What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Dimpling Aileron Leading Edges for counterweight

cczarnik

Well Known Member
Working with the leading edge and the counterweight tube.. Have the 120 dies / countersink for CS4 rivets...

1- With that skin wrapping around the tube, I don't think I can dimple the skin with a "flat" dimple die set on such a tight radius. So my plan is to countersink the tube, and then use the tube as the "female" die, and hit the skin with the male dimple die in the rivet gun. Any gotchas with this approach?

2- Since these rivets are on a tight outside radius, should I over countersink a few thou to get the rivets to flush to the skin? I'm assuming that laterally (along the length of the aileron) they'll flush no problem, but worried about them protruding vertically on the top / bottom as the skin rolls away?

Any tips before I dive in? Am I overthinking this step? Thx-
 
Working with the leading edge and the counterweight tube.. Have the 120 dies / countersink for CS4 rivets...

1- With that skin wrapping around the tube, I don't think I can dimple the skin with a "flat" dimple die set on such a tight radius. So my plan is to countersink the tube, and then use the tube as the "female" die, and hit the skin with the male dimple die in the rivet gun. Any gotchas with this approach?

2- Since these rivets are on a tight outside radius, should I over countersink a few thou to get the rivets to flush to the skin? I'm assuming that laterally (along the length of the aileron) they'll flush no problem, but worried about them protruding vertically on the top / bottom as the skin rolls away?

Any tips before I dive in? Am I overthinking this step? Thx-

1. That's how I did it on my RV-3B.

2. You can form the rivet heads to the curve on the top and bottom.

It appears to have worked fine, but then again, my plane's not flying yet. What do I know?

Dave
RV-3B Skinning the fuselage
 
Don't overthink this...

"Machine countersink the holes in the counterbalance pipe. The countersink need not be 120? to match that of the rivet heads. The .020? skin and the aluminum blind rivet will deform sufficiently to contour to a 100? countersunk hole."

Just do a normal countersink. You can grind off one side of a dimple die to make it fit inside the radius. Then just set the pulled rivets and move one.

It's not even visible once the aileron is installed.
 
Same here

1. That's how I did it on my RV-3B.

2. You can form the rivet heads to the curve on the top and bottom.

It appears to have worked fine, but then again, my plane's not flying yet. What do I know?

Dave
RV-3B Skinning the fuselage

Make that two. I did the same.
 
Back
Top