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Progress! 10 steps forward, 2 steps back ..

bkervaski

Hellloooooooo!
Testing
We finished the vertical stab, rudder, horizontal stab, and elevators+trim tab .. started on the tail cone this weekend .. but dropped the bucking bar during a rivet and trashed the bottom skin .. ugh .. this hobby needs a therapy hotline! :D
 
Yup, luckily that hasn't happened to me (yet), but I've heard horror stories. Therefore I always put a towel down below in case the bar is dropped.
 
It's a $60 (price of the skin) mistake so not the end of the world .. happy that parts are cheap'ish!
 
I did the same. No chance of recovering the skin?

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shipping

That piece of skin may be only $60, but it will cost you a pretty penny to ship it. Ask me how I know. On second thought, no, I'm only thinking happy thoughts. :D
 
Yea, just got the shipping quote, ouch! Now it's a $200 mistake.

I'm sure a painter can fix it but it's pretty bad. I'm used to smileys here and there but this is about 1/4 deep and about 2 inches long. It will have my OCD on overdrive. Can't live with it, already removed the rivets.
 
Good job! I wouldn't put up with it either, so while it's somewhat costly, you will feel better when it's replaced.

~Marc
 
Dings

Gravity is just going to happen. Those foam mats that go on the flooor around the workbench are cheap at HF. I keep a couple of sets on hand to cut up for all kind of uses. Great for padding/protection in the situation you just experienced.

Don Broussard
RV9 Rebuild in Progress (really slow progress at the moment)
57 Pacer
 
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Maybe a cheaper fix?

I would try a rivet gun with a flat set, pressure on the low side, and see if you can tease the dent out. Lay the skin on a piece of MDF and see what happens. This won't be the last dent you put in your baby. :mad:
 
Sorry to hear about that. I will try to learn from your "event" and prepare for the inevitable tool drop when I get to that stage.

Did you consider alternative repair methods? For example, using the trim bundle to create a repair panel at that location may have been cheaper. And the weight impact would be small. If I get in that situation, I am pretty sure I will CONSIDER putting a doubler there with new skin on top. In addition to the $200 cost of skin replacement, you have all the labor associated with removing rivets and re-reviting the skin, right? Compare that to installing a doubler? Just curious.

I haven't built a thing yet, but every aircraft I know of has structural repairs that aren't to print, and I would expect that I will have to do some of that sort of thing to remain sane. Starting over every time I make a mistake is going to challenge my sanity.
 
I did consider repairing it .. and did a quick pass with a flat rivet set .. just made it worse .. and since there wasn't a lot of time spent on that part to that point I just ordered another.

To maintain a quality build and keep my OCD in check I've rebuilt a couple of parts .. including the trim tab a number of times.

I got in a hurry with the rivet gun on my first rudder attempt at too high PSI and put a giant ding in it ... ON THE LAST RUN OF 10 RIVETS ... rebuilt ... second assembly much better than the first.

Amazing how much you learn up to this point in the build.
 
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Good luck, bkervaski. Thanks for sharing the ups and downs. It's good to know we all battle the same problems. Stay with it!
 
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