Monday, November 30, 2015

Section: 22
Hours: 5

I completed the first aileron. A set of rivets needs to be driven to attach the bottom skin to the spar. You start by clecoing the skin and then checking to make sure the D-box formed by the nose skin and spar does not have a twist. I had to take out about a 2 degree twist by manual manipulation before I started riveting. I had a hard time reaching between the upper and lower skins to hold a bucking bar. Luckily, I was able to reach the majority of the rivets with the special bucking bar I used on the elevators. I used the flat side of the bucking bar and leveraged it up from the edge of the table. I set a couple widely spaced rivets and checked for twist before proceeding. Everything stayed within a few tenths of a degree according to my iPhone running a bubble balance app with digital readout.

There were a couple rivets I couldn't reach with the special bucking bar because a stiffener was in the way so I spread the skins apart and squeezed my hand in. My tungsten bucking bar just fit between the rib and the spar. Slow work...
Pulling the rivets in the end ribs and nose skin to counter weight tube were the easiest part of the job today.
I used the 2" x 2" aluminum angle I made for the rudder to hold the trailing edge. I also held the aileron flat on the table while setting the double flush rivets in the trailing edge.  I partially set the rivets using my squeezer and then carefully finished setting the rivets using the back rivet plate and rivet gun with a flat set. I set the air pressure down to 40psi and used short bursts. I could tell the rivet was set by watching the reflection off the aluminum skin. When the reflection and the flat set met (no gap between edge of flat set and the skin) I knew the rivet was flush. You have to be very careful to hold the rivet gun exactly perpendicular to the skin and not over drive the rivet. The edge came out looking great!


2 comments:

  1. Looks great Smash. And now you know why planes are so expensive! All hand made. When your fine there, you can get a job in Wichita!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks great Smash. And now you know why planes are so expensive! All hand made. When your fine there, you can get a job in Wichita!

    ReplyDelete