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riveting top wing skins

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Boomer506

Well Known Member
I'm getting ready to rivet top wing skins and was planning to train one of my neighbors to buck or drive. But then I heard builders have done the top skins by themselves, similar to the bottom skins.

Have any of you done it that way and how did it work out? The plans call for starting in the middle of the panel and working out, which would require two people. But I figure doing it alone I would have to start at the main spar and work aft.
 
Riveting skins

Boomer506 said:
I'm getting ready to rivet top wing skins and was planning to train one of my neighbors to buck or drive. But then I heard builders have done the top skins by themselves, similar to the bottom skins.

Have any of you done it that way and how did it work out? The plans call for starting in the middle of the panel and working out, which would require two people. But I figure doing it alone I would have to start at the main spar and work aft.
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It sounds more like the issue with riveting bottom skins but I have read other builder who did it solo. Seems like it would be really slow placing and setting rivets alone.
Personally, if you have access to a helper, I would use them.
I set every other rivet leaving clekos in place using a helper. He stayed on the bottom side with a tungsten bar while I placed and drove rivets. It went really fast. Next day we came back and set all the cleko holes.
 
get helper if you can

I used a helper for the first time in my build when I riveted the top wing skins. It made the riveting job a non-event. We both sat on stools (for some of it) while we worked. No doubt you can do it yourself, but it sure seems like it would be a lot harder.

Give your neighbor a bucking bar shown below. I handed one to my wife and said lets get to work. All she had to do was hold pressure against the rivet, which was really easy with the giant bucking bar. She had never been out to the garage before that, and we did not do any practice rivets. We only had to drill out about 6 rivets, and those drill outs were my fault.
 
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I riveted the top skins on my -6 mostly by myself. Apparently, I'm a poor instructor because the few dents I have in the skin came from "helpers" who just didn't get it. Finished it by myself. Rolled the skins out of the way and even heated them with sun lamps in an effort to keep them tight.
Boy, I hope my helpers don't read VAF. :D :D
 
Get a helper (pay with fine brew). It's one of those tasks that is simply done best with a helping buddy, and it's a great opportunity to introduce someone new to the plane-building experience.

Besides....

FP29062013A000FD.jpg


FP29062013A000FE.jpg


.... I don't know how I could have bucked around the ribs AND ran the gun alone.
 
scrollF4 said:
I bow deeply, in reverence and awe...
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No need. I see it as an example of what happens when you get impatient and decide to push on regardless of the consequences. It's probably a warning sign that I should take extra care to avoid "get-there-itis" when I fly again some day. Actually that was the first time I did it; the red lines were gone the next day. The next time was after I was on aspirin and Plavix... the lines were replaced by some nasty looking bruises that lingered for a couple of weeks.
 
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Top skins, get help and back rivet them. They will look great. Mine do. Did the bottoms alone and regret it. My $.02
 
Joe Parish said:
Top skins, get help and back rivet them. They will look great. Mine do. Did the bottoms alone and regret it. My $.02
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I agree. I helped my buddy rivet his top skins on 1 wing and we got it done in less than 3 hours. I bucked from the skin side and he back riveted with a 12" back rivet set.
 
Would love to back rivet, but......

Joness0154 said:
I agree. I helped my buddy rivet his top skins on 1 wing and we got it done in less than 3 hours. I bucked from the skin side and he back riveted with a 12" back rivet set.
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Call me slow or whatever, but there is something I just don't get about this method. You say you used the 12 inch back rivet set, but if you back rivet, aren't you doing that at an angle to the shop head of the rivet, since you need to clear the rib web and opposite flange with both the rivet gun and the back rivet set?

I am getting ever closer to doing this same thing and I think I will also back rivet - I just don't understand how the shop head can be set correctly this way..
 
Flyin'Bryan said:
Call me slow or whatever, but there is something I just don't get about this method. You say you used the 12 inch back rivet set, but if you back rivet, aren't you doing that at an angle to the shop head of the rivet, since you need to clear the rib web and opposite flange with both the rivet gun and the back rivet set?
Click to expand...
12" double offset back rivet set is the trick. Maybe I just didn't have the pressure turned up enough on my gun -- I think I had it up to about 60 or 70 PSI, it may not have been enough.
 
Flyin'Bryan said:
Call me slow or whatever, but there is something I just don't get about this method. You say you used the 12 inch back rivet set, but if you back rivet, aren't you doing that at an angle to the shop head of the rivet, since you need to clear the rib web and opposite flange with both the rivet gun and the back rivet set?

I am getting ever closer to doing this same thing and I think I will also back rivet - I just don't understand how the shop head can be set correctly this way..
Click to expand...

Yes, my bad, it was the 12" offset back rivet set.

There were some spots that we were forced to use the flush set on the skin side and bucking bar on the rivet tail, but for the most part we back riveted.
 
Thanks for the clarification

Thanks for clarifying guys! I had a feeling there was a double offset back rivet set out there somewhere - Guess I just haven't seen it yet. Sounds like a good excuse to put in another tool order for one of the bucking bars I have seen in recent posts and the double offset back rivet set, among a few other items...

One can never have enough tools!
 
Thanks for the input

Thanks everybody. I found a good helper and will use the two person method this weekend. I also plan to fay seal the front and rear spar flanges with pro-seal. Did the same on leading edge to spar and it worked well. It does take a bunch more time though.
 
Well I've been working on mine alone. I'm sure it is much easier with a helper but I'm working on the second skin now and its going slowly but surely. One trick I found after my arms looked like the picture shown was to take some of that foam pipe insulation and cut some strips to put on the top of the ribs near where you are reaching in. That saved my arms. I think a piece of that stuff is about a buck at Home Depot or Lowes.
 
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