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Bottom skins

klh1507

I'm New Here
top skins are match drilled and J-stringers are drilled. Plans say do the same with the bottom skins.

Do I take the top skins off to put the bottom skins on or just struggle with lining up holes with the "screw on a broomstick" method mentioned in the plans?
 
I'm not sure I understand your question. You should be able to cleco all of the skins together in the proper layers and then match drill all of the holes prior to dimpling and riveting. Having the top and bottom skins on will help assure that you won't have any twist in the fuselage.
 
I guess my question should have been "Should I take the top skins off before putting on the bottom skins?" It would be a lot easier without the top skins on but I was wondering about your point of the top skins keeping everything lined up. Thanks.
 
I'm not sure why you think it would be a lot easier to put the bottom skins on with the top skins off. If you are talking about moving the ribs slightly because the holes may not line up that's not an issue. Just start putting clekos from the top. You can always lift the skin up from the bottom and move the rib a little if you need to. Once you get a couple clekos in the top the rest should line up as you go along.
 
My take

I would leave the top skins on when fitting the bottoms. If you did a good job fluting the ribs the holes will line up pretty close. If you follow the advice above and start from the spar to insert tbe clecos it will fit. I would also recommend you put the clecos in in some kind of pattern all the time. I found the skins were taunt without any oil canning if i inserted the clecos in a nice pattern. If I helter skelter it, i got oil canning and some misaligned holes in the left rear bottom spar area.
When you rivet, i would recommend you also follow a nice pattern to minimize oil canning. JMHO.
 
Sounds like a job that can be helped with this low cost tool...:)

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guess I needed a little encouragement to remind myself that I can do this.

Don't sweat it. We all need encouragement at some point. I look at a lot of helpful build sites. It helps to visualize the steps that sometimes seem hard to understand. So many have come before us that we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
 
guess I needed a little encouragement to remind myself that I can do this.

I remember a similar point in my build where I was frustrated with something, can't remember what. I finally just started grabbing tools and said to myself "It's either going to work, or I'm going to start replacing parts." Turns out it worked just fine.
 
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