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RV-7 Lynn Dixon #74286

February 9th, 2017. Hours Worked: 1.75

I built my bending brake / jig for the trailing edge of the elevators tonight, and decided to give it a whirl on the right elevator. It came out really good, and it looks like the trailing edge is going to be straight as an arrow. I had been working on the plane earlier today, but took a short little break and started back at it. First up, I had to build my bending brake / jig using some 2?6 boards that I picked up a couple of weeks ago from the Lowes Aviation Suppy here in town. Van?s has some directions on how to build a simple little brake, but I have modified it very slightly per some suggestions from Vans Air Force members. Instead of hinging the 2?6 boards so they fold width wise, I hinged them so they fold on their narrow side, which should make the break much more sturdy.

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? Riveting the Elevator StiffenersRiveting the Left Elevator Stiffeners ?
Bending the Right Elevator Trailing Edge
By Lynn Dixon | February 9, 2017 | Total Build, Empennage, Elevators
I built my bending brake / jig for the trailing edge of the elevators tonight, and decided to give it a whirl on the right elevator. It came out really good, and it looks like the trailing edge is going to be straight as an arrow. I had been working on the plane earlier today, but took a short little break and started back at it. First up, I had to build my bending brake / jig using some 2?6 boards that I picked up a couple of weeks ago from the Lowes Aviation Suppy here in town. Van?s has some directions on how to build a simple little brake, but I have modified it very slightly per some suggestions from Vans Air Force members. Instead of hinging the 2?6 boards so they fold width wise, I hinged them so they fold on their narrow side, which should make the break much more sturdy.



This lets me clamp the brake to my work bench so I can use it easier, and gives a nice flat surface for the elevator to lay against during bending. It also lets me use more leverage. Bending the trailing edge took a bit more work than what I was thinking. It takes quite a bit of force to get this thing to lay down! I did my bending in short easy bends so I didn?t over do it, checking as I went to make sure the elevator is bending straight. After several rounds of applying pressure, removing the elevator and checking it, I finally started to get it close to being bent.

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Once I get the skin to the point that it laid naturally across the front spar, I clecoed the front spar and the end ribs in place to get a better idea of how it was turning out. I was pretty close at first, but had to put it back in the brake a few more times to get it perfect. I used my square to check that the bends were complete. What we want to see is the skin flat against a straight edge, all the way from the front spar, down to the trailing edge, where the bend sharply drops off to a perpendicular to the square. If the skin sort of ?falls? slowly away from the straight edge, you haven?t bent it enough. If the skin concave?s away from your straight edge, you have to much bend. Too little bend is WAY easier to fix than too much, so I did this in small steps to make sure I didn?t over do it. I checked the skin from the top to the bottom at every stiffener and in between the stiffeners using my square and its looking really great:

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However, I think I have a very slight twist in the elevator somehow. When I laid a straight edge (4 foot aluminum drywall ruler) across the trailing edge from top to bottom I noticed that the trailing edge bowed about 3/32″ around the middle. I thought I had a photo of that, but it was overexposed from the flash reflecting off the ruler. But, I decided to call it a night at this point. I am fairly happy with the trailing edge, and I?m going to post a question over on the forums about the very slight bow. It?s probably easily fixable seeing as how I haven?t riveted the elevator yet. Heck, the 3/32″ may actually be in spec for the rudder, I?m going to do some research and find out.

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/NrH78YdKxtHENdNV6

Hours Worked: 1.75
 
February 9th, 2017. Hours Worked: 2

More Stiffeners!! Tonight I think I should be done with stiffeners at least for a little while (wing kit maybe?). I worked to rivet the last remaining stiffeners on the left elevator, and then moved on to attaching the E-615PP trim support plate. First, I started off by working on dimpling and countersinking the E-615PP support plate to get it ready to rivet on the nut plates. I found my #6 dimple die and I have decided to use NAS1097 3-3.5 rivets to hold the nut plates on. I used my deburring bit and machine countersunk the E-615PP by hand. This took a little time, but it guarantees a very nice finish. I test fit each rivet in the holes to make sure they were nice and flush.

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Then I dimpled the screw hole with a #6 dimple die to fit the dimple in the trim cover plate and its screw. Once I had all the holes countersunk and dimpled, I began back riveting the nut plates onto the plate. I decided to back rivet because this leaves a very nicely finished rivet and doesn?t take any extra work. I am really happy with how the nut plates turned out:

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With the E-615PP completed, I moved on to the last of the stiffeners! There isn?t much to talk about here, since I have done this several times in the past, and the process is the same. I back rivet the stiffeners onto the skins and make sure everything is flush and straight. The only difference is that this time, we are also going to back rivet the E-615PP support plate to the skin as well. It serves as both a stiffener for the inboard end, as well as a doubler for the electric trim servo and its mounting plate. I took my time, and everything came out looking really nicely.

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This was about 2 hours of work, but I decided to take a break and then start working on my bending brake for the trailing edge of the elevators, and maybe bend one up. Thats all for this session, here are all the photos from the build:

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/JTmj5mFvK3qrvBbr8

Hours Worked: 2
 
February 12th, 2017. Hours Worked: 2.5

I spent about 20 minutes bending the left elevator trailing edge in the bending brake tonight. I figured since I already had my bending brake setup on my bench, I might as well go ahead and bend the left elevator as well. Since this elevator doesn?t have as much trailing edge to bend (due to the trim tab), it was really easy to get bent to the right shape and only took about 20 minutes counting checking it with a straight edge. It came out great, and then went back on the shelf until I get ready for it.

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I decided to do a little more work on the right elevator since it took less than a half hour to bend the left. I thought I would go ahead and get the right elevator assembled so I could match drill the skin to the skeleton and get it ready for dimpling. While I was assembling the E-713 counterbalance skin to the E-703 and E-704 ribs I realized I made my first mistake, and one so bad I would need to order some new parts 🙁 I made the mistake last month during the initial assembly which you can see by this photo. Notice the counterbalance skin, I have it flipped over in the wrong direction. This cascaded down to when I drilled the lead counterweight. So, essentially what happened is I assembled everything with that skin flipped over, and then match drilled the counterweight to it. Tonight, when I started assembling everything together, I noticed the counterweight holes were not lining up, which is when I noticed that I messed this part up. You can see from these photos how the parts were drilled:
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That counterweight should be on the OTHER side of the rib and you can see the sharpie marks I made tonight to see just how bad it would be to re-drill. These holes are too close so re-drilling them is not an option. But, it looks like only the counterweight and its skin are needing to be replaced, and since the kit came with two (one for the left and another for the right) I can just use the remaining E-714 and E-713 that would have went on the left side, to keep working until the replacement parts come in. Both the left and right parts identical.

Thank goodness that I only need to replace two parts, the E-714 counterweight and the E-713 counterbalance skin for a grand total of about $40 from Vans. I am so glad I caught this now, before I wound up having to replace more parts! Oh well, I guess its good that my first mistake was something that is easy to fix and cheap to replace. Luckily it won?t hold up any progress while I wait on the new parts.

So, I pulled out the E-714 and E-713 from my stock and re-drilled the skin and counterweight MAKING SURE the orientation was correct this time :). Drilling lead is a pretty rough task on a drill bit, so I kept it slathered up in Boelube. With that squared away, I decided I?d go ahead and assembly it to the skeleton and then match drill the left elevator skin to the skeleton to get it ready for dimpling. This was pretty uneventful, and went quickly.

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Lastly, I figured I would get the last little step done tonight which was to match drill the WD-605-R elevator horn to the inboard side of the rudder. I cleco?ed it on to the inboard R-709 rib, double-checking its orientation (I bet this part is expensive to fix, compared to the counterweight ha!), and then drilled it with a #40 drill bit.

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And with that, the right elevator is ready for disassembly, dimpling and then riveting. That will be in another work session, I was a bit frazzled after worrying about messing up the counterweight, so I called it a night.

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/2i6PtVKFbjNHSrat8

Hours Worked: 2.5
 
February 13th, 2017. Hours Worked: 2.5

Its almost time to rivet the left elevator together, but first I have to take care of a few last tid bits. I disassembled the right elevator and deburred all of the parts, including the skin. The next step was to dimple the skin using the DRDT-2 and then dimple the skeleton parts using my squeezer, since some of these ribs have limited access. On the trailing edge of the ribs, I had to break out the pop rivet dimple dies to get in those tight spaces, which takes a little time and patience. The parts came out looking great and a test fit of a AN426 rivet seemed to agree:

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Then I beveled the edges of the E-713 counter balance skin so that it would have an easy transition from the E-701 skin laying over the top of it. I started out getting it roughed out with a file, and then finished it off on the scotchbrite wheel to get a nice smooth bevel. I also rolled the edges of the skin so that it will lay nice and flush against the E-713 when it comes time to rivet. These little time sinks are things that take patience but are what creates a superb quality product in the end, so its time well spent.

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Even though it doesn?t seem like a lot got done tonight, I had a solid 2.5 hours of work getting these parts prepped for final riveting. Since I had to replace the E-713 counterbalance skin, I will need to do another small priming session to prime the inside of the skin, and I am going to also prime a few of the doublers for the nut plates as well. I will probably setup for the priming session tomorrow and maybe start riveting the skeleton together.

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/D6SH5X6hfyLBFwYi8

Hours Worked: 2.5
 
February 14th, 2017. Hours Worked: .75

I started off tonight by priming a few little odds and ends for the right elevator. I had missed the little doublers in my first round somehow, and I needed to prime the replacement counter balance skin too. I decided to mix up a very small amount of AKZO and use my primer pistol to spray these few parts. The primer pistol is dead simple, and uses film cans as its paint cups which makes it easy cleanup.

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This was the first time I have ever used this primer pistol, and its pretty convenient, However, it sprays super heavy, so I had to back way away from the parts. I did get a little bit of bubbling on one of the doublers from the heavy spray, but I?m not worried about it since its a part that will not be visible. I followed my normal procedure of scuffing with scotchbrite, cleaning with acetone and priming. I am pretty happy with the way these parts came out, regardless of the heavy spray from the primer pistol. It done a decent enough job, and the next time, I will just keep the tip far away from the parts to get a thinner coat. I do like how easy the cleanup is: Just toss the little film can and run a small amount of acetone down the tiny copper tube.

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That was pretty much it for this small session. After cleaning up, I took a short break and will come back down to finish up the skeleton in another session tonight. Spent about 45 minutes on this, counting the 30 minutes for the AKZO to catalyze after mixing it up. I used that time to prep and clean the parts. Heres all the photos:

Google Photos Album link:

Hours Worked: .75
 
February 14th, 2017. Hours Worked: 3

After taking short break from the priming session, I dug back into riveting together the right elevator skeleton. This will give the primer on those doublers some time to dry. AKZO dries super quick, so by the time I get ready for them they should be ready for me 🙂 Per the plans, Vans has us start out by riveting together the E-703 and E-704 ribs which creates the counterbalance assembly This goes easy enough with a squeezer and some AN470AD4-4 rivets.

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Next up the plans has us rivet the E-709 end rib to the E-702 spar. I had to take caution here, because we use AN426AD3-4 rivets, which need to be dimpled and sit flush on the front side of the spar so that the WD-605-1-R elevator horn will sit flush against the spar. I was able to set these rivets with the flush set in my squeezer and they ended up nice and flush against the spar.

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Then the plans has us rivet on the E-703/704 assembly to the E-702 spar. This is where things got frustrating. I was able to set the two rivets for the E-703 end rib with the squeezer. However, the two rivets for the E-704 were in a much tighter spot and I couldn?t get to then with the squeezer. So, I drug out the rivet gun and bucking bar, but the straight 1/8 rivet set would not line up with the shop head of the rivet because of the gun body, so I had to use the offset 1/8 rivet set. The first rivet I was able to set pretty well with the gun and bucking bar. The second one? Yeah, not so much. I had to drill it out and try again. Luckily, the second time went better than the first and I got the rivet set.

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I then decided to skip back up to the doublers and platenuts on the E-702 spar. These were fairly easy to do, I just double checked that I had the right length rivets in the right holes, as we use three different lengths in these sections. I also double checked I had the orientation of the platenuts correct as well, and then used the squeezer to set al these rivets. I love the way it came out!

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Finally, I decided to rivet on the WD-605-1-R elevator horn to finish off the skeleton. Again, double checking the orientation, because it is possible to put this part on upside down if you?re not careful. Then, I riveted in using AN470AD4-4 rivets and my squeezer.

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This finishes up the right elevator skeleton, and in the next session, I think I will rivet the skin to the elevator, but I am still debating on saving that portion until I get ready to pro-seal the rudder trailing edge. This way I can use the same ProSeal to bond the trailing edges of the stiffeners of the elevators. We?ll see how it goes.

Google Photos Album link: https://goo.gl/photos/Mu4Tk4GGtpf46Rmq9

Hours Worked: 3
 
February 17th, 2017. Hours Worked: 2.25

Its time to rivet up a control surface! The right elevator is ready to be closed up and riveted. I have decided that I am going to rivet the bottom side of the skins, and leave the top side clecod down for now. This way, I can hold off on ProSealing the trailing edge stiffeners until I have the rudder, and both elevators ready for ProSeal. This will save me from having to waste so much of this stuff, and I can get all the ProSeal work done in one session.

So, tonight I begin with riveting on the E-713 counterbalance skin to the E-701 skin. We do this because two of the rivets would be enclosed inside the skin once we insert the skeleton, and not be accessible. So, we rivet those two rivets with the skeleton out of the skin at first. I used my squeezer to set these rivets.

Once those two rivets are set, its time to shape the counterweight. I filed down the sharp corners to match the contours of the E-713 skin, and also filed down around the edges so that it would fit in the skin easier. The we loose fit the E-714 counterweight into the skin, and then the skeleton assembly gets inserted into the skin. Its a tight fit trying to wiggle it all together, especially around the counterweight. Eventually I got the skeleton all situated into the skin and then I clecoed every hole to make sure it didn?t twist or shift.
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Now its time to rivet! I thought it?d be best to start at the counterweight and work my way up the E-713 skin, and all the way down the tip of the end rib. There?s a few different lengths of AN423AD3 rivets being used here due to the different overlapping skins, so I made sure to use the right one in each hole. I had previously lapped the edge of the skins so that they would sit nice and flush after riveting, so I didn?t have to do that here. Once I had the end rib riveted, I worked my way down the spar and finally to the E-702 end rib. I was able to use my squeezer on all these, so they came out perfect.

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Having the bottom skin riveted on completely, I left the top skin just clecod for now. I will come back to it later on, ProSeal the stiffeners and close it up. The last few steps on this elevator is to finish attaching the counterweight and torquing it. I dug through my parts, got the bolts, washer and nut that the plans called for and used them on the counterweight. Then I used my beam torque wrench to measure the drag on the nylon lock nut (which was 5 inch/lbs), and added that to the the 20-25 inch/lbs that the plans calls for as the torque spec on these type of bolts. In total, I torqued them down to right at 30 inch/lbs total and then use some CrossCheck (Torque seal) to mark the nuts and screw heads as being torqued. This CrossCheck also makes it easy to inspect the bolts to make sure they have not vibrated loose. The paint will crack if the bolt or nut has turned.

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Thats all for tonight! A little over 2 hours total, and the right elevator is 95% completed, and will go back on the shelf until I am ready to ProSeal everything. Here?s all the photos I took tonight:

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/GRC1mBikUq2TWKsEA

Hours Worked: 2.25
 
February 18th, 2017. Hours Worked: 4

I managed to get a TON of work done tonight, and worked a straight 4 hours on the section of plans titled ?Preparing the Left Elevator?. In a nut shell, I completely build entire left elevator, and have it disassembled so all the parts can be deburred, and the edges finished. After that, I will shoot them in AKZO primer and then they will be ready to be dimpled and riveted. This is going to be a long post, since I got so much work done tonight, so hang on!

We start off the right elevator in pretty much the same fashion as we did the left, since they are almost identical (except for the trim tab). It starts by rounded off the top and bottom edges of the E-00001A doubler so that it will nest correctly in the E-702 spar channel.

After that, we cleco on the E-610PP and E-611PP doublers on the back side of the spar, as well as the E-00001A and E-00001B doublers on the front side. These doublers are a part of SB-14-02-15 which was included in my tail kit. Once all the doublers are clecod on, we match drill them to the E-702 spar.

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After that, we straighten the flanges and flute both the E-703 and E-704 ribs, and then cleco E-703 end rib and E-704 counterbalance rib together, and then match drill them. This takes a little time as I had to flute them in several places to get them straight and flush with each other. In the end, they cooperated and fit together snugly. Then Vans has us fit them to E-702 spar and match drill the holes to the spar. Once they are drilled, we remove the rib assembly from the spar to fit the lead counterweight.

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This is where I messed up on the previous elevator and had to order a new E-713 counterbalance skin, and another E-714 counterweight. That cost about $40, and they showed up at my house today! Talk about perfect timing! It takes a little bit of filing on the lead counter weight to get it to match the curvature of the E-713 skin and to fit snuggly. I also double checked to make sure I had the orientation correct so I don?t repeat my mistake from last time 🙂 Once they counterweight has been shaved and filed down to fit good, we assemble the lead counterweight, the E-713 counterweight skin, and the E-703/E-704 rib assemblies to drill the counterweight.

When drilling lead, I decided to use a #30 drill bit in the pre-punched holes as a pilot, and follow it with the proper size #12 bit, using LOTS of Boelube to keep the bits lubricated. Clamping the assembly to the corner of my work table made this much easier to do as well. I used my electric drill instead of the pneumatic because I need slow speed with lots of torque to drill the lead. This worked out great, and the holes were straight and perfect.

Now that the counterweight is drilled, we remove it from the assembly and set it aside for now, this makes assembling the skeleton much easier to deal with. We then re-cleco the E-703/E-704/E-713 assembly to the E-702 spar. Then we cleco on the E-705 root rib and match drill it using a #40 bit to the E-702 spar.

Now that the counterweight is drilled, we remove it from the assembly and set it aside for now, this makes assembling the skeleton much easier to deal with. We then re-cleco the E-703/E-704/E-713 assembly to the E-702 spar. Then we cleco on the E-705 root rib and match drill it using a #40 bit to the E-702 spar.

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Its skining time now! I clecod on the E-701-L skin to the newly built skeleton, making sure to keep the E-701 skin on TOP of the E-713 counterbalance skin. Next, Vans has us remove the clecos holding on the E-705 root rib to the E-702 spar, so that we can fit the WD-605-1-L elevator horn and match drill it to the E-705 and E-702. I match drilled these to a #30 size drill.
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Once we have the elevator horn drilled, I inserted the little E-606PP spar into the skin, and clecoed it to the E-705 root rib and E-701 skin. I also had to match drill the E-606PP to the E-705. At this point, I have my entire right elevator assembled and ready to be match drilled. I matched drilled the E-701-R skin to its skeleton using a #40 bit per the plans.

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You guessed it?its time to disassemble the elevator so that I can deburr, dress the edges, prime, and dimple them. At this point, I noticed that my cleco bucket was running pretty low:
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After getting the elevator disassembled, I decided to continue on and finish up the last few little easy steps in this section of the plans. I had to machine countersink the E-714 lead counterweight to match the dimple and screw, so I did this with my deburring tool, which worked nice. Then I used a #10 dimple die to dimple the E-713 counterweight skin to match. I checked all these with the screw to make sure it looked great.

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Now, this is where it gets a little tricky. The little E-606PP spar needs to be machine counter sunk on the top to mate with the dimples in the skin. We machine countersink it because we don?t want the protruding dimple on the underside of the spar because the trim tab hinge gets riveted to it on the bottom. However, we are able to dimple the BOTTOM of the E-606PP spar so it will mate with the skin dimple, and because there isn?t anything that will interfere with the dimple protrusion on the spar. This drawing makes it easier to see:
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So, I deburred all the holes, and chucked up my countersink cage in my drill and countersunk every hole along the TOP of the E-606PP, checking each one with a rivet to make sure it was flush. Then I used my squeezer and a 3/32 dimple die to dimple the BOTTOM of the E-606PP, except for the last two holes. They were too tight to fit the squeezer, and the spar was too thick for the pop rivet dimple die, so I just machine countersunk the last two holes on the bottom. Simple and easy solution!

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Then I machine countersunk the two holes that attach the E-606PP to the E-705 root rib, orienting the countersink so that the flush rivet will go in with the flush head on the aft face of the E-606PP. This will eliminate any chance of interference during the trim tab travel, and make it look nice and neat in this area. The plans said we could do the countersink on either side of the hole, so I chose to do it this way. Then, I dimpled the holes for the E-705 to R-702. Vans calls for this to be machine countersunk, due to the sharp bend on the E-705 root rib, making it hard to dimple, but I was able to get my dimple dies in there and squeeze them without any problems. We have to use flush rivets here because the WD-605-1-L elevator horn fits over this intersection. Lastly, the only thing left in this section is to bevel the edges of the E-713 counterweight skin so that the E-701 will overlap it very smoothly where they meet. I used my file to work the edges into a nice bevel where the two skins meet. This worked out very nicely on the right elevator, so I used the same technique here.


With that, the right elevator has been assembled and ready for all the parts to be dressed. In the next few sessions I will work on deburring all the holes (so many holes deburred at this point!), dressing all the edges with the scotchbrite wheel and then priming them. Follow that with dimpling and final assembly! Here is the photo album from tonights work:

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/rpvXUguFpbjwQyqd7

Hours Worked: 4
 
February 22nd, 2017. Hours Worked: 2.25

I got to do some pretty neat assembly work tonight, working with actual aircraft components, instead of just aluminum! I worked on assembling the mounting brackets for the Ray Allan Electric Trim servo. I also deburred all of the metal parts for the left elevator skeleton. The work session started out by unboxing the electric trim servo. Van?s ships this assembly as an option for the RV-7, and they include all the mounting brackets, screws, nutplates, rivets and hardware thats needed to fully install it. Another testament to how well Van?s build their kits!

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I started out by studying the plans to note the proper orientation of all the parts. There are quite a few custom bent brackets and they need to be lined up just right in order to drill the holes correctly. The plans gives us some measurements to place the EET-602B-L mounting bracket. I decided to mount the E-616PP cover plate to the skin so I could draw an outline of where the ribs and skin lay on the cover plate. This will keep me from mounting the brackets to close and causing interference, and I also made sure to notate the orientation of the plate in reference to the aircraft as well. Once I had that all marked up, I used a straight edge to mark lines on where the plans tells us the forward edge and inboard edges of the EET-602B-L bracket. Then I placed the servo bracket on the plate, using my lines as a guide and clamped it on with cleco side clamps. Once I verified that the bracket was where it needed to be, I drilled the holes and attached it with normal clecos. Now that the hard one was done, I just stuck the servo in that bracket, and then placed the right side bracket and used the servo attaching bolts to hold it while I drew and measured its placement on the E-616PP plate.

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When I was happy it was in the right spot, I removed the trim servo and match drilled the holes into the E-616PP plate using the bracket as my guide. Stuck in some clecos, and made sure it all fit perfectly.

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Happy with how the trim system went in, I decided to drill a 3/8 hole in the elevator spar, just above where the stock hole is. I will use this 3/8 hole and a snap bushing to run the wiring for the servo, and the stock hole for the servo jack shaft. This way, I don?t have any wearing or chaffing of the wiring, and there is less chance of the jack shaft binding on the wires. This is a suggested procedure per Van?s. You can see the smaller 3/8 hole just above the larger stock hole in the photo below:
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Once that was all done, I decided to go ahead and deburr all the holes in my left elevator skeleton. I spent about an hour or so doing this, and got all the parts deburred and ready for dressing the edges. I will do that tomorrow night, and then these last few remaining parts will be ready for priming.

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That was a good stopping point for the night, so I cleaned up the shop, swept up all the metal shavings and called it a night. Here is the full album of all the photos: https://goo.gl/photos/P4WYQJMj8xHAjkyD6

Hours Worked: 2.25
 
February 23rd, 2017. Hours Worked: 4

I started this session by first dressing the edges of the left elevator skeleton parts, but that only took about 30 minutes, so I decided to find something else to work on. Since those parts are waiting on priming, the only thing I have left to start on is the trim tab. I read the plans and decided to give it a go and try to get the end tabs bent, and some work done of the trim tab itself. I managed to almost finish the trim tab assembly tonight 🙂

After dressing up the edges of those left elevator parts, I laid them up on the shelf and dug out the trim tab parts. First we have to start off by bending the trailing edge of the skin for the trim tab, and this is done exactly like the elevators. So I set up my bending brake and put a very smooth and gradual bend on the trailing edge, and made sure it was straight with the spar in place.

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Granted, I took my time on this, I got it done in about 20 minutes or so. I have been reading up on bending these tabs for a while now, and watched the Orndorff videos, so I was pretty prepared to begin. I started out by making some bending blocks that fit into the end of the trim tab. I used the tab itself to draw an outline on a piece of 2?4 and then cut the shape out on my bandsaw. I made two sets because the bends on each end are at slightly different angles.

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With the bending blocks made up, its time to get to bending the trim tab! I start out by inserting the blocks and clamping everything down to my work table nice and tight so it doesn?t move during bending.

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We start out by bending the bottom tab first, and overlapping it with the top tab, so that the top tab folds over the bottom, helping to keep water and debris from getting into the trim tab. I used a block of wood in my hand to get the bend started and once I had it at about a 45 degree angle, I use a small hammer against my wood block to help shape the metal. This way, I am using the soft face of my wood block against my tab and the bending block instead of the hard metal face of the hammer. This keeps from dinging, denting and scuffing the aluminum. I took lots of time and did this very slowly, using small light taps with the hammer against my block to bend the metal. Once I had the bottom tab bent up to a 90 degree bend, I did the exact same to the top tab, bending it to overlap the bottom. I am really happy with the results.

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Now that we have the inboard side of the trim tab bent, it time to move to the outboard. These tabs are MUCH smaller than the inboard side, so I had to take extra caution on these little suckers. They would be easy to crack if you work the metal to much. Eventually, I got them folded up, overlapping the bottom tab with the top just like on the other side. I stuck the spar into the trim tab and clecoed it in a few spots to check my work, and I am happy with how it turned out!

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After having a good victory on the tab bending, I still felt good enough to continue on working. The plans have us mount the E-717 and E-718 trim tab horns to the bottom of the trim tab. E-717 has 3 of the 4 holes pre-drilled, so its easy to line up. Then I just clamped E-718 to E-717 with some side clamps, and then use one of the clevis pins and hinges from my electric trim kit to make sure the holes were lined up properly in the trim tab horns. Once everything was lined up, I back drilled both of the trim tab horns to the trim tab.

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So, next up was to fully cleco on the spar, and then attach the hinge bracket so it can be back drilled. I studied the plans and made a few alignment marks on my E-721 trim tab hinge. Vans gives the measurements to the center of the hole in the skin/spar so its easy to mark the hinge with a sharpie, and then line up the cross hairs with the center of the hole. I also marked the entire centerline of the hinge to the measurements Vans gives with a sharpie so I could align every single hole. Once I had them all aligned, I used some cleco side clamps to hold it all together. Once I had the hinge clamped on firmly, I started back drilling using the holes in the E-619-PP trim tab skin as my guides.

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Once I had the hinge back drilled, I flipped the trim tab over and match drilled all the holes on the bottom to the spar. Now, the plans has us disassemble the trim tab, so that we can trim off any excess from the trim tab horns, as well as the excess from the inboard side of he E-721 hinge. I went ahead and trimmed off the very little bit of excess on the E-718 and E-717 trim tab horns, and smoothed the edges with a scotchbrite pad, and then did the same to the little bit of excess on the E-721 hinge. I figured this was a good place to stop, so I called it a night. I still need to deburr the holes, dress the edges of the trim tab parts and then dimple it all. I am contemplating if I should prime the trim tab or not, not sure yet. Here?s all the photos I took tonight: https://goo.gl/photos/nFHQysMhoQBFDwdJA

Hours Worked: 4
 
February 27th, 2017. Hours Worked: 2

After having a lot of things going on today, I decided to get down to the shop and build a little on the airplane to help clear my mind. Our little 9 month old, Acacia, had to be put in a brace for her hip dysplasia for a few weeks, so that broke mine and Tammys hearts 🙁 Getting down in the shop and working on the plane and working with my hands is a good stress reliever for me so I figured I?d go do some build-therapy for a few hours tonight.

Since I am waiting on a good full day to prime the rest of the elevator parts, the only thing I have left to work on right now is the trim tab. I had previously assembled it, so I started this session by deburring all the trim tab parts, and dressing the edges of all the parts. Then I dimpled the skin using my squeezer, because the tight spaces wouldn?t allow it in my DRDT-2.

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The E-607PP trim tab spar needs to be machine countersunk only on the top side so it can receive the dimpled skin, but we can?t dimple it because we don?t want a bulge on the bottom, where the hinge will attach. I fired up my micro-stop countersink and knocked this out pretty easily, and then followed it up by dimpling the bottom of the spar with my dimpler per the plans.

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After all the parts were deburred, dimpled, dressed and countersunk, I went ahead and assembled everything to start riveting. I riveted on the bottom side of the skin to the spar using my squeezer, but this was not a fast process. I had to use a few blocks of scrap wood to hold the skin open in order to get my squeezer in there. It was still a tight fit in most of the spots, so I had to pay extra attention to what I was doing.

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I left the E-717 and E718 trim tab horns for the very last so I did?t risk bending or damaging them during this process. I also used a cleco to help hold the hole for the clevis pin in alignment on the trim tab horns just to be safe. With a little bit of patience and fiddling, the bottom of the skin was riveted onto the spar.

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I am going to hold off on attaching the top part of the skin to the spar, because we have to do some measuring of the trim tab against the elevator in order to align both halves of the hinge just right, so for now, I just clecoed it on and then attached the forward half of the hinge to keep the hinge pin safe and free from getting bent on the shelf. That?s about all I got done tonight. A total of right at 2 hours of work and I called it a night. Here?s the photos from tonights session: https://goo.gl/photos/rVtTaemn4fUUSQfX7

Hours Worked: 2
 
February 28th, 2017. Hours Worked: 3.25

Well, tonight was priming night, and its the last priming session for the entire empennage! I am kind of glad to be honest, spraying AKZO is an ordeal with all the PPE and prep work that has to be done. However, it leaves an absolutely awesome primed surface, that is incredibly durable so I guess its worth the trouble. I only had a few remaining parts from the left elevator that needed priming, and I have decided I am not priming the trim tab. Its a super small piece, and the assembly work left the trim tab fairly closed, so I wouldn?t get much coverage in it anyways. Even if the trim tab starts corroding (it won?t its alclad), the entire thing will cost about $50 in parts to replace, and maybe 8 hours of work. The trim tab finished out so well, that I didn?t want to chance ruining it by trying to prime it.

Here?s my obligatory priming selfie!!!

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Like all priming sessions, I started out by scuffing up the parts with maroon scotchbrite pads. These things work great at scuffing the alclad surface, but not removing it. I essentially am just removing any of the alclad surface corrosion and giving the primer a good surface to ?bite? onto. Once I had all my parts scuffed up, I did a quick wipe with a microfiber cloth to remove the dust that scuffing leaves behind. I have found this small step makes it WAY easier to clean with acetone. Once I had the dust off the parts, I cleaned each one with acetone 3 times each and using a clean side of a paper towel every time. I like to clean the parts until the white paper towel pulls away clean from the part.

Then, I mixed up the AKZO and let it kick-off for the 30 minutes it needs, stirring it occasionally. I made 4 ounces of AKZO for this small batch and then poured it into the PPS cups for my HVLP sprayer. While the AKZO was kicking-off, I suited up into my tyvek suit, donned my full face mask and sealed off the spray booth and ventilated it outside. Like usual, AKZO sprays super easy, and covers wonderfully with an HVLP. Usually once quick pass is enough to cover the part completely, with only needing a few small touch up?s in the shadowy areas.

Once I had all the parts sprayed on both sides, I cleaned out my sprayer and I?ll leave the parts to cure for a few days. AKZO dries really fast, and is workable in a few hours, but I like to let it completely cure before working with it. Its very scratch resistant if you do. Not many photos tonight, because, well its priming. Its pretty much the same as the other priming sessions 🙂 Here?s the ones I did take though: https://goo.gl/photos/Bm6Ck64TDSQRLVNj7

Hours Worked: 3.25
 
Last edited:
March 2nd, 2017. Hours Worked: 3

The primer has dried and cured on my left elevator parts, so theres only one thing left to do? Start assembly and riveting! I started out the session by bending the tabs on the elevator skin. On this left skin, there are two tiny little tabs that must be folded over, just like the trim tab, in order to close the edge where the trim tab sits. These also support the outboard edge of the skin, much like a rib would. This is a very delicate operation, and one that can go wrong quickly. When I bent the trim tab, I had a second one for a spare so I didn?t worry. With this skin, I only have the one, and I have a ton of work in it already! I used the same bending blocks as I did for my trim tab, since the angles are pretty much identical. I inserted the block and clamped it down to the bench. I used a straight edge held against the block of wood to make sure I had it right on my bend line.

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We bend the bottom tab first, and then fold the top tab over the top this way we form a lip that allows water to run over the skin, and not get trapped between the tabs, or worse, get inside the skin! Notice my note to myself (1 st!) so I don?t bend the wrong tab first. I used a large block of wood and a small hammer with light taps to bend the bottom tab into position. Once I had the bottom tab where I liked it, I did the same with the top tab, and the end results were decent. While they are not perfect, and have a few tiny dents from the bending, I am happy with them as they are. The dents wont be visible since they are on the inside of the edge and will have the trim tab butted up against them.

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Next up, I dimpled all the parts and skin. I like to dimple after priming because it makes scuffing in preparation for priming so much easier. I dimpled the skin, spar, end ribs and all associated parts for the left elevator. I used a combination of my squeezer and the DRDT-2. I had to use my squeezer on the skin this time, due to how tight the trailing edge is. Once I had all my parts dimpled, I continued on with the rest of the plans. In the section titled ?Riveting the Left Elevator?, Van?s has us start out by riveting E-704 End Rib and E-703 counterbalance rib together.

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After that, we move on to riveting the E-610PP and E611PP reinforcement plates to the E-702 spar, along with the E-00001A and E-00001B doublers and the rivnuts. We have to be very careful here, as there are three different rivet lengths that attach all these together. I used the squeezer to set all these rivets.

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I was running a bit out of gas, so I decided to finish up the session by knocking one more simple little part: The trim tab servo plate and brackets. This is a simple part and only requires about 6 rivets. I used the squeezer to set these flush rivets, and then test fitted the servo to make sure it was still all in alignment. It came out great.

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Thats all for tonight. I still have a little bit more riveting to complete, so I will leave that for the next session. I have also spoken with my local EAA Tech Counselor, and he?s going to come by this Saturday afternoon to give my project a look. I still have the horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer and elevators to close up, so I will leave them until he can inspect them before closing them up. Here?s all the photos for tonight: https://goo.gl/photos/MEyHbRc28WovGerUA

Hours Worked: 3
 
March 4th, 2017. Hours Worked: 1.75

Since I have had my horizontal stabilizer inspected and approved, I am ready to close it up and finish it! I started tonights session by re-clecoing the front spar onto the horizontal stabilizer. I had removed it so the inspector could get a good look inside and check my work. Once I had it all clecoed on, I double checked the orientation to make sure it was all correct.

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Once it was all clecoed into place, the rest was pretty easy! I dropped in AN4263-3.5 rivets and squeezed them with my pneumatic squeezer. I skipped every other hole with clecos, so once I had the unclecod holes rivets squeezed, I went back and removed the clecos and riveted them. Squeezing makes a very nice rivet and everything came out looking very nice.

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Once the rivets were set along the spar and skin, there were a few that we had to get to on the ends that attached the HS-706 tip rib to the HS-603PP rear spar. Those are using AN470 rivets, but I was still able to get them with the squeezer.

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Then, there are 4 blind rivets that we have to set using a pop-rivet tool. These are what attach the HS-603PP rear spar to the HS-708 main rib, and we have to use BSPQ-5-4 blind rivets in these holes. These are some pretty beefy blind rivets, and it took a good bit of force on the pop rivet tool to get them set, but they came out looking great.

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Finally, there are a few more AN470 universal head rivets that attach the HS-00005 inboard aft rib to the HS-603PP rear spar, but I was able to use a squeezer to set these. They are fairly long -7 rivets due to all the metal they tie together.

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I did also cover my bolts with some torque seal, and made a **** of a mess with it! As you can see in the photos, this stuff is like Pro-Seal, and gets everywhere! I tried to clean it up the best I could and made sure the bolts were covered to make inspections easier. That was it for closing up the horizontal stabilizer! One of the suggestions that the Tech Counselor made was to make sure I included plenty of photos of me doing the work, which is a bit difficult given that I am building this plane all alone. I decided to use my old Go Pro and do some timelapse videos. I will include them in future posts. Here is the obligatory selfie of me holding the finished stabilizer!

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And here is the time lapse video of the construction. I set the Go Pro to do a photo every 10 seconds, I may do it at 5 seconds on the next video. Let me know what you think.

https://youtu.be/lXyJUsTrnQg

Link to Google Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/RABUeY3Z4gXmMA9U9

Hours Worked: 1.75
 
March 4th, 2017. Hours Worked: 1

After completing the horizontal stabilizer in a previous work session, I decided to continue on and finish the vertical stabilizer. *The Tech Counselor came out this morning and approved all my work so far, and that means its safe to close these guys up and mark them as done! *I started out by clecoing the rear spar back on to the vertical stabilizer skin, we had removed it this morning so the inspector could take a good look at the riveting done inside.

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Once the VS-803PP rear spar was clecod on, I inserted an AN426AD3-3.5 rivet into every other hole and used the squeezer to set the rivets. Once they were all done on both sides, I removed the clecos and then riveted those holes. Since I was able to use my squeezer, these rivets came out perfect:

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Next up was to attach the VS-707 rib to the VS-803PP rear spar assembly using LP4-3 blind rivets. *These were easily done using the pop rivet tool, making sure to keep them flush with the parts when setting.

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Finally, the last step was to rivet on the VS-704 end rib to the VS-803PP rear spar assembly using AN470AD4-6 rivets and then attaching the VS-706 tip rib to the rear spar using AN470AD4-4 rivets. *I used the squeezer on these guys, and they set really nicely. Its still very nice to see just how rigid everything ends up being once it all riveted together. These skins are nice and tight and have zero oil canning.

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Here is a nice time lapse video I took of this session:

https://youtu.be/5-IIUhKBHhM

Of course, the obligatory happy selfie of the finished vertical stabilizer:

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Google photos Link:*https://goo.gl/photos/SX4DAd6o8eWHGtPu7
 
March 5th, 2017. Hours Worked: 3

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/riveting-the-left-elevator-skin/

# Riveting the Left Elevator Skin

Tonight I worked to rivet on the skin of the Left Elevator and the last few remaining parts of the skeleton for it as well. In the last work session, I completed the spar and a few other parts, but tuckered out before I got to the skin. I started out by riveting the E-703 tip rib assembly to the E-702 spar, making sure to get the hard to reach rivets first. The last time I did this on the right elevator, I left two rivets that were hard to reach with a squeezer in a bad position, and I spent a couple hours working on it to get them riveted. I learned to get those two first this time :)

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Once I had the tip rib squared away, I moved to the other end and riveted on the E-705 end rib to the E-702 spar, making sure to face the flush rivets in the proper direction so as to not interfere with the WD-605-1-L elevator horn that I riveted next. These all were pretty straight forward, and I used my squeezer to get a perfectly set rivet on them.

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Now its time to move on to the skins. First, I attached the E-713 counterbalance skin to the E-701 elevator skin with clecos, and noted which two rivet holes I need to set first, before inserting the skeleton. I opted to set these rivets now, and use AN426 flush rivets instead of using pop rivets after the skeleton is inserted into the skin. We just have to be cautious to make sure we use the correct holes :)

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Before inserting the skeleton, I popped in some plastic snap bushings into the holes in the spar for the trim servo jack shaft and wiring. Its easier to do now than when the skin is closed up.

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Now, its time to mate the skin with the skeleton, and cleco it all together for one last check before final riveting. I gently inserted the skeleton into the skin, and lined everything up and clecoed every hole. Once I had it all clecoed I used a straight edge against the skin to check its straightness, both on the stiffeners and between the stiffeners. Then I removed every other cleco to make riveting easier.

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I only riveted the bottom skin for now. I will leave the top skin free so I can put pro-seal on the stiffener ends before closing it up for good. I closed the bottom skin by inserting a rivet in every other hole and squeezing it. Then I removed the clecos, and clecoed the holes they were in. On the left elevator we have to use 4 blind rivets on the outboard end of the E-606PP spar, as there is no way to get to it otherwise. I used MK319BS blind rivets in those last 4 holes, and made sure they were sitting as flush as possible. They were not 100% flush like the AN426 rivets, but they ended up flush enough to make me happy.

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With that being done, all that remained was to mark and drill the holes on the tabs that I bent a few nights ago. Van's doesnt have these holes pre-punched, because its impossible to know where they'd end up after the bending, so we have to be creative. Van's does tell us to make sure the rivets from the trim tab do not interfere with the elevator skins, so I put the trim tab in its location, and marked where the pre-punched holes for it were on both the trim tab itself, as well as the elevator skin, seen in the photo above. I then decided to place my elevator tab rivets between where the trim tab rivets go, so as to give me plenty of clearance. I then drilled the holes with a #40 bit, followed by a #30 bit to fit the CS4-4 blind rivets. The last bit of work for the night was to bolt on the E-714 counterweight. I picked our the screws, washers and nuts as called for by the plans, ran them through the counterweight assembly and then torqued them down to 30 inch/lbs of torque as specified in the manual. Then, I gobbed on some torque-seal to make annual inspections easier in the future.

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That finished up the work for tonight. Here's a quick time lapse of the work to make the FAA happy that I actually completed the work, and a photo gallery of all the photos below that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7bv-Cgp1p4

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/B2SmEbJ6Q8Gg9iM29
 
March 9th, 2017. Hours Worked: 2.5

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/closing-up-the-trim-tab/
created: 2017/03/09 21:00:49

# Closing up the Trim Tab

I am coming down to the finish line on this empennage kit. Tonight I finished up with the elevator trim tab, and it is ready to be permanently attached. I had gotten it nearly completed the last time I worked on it, but I needed to get the elevator riveted up so I'd have a finished surface to work with. I started out the night by getting the trim tab lined up with the elevator. The trailing edge is critical, and needs to be perfectly in trail with the elevator trailing edge. Luckily, I had an easy way to make sure of this. I had some left over 2x2 angle, so I laid one side of the angle under the elevator, and let the other side function as my straight edge. I made sure the angle was sitting flush up against the trailing edge, and then I positioned the trim tab so that its trailing edge also fit flush against the angle. This made sure that both trailing edges were perfectly in alignment.

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Once I was happy that the trailing edge was flush, I double checked the edges on the inboard edges as well, to make sure they are aligned together. Then it was time to clamp it all down and get to match drilling. I used a cleco side clamp to hold it, while I drilled the first hole on the inboard edge. Then I cleco'd that hole and re-checked my alignment and drilled the outboard hole which held the E-721 trim tab hinge from loosing its alignment.

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Then I removed the trim tab, but left the forward half of the trim tab hinge clecoed to the elevator. I used all of my cleco clamps to help hold the hinge flush against the E-616PP spar. This also helped hold the hinge steady while I gently match drilled the remaining holes, using the E-701 as a guide.

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After I got the forward hinge drilled to the elevator, I removed everything, and then deburred all the holes, and cleaned up the edges of the hinge, rounding the corners. The plans also has us mark and trim off the excess hinge from the inboard side, which was easy to complete. I dressed these edges as well. Next up was to rivet the hinge to the trim tab itself. I had triple checked that everything was still in alignment with the tab on the elevator, and then I drilled the holes for the end tabs on the inboard side of the trim tab, using a #40, followed by a #30 for final size. I clecoed those holes and then removed the trim tab to rivet everything. I riveted the trim tab hinge using my squeezer making sure I did not catch the loops of the hinge in the squeezer. Riveting this hinge cause a slight bend in the loops, so I spent some time gently bending the loops back into alignment, using the hinge pin to make sure. With that being done, I drilled the outboard end tabs and then used CS4-4 blind rivets to finish up both sides of the end tabs. With that, the trim tab is done!

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Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/pV1jmjChAmoVbwpH9
 
March 11th, 2017. Hours Worked: 1.25

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/proseal-party/
created: 2017/03/11 15:00:34

# ProSeal Party!

Today was actually a pretty fun day. I decided to wait on prosealing the rudder and elevators until I could do it all at once, and save on the cost of mixing up two different tubes for two different sessions. I also took advantage of having some helpful friends to come by and lend a hand at this super messy task, with the promise of feeding them some of Tammy's awesome "Mississippi Mud Pot Roast" as payment for their help. One of the helpers has had experience with ProSeal before, so he gave us some tips on using this stuff. Best tip: Double glove.... We started out by un-cleocing the trailing edge of the rudder so we could get the trailing edge wedge out and clean it. I used acetone to wipe down the wedge as well a both sides of the skin to make sure we get good adhesion, although after using ProSeal, I think this stuff would stick to anything. Once we had the parts cleaned off, we mixed up the tube of Proseal. This was actually a neat setup, and the rods made it pretty easy to get it all mixed up and proportioned correctly. Then we gooped on a decent portion on the trailing edge wedge, and smeared it to a nice even consistency using the pieces of some clothespins.

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Having plenty of hands made this job go much smother. One guy squirted on the Proseal from the caulking gun, while we smoothed it out using the ends of the clothespins and pieces of some paint mixing sticks. Once we had the wedge good and covered with this sticky mess, two guys held the ends of the wedge, while me and the other helper held the trailing edge of the skins open just enough so they could slide the wedge in place. We lined it up with the holes and then used a few clecos to hold it until we could set it aside and then cleco it down to the 2x2 angle aluminum which serves as our straight edge. Before clecoing it down to the straight edge, I did run my finger using some force along the the trailing edge to make sure all the excess Proseal was squeeezed out to prevent pillowing between the clecos. Then, once we had all the clecos inserted, we went back and placed some clothes pins in between the clecos to help clamp it down even further. I also gave each one of the clothes pins an extra "squeeze" every so often by pinching the down on the nose of them.

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With the rudder ready to be set aside and cured, we moved on to the elevators. I wanted to put a decent glob/dab of ProSeal at the ends of the stiffeners near the trailing edges. This is supposed to help fight off any vibration and keep the stiffeners from cracking, so I figured its worth the little bit of time to go ahead and do this. We started out by unclecoing both elevators, and then using a combination of paint mixing sticks, the caulking gun and finese to get a good blob of Proseal on each stiffener junction. Again, having several sets of hands REALLY made this job much easier. We ended up using nearly the whole tube (medium sized tube from Vans) on the rudder and both elevators.

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After we had both elevators prosealed, we clecoed them back together, and I will finish riveting them in a few days once the Proseal cures. Just some words of advice:

1. Proseal is incredibly sticky, and WILL get everywhere.
2. Double glove...it makes it easy to pull off your outer layer, and slip on a new set. Sweaty hands from the gloves are hard to get a fresh pair on, so double gloving avoids this problem
3. This stuff smells like sewer and new tires. Make sure you have good ventilation. Its not as bad as AKZO, but man, its a weird smell.
4. It has a pretty decent working time of about an hour or so. Maybe more if you are willing to risk it. It was a little cold in the basement, so we didn't want to chance it.

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/4fRLG915Z8FAGnmZ6
 
March 13th, 2017. Hours Worked: 1.5

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/closing-up-the-elevators/
created: 2017/03/13 20:30:01

[big]Closing up the Elevators[/big]

Tonight I was able to close up and rivet both the left and the right elevators. They had been setting and letting the proseal cure, and now it was time to close them up for good. I started out with the easiest one first, the right elevator. This one is pretty simple, as there is no trim tab to deal with. I removed every other cleco, inserted a rivet and then squeezed them with my squeezer.

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Since this is all along the edges, I was able to use my squeezer on all but one rivet. I was not able to get the nose of the squeezer in the very last rivet closest to the trailing edge. There was just not enough room to get it in there and squeeze. I am thinking I will use a blind rivet in that one hole, which is perfectly acceptable by Vans's plans, and even recommended for the very end holes due to the tightness of them. All the rest of the rivets were perfect.

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I was able to set every rivet except that one on the end. I will set the elevator to the side, and make a note on this one rivet. Once I make a decision I will come back to it . I do think a blind rivet is the way to go, since it doesn't involve risking any damage to an otherwise perfect elevator. On the the left elevator! I did pretty much the same thing on the left elevator as the right: Started by removing every other cleco, then riveting those empty holes. The only exception was the work around the trim tab. I left the trim tab off for now, but placed the forward portion of the hinge to the elevator and clecoed it on. The I very gently used a long nose squeezer with a set that would let me get behind the hinge bends to set the rivets. I did this slowly and carefully to avoid bending the hinge, and it turned out great.

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Then, I moved over to the few blind rivets that the left elevator requires. There are a few MK319BS blind rivets that we need to use on the E-701 skin to the E-606PP spar on the very outboard sections, 4 total. I set them and made sure they were completely flush. Then I moved over to the bent tabs on the elevator at the trim tab section, and riveted them with MSP-42 blind rivets per the plans.

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The left elevator came out looking really great. I stuck the trim tab on the elevator with the hinge pin to make sure everything still lined up good. The plans has us attach the trim tab by bending the pin, but I did not feel comfortable putting the elevator in storage with the trim tab attached and it flopping around. I think I will leave it off to keep it safe. That's all for tonight.

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/DN8NBZXz4HrbjCLw8
 
March 14th, 2017. Hours Worked: 2

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/bending-right-elevator-leading-edge/
created: 2017/03/14 19:00:37

[big]Bending Right Elevator Leading Edge[/big]

With the right elevator all closed up, one of the last remaining steps is to bend the leading edge. This is a bit tricky to do, and I am using the tried and true method of using a wood dowel rod and some strong Gorilla Tape to get the bend just right. I started off tonights build by first breaking the top edges of the leading edge using an edge break roller tool. This little tool has two rollers welded to the end of a pair of vise grips. You insert the skin edge and gently pull it along the edge, creating a slight bend / break along the edge. This allows the lap joint between the top and bottom skins to fit snug together once they are riveted.

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Then, I began by bending the smaller section of leading edge on the outboard side. I bent the bottom first, and then the top by securing a large section of gorilla tape to the leading edge, and wrapping it around a dowel rod. Then I used some channel locks to slowly rotate the dowel rod and curled the leading edge ever so gently to get the bend angle. Once I had the top skin done, I done the bottom skin. Then it was time to get a bit physical with the metal, and form the remainder of the shape with my hands by brute force and squeezing. Eventually, I had the leading edge of the smaller section where I like it, and clecoed it together. I moved on to the remaining sections of leading edge, but this time I decided to bend the top section first, followed by the bottom section. This seemed to make the lap joint much tighter and more rounded. Once I had all the bends done, I clecoed everything in place. The plans has us drill the [project]40[/project] holes to a [project]30[/project] in order to fit the AD-41-ABS blind rivets, so I removed one cleco at a time and drilled to proper size, replacing it with a 1/8 cleco.

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Finally, I had all the bends where I wanted them, and the holes properly sized, I used my pop rivet tool to set all of the AD-41-ABS blind rivets into their holes, one by one leaving the clecos in place to help hold the metal to its shape. It didn't quite turn out perfect, but I am happy with how it looks.

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The last thing I did was to insert the rod ends into the nut plates. I do not have the home made tool to get these to the right depth, but thats something for another session. For now, I just threaded on the AN316-6 jam nuts to the MD3614M rod ends , and then screwed them into the nutplates on the spar. I'll come back and adjust these to the right depth and torques later on. I have made a note in my plans to do this.

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That's all for tonight. A total of about 2 hours getting these bends just right. I was hoping to knock both elevators out tonight, but only got one. The other will have to wait till next time.

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/6Vi1DWoDC3t9vPEk8
 
March 18th, 2017. Hours Worked: 1.25

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/bending-the-left-elevator-leading-edge/
created: 2017/03/18 00:58:23

[big]Bending the Left Elevator Leading Edge[/big]

After[ getting the right elevator bent, ](/rv7/bending-right-elevator-leading-edge/) it was time to move on the left. This process is pretty much identical to the right elevator, so I will leave out all the details. I did it exactly this one the same way as I did the right. First up is to break the edges of the top skin to help the lap joint form a nice tight lap. I used my edge breaking tool to do this. Then, starting out by bending the top skin leading edge, I used a dowel rod and gorilla tape to roll it to the right bend, and then finished it off with my hands. I did the same with the bottom skin. Once all the bends were made, I clecoed them together.

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The next step is to match drill all the holes to a [project]30[/project] hole for the AD-41-ABS blind rivets. I did one hole at a time, and replaced it with a 1/8 inch cleco as I went. Once all the holes were drilled to the proper size, I unclecoed everything and deburred the holes with a scotchbrite pad. Then, re-assembled everything back with the clecos to hold them in place while I set the blind rivets. I worked my way down the leading edges, removing a cleco and setting a blind rivet as I went. Eventually, it was all riveted together and looking good:

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The last step for the night was to install the AN316-6 jam nut onto the MD3614M rod end bearing, and then insert that into the plate nuts on the spar. I used Boelube on the threads to make this a bit easier, because platenuts can be hard to thread into. I don't have my rod end bearing tool made yet to thread these all the way in, nor do I have a caliper to measure the distance, so I just threaded them in a few turns and I will come back and get them set to the proper depth when I have those tools. I need to do this to the right elevator as well.

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/Krv1f4cjMnk98k5NA
 
March 19th, 2017. Hours Worked: 3

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/mounting-the-trim-tab-servo/created: 2017/03/19 21:00:42

Mounting the Trim Tab Servo

Since my rudder trailing edge is still curing, I decided to work on the last remaining task left on the empennage: Mounting the trim tab servo. I started out the work tonight by wiring up the servo, its indicator and switch to my 12V bench power supply to test its function and make sure it was in the neutral / take-off position. I have a pretty good background with low voltage and electronics, so this was pretty fun for me. After a little fiddling, I managed to get the servo working, and the indicator showing its true position. I made sure it was in the neutral spot before un-wiring the servo to install it in the elevator. Here's a video of it on the bench.

https://youtu.be/UbOMSEnQfVU

I mounted the servo to it brackets on the E-616-PP plate, and then inserted it in the left elevator so that I could cut the jack screw to the proper length. The kit ships with a 7" jack screw, which is WAY longer than you need. I made sure my trim tab was in complete alignment and in trail with the elevator by using a long peice of angle stock, a block of wood and a small clamp with very light pressure.

/http://theskunkwerx.comwp-content/uploads/2017/03/IMG_1457-1024x768.jpg

Now that the trim tab was lined up in the take-off / neutral position, it matched the position of the trim tab servo. You can see in the photo above just how long the jack screw is. I used a ruler to measure from the middle of the clevis pin attachments on both the trim tab and the servo and came up with just about 3.5" inches in length. I used a hacksaw with a metal cutting blade, and a clamped the jack screw to my bench and made the cut.

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After I cleaned up the threads on the cut end, I threaded the jack screw into the clevis pin attachments and adjusted the length so that it aligned perfectly. Now I have my measurement, I use the jam nuts to lock the clevis pin attachments into place so I could continue working. I then re-wired the servo so I could move it across its entire range and mark where I needed to trim the skin. Van's mentions in the plans, that its OK to trim the elevator skin to allow for proper clearance of the jack screw. I had to trim a decent amount to keep the jack screw from contacting. I used a combination of tin snips, files and scotchbrite pads to get it roughed into shape.

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Once I had the skin trimmed to where I wanted it, I ran the servo through its entire range of motion to check for binding and clearance. I also checked the maximum angle of deflection using a protractor and angle finder and I have right about 25 degrees of up and down max deflection. This is right at the lower bounds of what Van's recommends for the maximums (25 - 35 degrees). I left plenty of room for adjustment in the jack screw, but I am not sure if I have any room due to clearances if I need more travel. I honestly think since I am at the lower end of the maximum range, I will be fine. This is a very big trim tab, and 25 degrees is a sizable deflection. The important part was that when the indicator is indicating neutral / take-off position, the trim tab should be completely in trail and aligned with the rest of the elevator. My trim tab hit this perfectly:

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https://youtu.be/-3rOuoG7HKQ

With the skin trimmed out, and the servo able to move through its range with no binding, all that was left is to clean up the edges. I used a file to smooth all my cuts, round out the corners, and followed it all up with a good buffing with a scotchbrite pad and then vacuumed all the shavings out. I removed the servo and stored it in its box, and I also took the trim tab off the elevator. I am planning to store these separate to avoid them getting damaged. I think I might end up making some sort of shelves or hangers in the rafters of my basement/shop to keep my empennage parts up and out of the way. That finished up tonights work session. Roughly 3 hours spent total, most of that was trimming the skin and finishing those edges.

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/VQUi3zfEgV4Lebcp6
 
March 23rd, 2017. Hours Worked: 2.5

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/riveting-the-rudder-trailing-edge/

created: 2017/03/23 19:00:19

[big]Riveting the Rudder Trailing Edge[/big]

Tonight. I decided to take on the most difficult part of the empennage: The Rudder Trailing Edge! This one simple little piece of kit causes the most headache and heartache out of the entire tail section, and for good reason. If you can't get a good straight trailing edge on the rudder, you will have a **** of a time trying to get it all trimmed out and flying hands off. I followed the Van's recommendation (see previous posts) about using a piece of angle aluminum and Pro-sealing the trailing edge wedge into place and clecoing the trailing edge onto the aluminum angle to help it bond into a nice straight piece. That worked wonderful. Then I used Van's suggested method of double flush riveting the trailing edge. To start off, I had to remove the angle that has been holding the trailing edge in its curing position for the last 18 or so days. The Pro-seal had squished out a bit, and bonded the trailing edge to the angle, but it was pretty easy to separate and remove the angle.

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Once I had the angle off, I used a [project]40[/project] drill bit in my hand to clear out the Pro-seal from al the rivet holes. On quite a few of these holes, I had to use the deburring tool with very light pressure to remove some of the Pro-seal that oozed out into the dimple. I also tried to clean up the edges and skin surface so that no Pro-seal would cause the trailing edge to not sit flush against the back riveting plate. I used some acetone to clean off the skin surfaces, because Pro-seal is some sticky stuff! Once it was all cleaned up, I inserted the AN4263-3.5 rivets and used some masking tape to hold the manufactured heads of the rivets into the dimples.

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You can also see in the photo above, I numbered every rivet on the tape, and then wrote in my riveting sequence just above the numbers. Van's tells us to start off by half-way setting every 10th rivet using a back rivet set. I started in the middle, and counted every 10th all the way to the top and bottom and marked the with the number "1". These would get set first. Then I counted every 5th rivet and marked its sequence as number "2". Then I tried to roughly put my third sequence, number "3", in between the 1's and 2's. Just like the plans tells us, I flipped the rudder over and used my back rivet set on the tails of the rivets and the manufactured heads on the backing plate. I have a longer backing plate so this made this part go really smooth. I started out by half-setting all the number 1's, then going back and doing the number 2's and so on by working from the middle out on each sequence. Once I had them all half- way set, I flipped the rudder up to make sure the trailing edge was still perfectly straight....it was!!! Now, I flipped the rudder over so that the tails of the rivets were facing the back rivet plate, and switched out the back rivet set on my rivet gun, for a mushroom style flush rivet set. I used my same sequencing, and set the rivets fully by using the flush set against the manufactured head, and the tails were driven into the back rivet plate until they were nice and flush. I only used the corner of my back rivet plate so that I could fit JUST the rivet I was working on against the plate, this would keep the other rivets from holding the trailing edge up away from the plate and causing it to bend. It took a lot more fiddling to do this, but I think it made it turn out really straight.

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After I had worked my way out from the center of the rudder, using my riveting sequence, I turned the rudder up to make sure it was straight:

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Yeah....I am definitely happy with that!! It's not exactly perfectly straight, but it is WAY closer than the 0.100" than Van's says is tolerable. I held the trailing edge against my aluminum angle to get a comparison, and to measure against my dial calipers, the worst I could measure was only about 0.05" to o.075" which is perfectly acceptable. Once I had the trailing edge done, I had a few more rivets to squeeze on the top and bottom ribs. I had left these out to make it easier to apply the pro-seal, so its time to set those babies. I was able to use my squeezer on all of them except the very last one closest to the trailing edge. Vans' says its fine to use a MK-319-BS blind rivet in these last holes because of the super tight clearances. I decided that'd be the route I'd go, because I did NOT want to mess up this beautiful rudder with trying to squeeze or rivet that very end rivet! So, I stuck in a MK-319-BS blind rivet, and carefully set it using a pop rivet tool. They came out really nice, and are almost perfectly flush with the skins. When she's painted, this will get a little bit of filler and you'll never know it :)

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The rudder is now 100% riveted together! All that was left was to clean up the edges of the trailing edge with some scotchbrite pads to break the edges, as well as to knock off any squished out pro-seal. Then I rounded off the corners of the trailing edge using a file and scotchrbite pads. That's it for tonight! I am happy to have this part behind me now. I have been dreading it for a while, but it actually wasn't to bad to do. I set aside a day when I'd have plenty of tie to concentrate and get it done slowly and correctly. This rudder will fly straight as an arrow!

Google photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/auZhkD8hAYvLhdiH8
 
March 27th, 2017. Hours Worked: 1.5

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/finishing-the-rudder/

created: 2017/03/27 20:00:14

[big]Finishing the Rudder[/big]

While Tammy and Acacia were taking a nap, I decided to sneak off to the shop and get some work done on the airplane. Since the trailing edge of the rudder was completed a few days ago, its time to finish it up, and that means bending the leading edge and threading in the mounting hardware. I started off by bending the leading edges, which is done exactly like the [elevators in previous posts. ](/rv7/bending-the-left-elevator-leading-edge/) I used Gorilla tape on the leading edges, and then a piece of wooden dowel rod as a rolling pin to roll the edges gently into a nice curved shape.

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Once both sides have been rolled I had to finish the bends by hand to make sure the skins are lining up with the pre-punched holes, and to make the leading edge bend nice and neat and smooth. This is not a gentle process, and takes a lot of work to get the metal where I wanted it, but ultimately I got the bends to where I was happy. Then I used 3/32" clecos in the [project]40[/project] holes to hold the bends while I match drilled everything to a [project]30[/project] hole for the AD-41-ABS blind rivets. As I drilled the holes, I replaced it with the larger 1/8" cleco.

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Once I had all the holes match drilled, It was time to deburr the holes. Since this part is hard to get to, I used a scotchbrite pad on all the surfaces I couldn't reach with my deburring tool and made sure they felt nice and smooth with my fingers before moving on. Once the holes were deburred, I clecoed it all back together using 1/8" clecos and started the blind riveting process, one hole at a time. These came out looking pretty good! I decided to go ahead and thread the eye bolts into the mount holes of the rudder and get them roughly into position. I picked through my hardware bags until I found the proper eye bolts, and their jam nuts, then I coated the threads with a good helping of Boelube to help with the platenuts. I threaded them all in, and got them to roughly where they need to be per the plans as far as depth. I will temporarily mount the rudder to the vertical stabilizer in a few days to do the final alignment of the eye bolts, and then tighten the jam nuts fully to set their position. I am happy with how the rudder came out!

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Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/BqJkTwTFneTcLm1h6
 
March 28th, 2017. Hours Worked: 2

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/fitting-the-elevators-to-the-horizontal-stabilizer/

created: 2017/03/28 22:00:23

[big]Fitting The Elevators to the Horizontal Stabilizer[/big]

The empennage kit is wrapping up, and almost complete at this point. All the major assembly is done, and now its just fitting the parts together and lining up the hinges to drill the elevator horns. The first thing to do is make sure the eye bolts on the elevators are threaded in to the proper starting depth. Van's gives this dimensions in the plans, and I used a dial caliper to get the correct measurements. After setting and adjusting the eye bolts to the proper thread depth on each elevator, it was time to re-arrange some furniture in the shop to mate the elevators to the horizontal stab. Here's how it ended up:

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I moved my work benches so that I could drop the elevator horns between them, and then I could slide them back to the table edge to get full movement of the elevators to test their angles. Next up, I fit the elevators in their mounts, and marked the skin so that it could be trimmed to provide the 1/8" clearance around the elevator horn.

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Once I had my marks made, I used a [project]40[/project] drill to drill the corner so it wouldn't crack.

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Then I snipped away the excess using the tin snips.

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Now that I had both the top and bottom done, it was time to knock the rough edges down, and file the corners smooth. A plain old ******* file made quick work of this, and I am pretty happy with the way it came out.

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Once the left side was done, I moved over and did the same exact thing for the right side with equally satisfying results. I think at this point, I am getting the hang of sheet metal work! I am doing work that I'd be proud to show at Osh Kosh :) Then, I decided to go ahead and re-fit the elevators to make sure all the clearances looked good, and that the elevator would move through its entire Max deflection as prescribed by vans.

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I made a cheap little tool to help get the bolts inserted into the hinges. This is a super tight area to work in, and there is hardly any room to get fingers in there to hold the bolts and insert them. So, here is what I came up with:

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Yep... that is a piece of Gorilla tape on the boxed end of a wrench! It worked pretty **** good! I was able to snake the bolt down into the access hole, wiggle it into the hinge and fully insert it while holding the elevator in position. Once I had the bolt in place, I could just twist the wrench and tape off the head and the bolt stayed right in place. I didn't use any washers or nuts, since I am just test fitting everything together for now. I want to make sure I have the eye bolts set correctly, and that the elevators can move their full range with no binding.

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After checking both sides for binding, I used a simple little protractor to verify that the elevators each could move through their max deflection of 30 degrees up and 25 degrees down as instructed by the plans. Being happy that they moved great, I decided to call it a night for now. I still need to double verify using my digital angle finder and micrometer to make sure everything is perfect and then I will drill the elevator horns. Thats work for another session!

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/AJgKvyhtcwidDZKn6
 
March 31st, 2017. Hours Worked: 2.5

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/drilling-the-elevator-horns/

created: 2017/03/31 20:00:02

[big]Drilling the Elevator Horns[/big]

This is pretty much the last step on the empennage kit! It's time to double check all the measurements and alignments and drill the last holes on the tail....the elevator horns. I have read horror stories of people not getting this done correctly, and having to have the horns welded up and re-drilled. So, I approached this with caution. Before mounting the elevators, I measured the eye bolts one last time with my dial calipers to make absolute certain that they were all to plan specs. Then I started off by mounting both elevators and measuring them yet again through its entire travel. I was getting well within the limits of Max up/down travel so I decided its time to drill.
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I started off my removing the right elevator so I could drill the horn for the left. Then, per the plans, I clamped the elevator so that its in trail with the chord line of the horizontal stabilizer. We do this by clamping the elevator counterbalance skin to the horizontal stab skin using some scrap sheet aluminum and a few clamps.

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Then I did a real good eye ball check to make sure the horn was going to be lined up, and I wouldn't have any clearance issues after it was drilled. This is something I had seen crop up on other builders, and some of the had issues getting the bolt head and nut to clear the horn assembly. Luckily everything looked good, so I decided to drill. Van's tells us to use a drill bushing in the VA-146 bearing assembly to help align the hole on the horn. I had picked up from some other builders that a 1/16" ferrule and collet seem to work really great as a drill bushing and they are cheap at Lowes / Home Depot. So, I visited the aviation section of my local Home Depot and picked up a few packs of these things:

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The little collets are exactly 1/4 outside diamater and they fit perfectly in the bearing! I had to use some gorilla tape on the end of the bearing to hold the collets from sliding out, and I ended up using a total of 4 of them in the bearing.

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The tape does nothing but hold the collets in to keep my fingers out of the way. I found a drill bit that fit perfectly in the hole in the collets and used it to drill my pilot holes. With a little bit of finesse and gentle drilling. I had my pilot hole done!

Next up was to drill the pilot for the right elevator, so I removed the left elevator and set it aside for now. Then, I mounted up the right elevator, clamped the counterweight to the stabilizer and drilled its pilot hole using the exact same method as I did for the left.

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Now its time to drill this pilot hole to its final size. After removing the right elevator, I set both it and the left on my work bench to secure them for final drilling. I decided against using the convenient step bit for this because they have a tendency to wander, and this is pretty precision work. I started out by drilling the holes out from smaller to large using these drill bit successions: [project]40[/project], [project]30[/project], [project]27[/project], [project]21[/project], [project]12[/project] and finally the 1/4 size needed for the AN4-14A bolt. Then, I deburred the holes. The front side was easy, but the back side was a little tricky, so I got creative:

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The angle drill worked great to get this tight spot deburred. Now that the holes were drilled to the right size for both elevators, its the moment of truth: Checking for binding. I re-mounted the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer, and then inserted the AN4-14A bolt through the horn, into the bearing and through the other horn......it fit! Everything aligned correctly and there was absolutely no binding at all in the entire hinge line. Its moving through full deflection as smooth as butter.

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The horns look a little wonky, and like they'd be out of alignment, but according to Van's and the mindshare on Vans Airforce, this is totally normally due to the manufacturing differences in the horns. So long as the hinge line doesn't bind there is nothing to worry about. I do have plenty of clearance for the bolt head and nut to thread on nicely as well. These parts are DONE!! I removed the elevators and then thoroughly tightened the jam nuts on they eyebolts. The horizontal stabilizer and elevators will go on the shelf until they are ready to be mounted to the fuselage. I still had a little steam and energy left, so I decided to test fit the rudder and make sure it's in good shape. I double checked the eye bolt depth with my dial caliper, and then mounted it to the vertical stabilizer and moved it through its full deflection and there was no binding! It also moves as smooth as butter and looks great.

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With that, the tail kit is pretty much done! I am going to leave the fiberglass work until the very last of the build, and all thats left now is to drill a hole in the horizontal stabilizer and rudder horn for the tail light. I am thinking I will go ahead and do this now, since its easy to get to and I have some spare bushings to use. Then, I will label and bag up all the remaining mounting hardware (bolts, washers and nuts for the hinge lines) and put everything away until I get ready to mount it to the fuselage. As a side note, I have ordered my Wing kit and am waiting on the invoice and crating dates. Its looking like an 8 week lead time...but I will put that info in another post.

Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/Qvx8CEUQNj1pvk9K7
 
March 31st, 2017. WINGS ORDERED!!!!

link: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/ordered-the-wings/

created: 2017/03/31 08:00:44

Ordered the Wings!

I have submitted my order to Vans for the wings! I have been working with a few folks over the phone discussing a few options, substitutions and additions to my wing kit, and finally got to the point of getting an order completed. I am still a bit surprised at just how "old school" Vans is in this regard. Things are done very much at a slow pace, and usually via snail-mail or fax. I mean, this is 2017, do people still use faxes?

Never the less. I have decided on adding a couple extra longerons to my order. These ship with the wings even though they are for the fuselage, to save crating and shipping charges. They are pretty cheap, so I figured I'd order a few extras just in case, and save on the shipping costs. I also decided on upgraded the standard fuel caps to the nice locking deluxe units, and I also added some extra angle aluminum and a few other bits and bobs to make things cheaper to ship.

Here is a spreadsheet I came up with to help me on my order: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xvkFqz--8bHhM5vU3ZT5DI_iRKh0t4POcf_eJvk-3Hw/edit?usp=sharing

I am waiting on my invoice to get finalized, and then a crating date to be selected. Then I will pay the rest of the monies, and the kit will be on its way. It's looking like an 8 week-ish lead time before they get here. I wish I'd have ordered them sooner. Thats it for this entry, no hours being added to the build log, as this is just paperwork. I did add a new "Wings" category :)
 
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