squeezed them together. I figured this layer of tape would help prevent some of the circles I am getting during dimpling.

3/32" Dimple Dies covered in blue tape.

The resulting dimples don’t have as much of a circle around them, and the dimples are just as deep. I wish I had known that the first time around. I’m not very happy that my right HS is going to end up looking a lot nicer than the left.

It was a little short of an hour today, but I ran a little long yesterday, so I’ll log an hour.

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Posted by Andrew

Squeezed more left HS Rivets

January 11, 2010

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I got some rivets squeezed tonight, which means it was a good day. All of the rivets tonight were either HS-601PP (skin) to HS-706 (tip rib) or HS-601PP (skin) to HS-404/405 (inboard ribs). All squeezable.

The plans have you skip 5 rivets on the top only, but the clecos were doing such a good job of holding the skin off of the table, I decided to skip those rivets on the bottom, too. Also, I only squeezed every other rivet on the tip until I can get the rear spar riveted in. Then, I’ll finish the whole thing off.

On the top of the skin, Van's has you leave the rearmost HS-405 hole open, then every fourth rivet forward of that. Here are my first three squeezed AN426AD3- rivets on the project.

Then I got up to the HS-601PP (skin) to HS-702 (front spar) to HS-405 (aft inboard rib) hole. You can see that the longer rivet they call out (AN426AD3-4, instead of -3.5) isn’t long enough.

Bad picture, but the rivet at the top of the picture is not going to be long enough to form a good shop head.

So, I replaced it with an AN426AD3-4.5.

An unsqueezed AN426AD3-4.5. That looks like it will be long enough. It was.

Then, I spent a few minutes looking over my work from yesterday. It generally looks pretty good, but I must have been distracted during these three or four rivets (at least they are on the bottom of the skin). Not a big deal, but when you look at it in the right light, you can see some small dings.

A couple small smilies and dings. These make me want a swivel flush set. Hmm. It looks like I didn't keep the rivet gun straight. Bummer.

From today, two of the rivets I squeezed didn’t sit correctly in the dimple. They are probably just fine, but I’m going to replace them. (I know, I know, they will be under the empennage fairing, but still, I want them better than they are.)

Only two rivets to replace tomorrow. Better than yesterday's average.

30 quiet minutes today, after the girlfriend and puppies went to bed. I’m so sneaky.

38 rivets tonight, 2 I’ll have to drill out tomorrow, but don’t count against my batting average tonight.

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Left HS Riveting

January 10, 2010

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Today I started left HS skin riveting.

The big takeaway is that I hate squeezing AN470AD4- rivets. For some reason (it’s gotta be user error), I keep bending them over. Finally, I broke out the gun and got some rivets set. I think I may need a better bucking bar. The fact I set some really nice rivets with the crappy bar means that a tungsten bucking bar will probably be my favorite tool.  Anyway, first picture is me riveting HS-710 and HS-714 to the left HS-702 front spar. You can see the two rivets in the upper right side of the picture needed to be drilled out. Oh wait. They all needed to be drilled out. See how I put the manufactured side on the thicker material here? Wrong, drill them out. That’s one of the reasons I drilled out 11 rivets today. I didn’t get all of these reset, but I did get the ones that would be inaccessible once I started riveting on the skin. In the picture below, I set the six behind the HS-404 rib, and six of the ten in front (lower right) of the HS-404 rib. A few of those bent over again, so I called it quits on this part and moved on. I’ll have to drill out more rivets tomorrow. Ugh.

Squeezed, and then drilled out HS-710 and HS-714.

Next, I started some skin riveting, with the HS-707. You can see my first two skin riveting shop heads.

My first two flush rivets (well, first two on the skin).

Then I shot two more and took this picture. Sorry about the fingerprint smudges. Rest assured, the skin is nice and smooth.

First 4 flush rivets on the left HS. They look so good.

Finished up the top, and then riveted the bottom (except for the last bottom skin rivet, the bottom 1/8″ cleco prevented the bucking bar from getting in there, so I’ll set this after I remove HS-708). The second and third rivets on the bottom need to be replaced. They are probably okay for such a non-structural area, but I am a perfectionist.

After riveting the top and bottom skins (to HS-707). Except the most aft skin rivet on HS-707. (See the lower 2nd and 3rd rivet from the right? Those shop heads are too small. I'll need to replace those.)

Drilled them out, and replaced them. They look much better now.

Replaced with AD3-4 instead of AD3-3.5. I don't know why these needed longer rivets when every other rivet looked okay.

Next, I finished riveting HS-710 and HS-714 (front spar reinforcement angles) to HS-702 (front spar). Shop heads on the thicker material.

HS-710 and HS-714 successfully riveted to the front spar.

Here’s a closeup of the two replaced rivets.

Another closeup of the HS-707 rivets.

Next, they have you cleco in the front spar and cleco HS-708 (what I am calling the middle aft rib) into place. (Ha, the Yard gave me a long reach 3/32″ cleco in my bag of used clecos. You can see it on the upper left.)

Clecoed the front spar and HS-708 in place, ready to blind rivet.

One of the LP4-3 blind rivets set. I had to grind down my cheapo National Tool and Equipment blind rivet puller. Not hard, took about 5 minutes, and ended up working really nicely in here.

First blind rivet on the project. (I think it's an LP4-3.)

And all three complete.

All three blind riveted. Time to move on.

Here, I got a shot of my painter’s tape covered bucking bar just after bucking the lower tip rib rivet.

Riveting HS-706 (tip rib) to HS-702 (front spar). I think I could have squeezed these if I had unclecoed the skin a little, but I was feeling good about shooting them, and I'm not a fan of squeezing AD4- rivets since the "let's have fun squeezing and drilling out 9 rivets" fiasco this morning.

I like these rivets. They gave me no problems.

Done!

Next, I started setting the skin to front spar rivets. I shoudl elaborate on my technique a little here. I would remove a cleco, put in the AN426AD3-3.5 rivet, put some blue painters tape over the rivet, then shoot and buck it. The tape did wonders to protect the skin from any blemishes caused by the flush rivet set. I taught myself this trick after scratching the hell out of the practice kit. (note: I wish the practice kit had more AD4- rivets in it.) Anyway, these all look sufficient…

The first skin to spar rivets on the top.

I managed the rest of the HS702 (front spar) and HS-708 (aft middle rib) to skin rivets. There were 42 of them. On each side. I wrapped my bucking bar in blue painters tape to protect the skeleton from dings and scratches. Worked like a charm. I’ll replace all of the tape then next time I have a big rivet day.

I wrapped my bucking bar in tape. Here is the result after 113 rivets today. (Well, 124, I had to drill out 11 rivets.)

Here are some after shots. The HS is upside down, so even though this is the left HS, we are looking at the tip rib here.

All done. I may go back and see if there are any underdriven rivets in here. I was being rushed back into the house for dinner after I finished riveting.

Looking at HS-708 and the blind rivets holding it to HS-702 (front spar) and HS-707 (middle tip rib). It looks like the spar is scratched here, but it is really just a couple scuffs from my knuckles and the handle from the blind rivet puller.

More after pictures.

This is looking toward the center of the airplane (toward HS-405, aft inboard rib)

And again.

No closeups, because I didn’t clean off the skin yet, but still, it looks so nice. Also, I need to remember to stop dripping air tool oil all over my workbench.

Hooray for a riveted skin. It looks like it might fly one day.

After I got all the riveting done, I started peeling off the blue vinyl from the interior. The primer on the vinyl flaked off as I peeled, and it got everywhere. I don’t know how to prevent this, though, and after a quick sweep with the vacuum, it looked wonderful again. Before I close up, I’ll probably wipe off the unprimed aluminum with acetone or similar to make sure I have all the fingerprints (oils) off.

Removed the blue vinyl on the interior. Me likey.

I also got a half hour of right HS skin deburring tonight. We’ll see.

Noon to 1pm, 1:30pm to 4:30pm, then 9-9:3pm while watching the UNC/VT game. Go heels. 4.5 very productive hours.

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Posted by Andrew

Primed Front LH Spar, Devinyled RH Skin

January 6, 2010

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After getting home late from work and running back out for some takeout, I got in about an hour before heading to bed.

First, I finished cleaning up (scotchbrite, dawn detergent, and lacquer thinner) the left HS front spar in preparation for priming. I don’t love doing these one piece at a time, but the spray can makes it easy, and I can complete a few parts in an evening. I did the front spar so I can maybe start riveting stuff together this weekend. I still have some work to do on cleaning up the rear spars and rear spar reinforcement bars, but I could start with the skins and ribs, then finish the rear spar stuff once I have to plug it into the back of the completed HS.

Left front spar (HS-702) sitting next to the left ribs I finished the other day.

Then I devinyled the right HS skin, which went much faster than the left skin.

Right HS skin. Doesn't that look nice?

Here's the inside...

Also, a fellow RV (-8A) builder at work was kind enough to lend me his Avery C-frame. Maybe I’ll get a chance to do a little skin dimpling this weekend.

Borrowed c-frame. Wuhoo saving money!

Next up:

1) Finish dimpling left HS skin
2) Deburr right HS skin
3) Dimple right HS skin
4) Prep and prime inside of both skins
5) Finish prep for right HS ribs and front spar
6) Prime right HS Ribs and front spar
7) Prep and Prime rear spar components
8) Rivet HS together

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Posted by Andrew

Finished drilling the HS

January 1, 2010

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Short, but productive day.

It was Jack’s birthday today (he turned 3), so I ran out to Chik-Fil-A to get him is once a year human food treat. A chicken biscuit. Of course, Ginger needed one too (“so she doesn’t feel left out”) and so on, which meant my girlfriend and I also got biscuits. Here are Jack and Ginger.

Jack and Ginger (Jack's on the right) on the beach last summer. Happy Birthday Jack. You're 3 now. Start acting like it.

Anyway, after the birthday festivities (a.k.a. Jack and Ginger inhaling their biscuits), I managed a couple hours on the project. Here, I clamped HS-404 in place after having first marked holes and drilled #40 pilot holes in the aft flange. The instructions have you mark and drill pilot holes in the HS-405, but why drill from aft to forward, hoping you don’t run into edge distance problems when you could drill from forward to aft? For the outboard holes, I did use the HS-405 for pilot holes. You’ll see.

HS-404, with two pilot holes marked and drilled prior to mock-up.

Here are the silver clecos after drilling from forward to aft with my 12″ bit.

Used the #40 pilot holes I previously drilled in HS-404 to drill through HS-702 and HS-405.

Then, I used the previously marked and pilot drilled holes in HS-405 to drill forward through the HS-702 (front spar) and HS-710/714 (reinforcement angles). The 12″ bit really came in handy here.

Then used the #40 pilot holes I made in HS-405 to drill through HS-702 and HS-710 (or HS 714 for the other side). Here, you can see the 12" bit really showing its stuff.

Then, I matchdrilled the rest of the HS-404, which had been clamped in place in the above pictures. After that, I finished match-drilling the rest of the skin for the right side. After you finish and pull the skin off, you can drill the remaining HS-702 holes using the HS-710 and HS-714 angles as guides. Here are the last six holes drilled after pulling off the skin.

Finished drilling HS-710 and HS-714 after removing the skin.

After the skins are pulled off, I’m ready to start prep for final assembly.

After match rilling both skins and finishing the HS-710/HS-714 to HS-702 holes, The skeletons lay ready to disassemble, deburr, dimple, edge finish, surface prep, and prime.

2.0 hours today. Not bad.
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More HS work

December 31, 2009

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First thing in the morning, I had to run some errands, one of which included a stop by Harbor Freight to exchange my Automatic Compressor Drain Kit that had a crack in it. While I was there, I used two coupons. One, for a free tape measure, the other for almost half off a 6″ digital caliper. Walked out the door with a new caliper, tape measure, and an exchanged drain kit for $10. Can’t beat that.

Free tape measure at Harbor Freight. Also a coupon for 1/2 off a $20 digital caliper.

I went ahead and scotchbrited all the HS ribs. I was sick of the aluminum dust on my hands during scotchbriting, so I took these inside and did them with warm water (only reason for warm was so my hands didn’t get cold) in the kitchen sink. Worked well with a lot less dust. (Also, I think showing pictures of my work with finished pieces looks a lot better than the original parts, which are all shiny and finger-printy after my grubby hands work with them.)

Surface prepped HS ribs.

Then, the directions have you cleco the left skeleton together.

It looks like an airplane! Kind of.

I did the right side too (mostly so I could take the next picture), then match-drilled all of the rib/spar attach points to #30, (except for 708/603), which they have you do later to a #21.

Both skeletons after match-drilling all of the rib to spar attach points.

Then you get to cleco on the skin (wuhoo!). I had trouble with HS-707 here. the very tip of the rib kind of caught on the  skin (vinyl); I had to really work to get it back into position and clecoed. you can see here I clecoed every hole on the HS-707.

Clecoed on the left HS-601 skin.

Then I inserted the HS-404 (front inboard) and HS-405 (rear inboard) ribs and clamp. Here, you can see the HS-405 clamped.

Inserted HS-404 and HS-405 for match drilling.

Then I match-drilled the HS-405 to the HS-601PP (skin). I didn’t do the top or bottom forward most hole, because I seem to be having edge distance troubles on the HS-405 and HS-702 spar. I checked everything and it seems to be right. I checked some other build sites to see if other people have run into this, no one mentioned it. Right as I was going to post a question on the VAF forums about this, a new thread popped up. Apparently this is a common problem, and the edge distance on HS-405 is not to be worried about. It’s a little confusing, though, given the prepunched nature of the parts.

I went ahead and match-drilled it. I’ll examine the edge distance a little more closely when I take apart the HS for prep. I repeated all the steps for the right side, then started in on match-drilling the skin to forward spar holes inboard of the 707. (Below, you are looking at the bottom of the stab, so the right HS is on the left in the picture. you can see the extra clecos from what I will call the “middle ribs” (708 and 707) inboard along the front spar. Those are not pre-punched on the spar, so you have to use the holes in the skin to match-drill.)

Then repeated for the right HS. Looks like an airplane!

11am to 6pm, with an hour for lunch. 6 hours today.

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