What's new
Van's Air Force

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

RV-7 Lynn Dixon #74286

CubedRoot

Well Known Member
After a few years of lurking, and reading I finally started on my RV-7!

I have wanted to build a kit plane for a long time, even so far back as nearly 20 years ago before I could even buy adult beverages or cast a vote. I was saving up to buy a Challenger II. But then college and life happened and chipped away at my Kit plane savings.

Fast forward to now and I finally have a place to build comfortably, some disposable income and a supportive wife, who oddly enough doesn't think I am crazy for wanting to build my own plane. Heck, she may even fly in it with me :)

I bought my toolkit from a fellow on the forums, and its a complete Isham kit with a few additions. They were essentially brand new tools and a good price! That was my first official step and first major purchase towards the airplane.

Shortly later, I was browsing the forums and posted a WTB in the classifieds looking or a tail kit. To my surprise, another builder was selling a RV-7 tail kit, that had never been started, which was exactly what I was wanting! A few emails and a paypal later, the tail kit was on its way to me.....where it sat in my basement for nearly two years. I spent some time working on practice kits, taking the EAA RV-7 course, and getting my shop organized. I am starting the build in the basement of my house, since the backside of the basement opens up to ground level (house is one a hill). Its unfinished, but insulated and I setup an HVAC duct to help knock the chill out in the winter and heat out in the summer. Its very comfy down there, with plenty of natural light as well as some shop lights I installed.

So, lets get started with some log entries! I have spent about 3 days so far, and I'll put a few posts in here to represent those builds. I'll also try to use this as a way to collaborate with all the other VAF builders out there and build off their collective knowledge.

WOOT! This post made the front page on November 2nd 2016:)
gyfRsWWl.png
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
October 27th, 2016 2.5 hours

Like every journey starting with the first footstep, I started my journey on the rear spar, like so many others who have gone this way before me.

I worked a solid 2.5 hours tonight. I didn't want to push myself to do to much in my first session, and really wanted to just dig in and start cleco-ing stuff together to help motivate me.

Tonight I completed all the steps for the "Rear Spar" section of the first page on the plans. I found that using my bench grinder with a course wheel made quick work of the thick HS-609PP reinforcement bars. I had to break the edges and then taper the ends off. I rough outlines my shape with a sharpie and used the course wheel to work the metal down to the marks. Once i was happy with the rough shape, I used my file and the scotchbrite wheel to smooth the edges. I really like that scotchbrite wheel, its a great tool.

I am leaving the flat surfaces unfinished for right now, so I highlighted that step in my plans so i don't miss it. I am going to prime the interior sections with AKZO, and I am going to try to consolidate all my priming so I will leave the surface as is, until priming day.

I made sure to mark that 8th hole on each side where HS-708 will attach so as to not rivet it by accident.

Then I moved on to building the HS-411PP bearing assembly. I actually picked up a good trick from George Ordorffs videos of drilling the VA-146 bearing assembly. I clamped HS-411APP and HS-411-BPP together using cleco clamps. The I clecod those two down to a 2x4 block. I used BPP as a drill guide for APP and clecod to stabilize as I worked my way round. Once it was done, I test fit VA-146 between them and it fit beautifully. Deburr'ed the holes, and then sprayed VA-146 with some rattle can self-etching primer after I gave it a good roughing and cleaning. I will let it sit overnight to dry before riveting this assembly together.

Here is a link to the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/Pk6pCY4hnbneTEA17
 
good Start

Good Start Lynn,
Nice pictures too.
Keep pounding those rivets, it is worth it!
Congrats on starting.
 
October 29th, 2016. 3.5 hours

Today I started the "Front Spar Assembly" of the tail kit. After feeling good about the rear spar, I figured this would be just as easy. That wasn't the case.

I spent much of my time just looking at the planes and holding parts together to visualize what was needing to happen. 3.5 hours of work later and I didn't really have much accomplished on my bench. I separated the doubler plates and cleaned their edges. This was required by Vans Service Bulletin 14-01-31. My kit came with these parts already which was nice.

I also measured and marked the bend lines for the spar itself, but will wait untl the next session before bending. I want to make sure all is correct before I proceed, and I have fresh clear mind. Thats all for today, 3.5 hours of fiddling around.


Here are the photos from the nights work: https://goo.gl/photos/PVqvHELHftMQZQ7A7
 
October 30th, 2015. 4.5 hours

After reading over the plans and instructions last night I decided to get to work today with a clear mind. I completed the Front Spar Assembly section of the empennage section with the exception of deburring, dimpling and priming. I am going to combine as many of the parts as I can and complete these together to save setup time in my priming booth. There is no riveting to be done at this point anyways, so it will work out perfectly.

I cleco'd HS-710 and HS714 to the HS-702 spar channels and marked the lines for center line and the bend lines per the plans. Then it was time to do a little fabricating on the spar channel. I cut off the flanges of the spar channel inboard of the bend lines and smoothed the edges. Then I drilled the relief holes and enlarged it to 1/4 on the channels. I only trimmed the angle back just a bit for now until I could measure and cut after the bend was made.

Then I bent the HS-702 spar channels to the exact 6 degrees using my hand seamer and a protractor. They turned out nicely. From there, I re-clecod the HS-710 and HS-714 so I could match drill everything inboard of the bend lines and rib attachment holes.

Next I tapered the ends of HS-710 and HS-714 per the detail section of the plans. I used my bench grinder on this part to make it easier. I marked the lines a bit large so I didn't over-grind anything. Once I got a taper that I liked, I polished the edges off with the scotchbrite wheel so I wouldn't scratch the spars or my hands. I will finish them off better once I get ready to prime everything. I left some notes in my plans to do this. After the taper was set for them, I measured for my bend lines and then bent them using a vise to the 6 degree angle per my protractor. While the tapers may not be as beautifully done as the pros, I hope they will be OK. They meet the edge distance requirements with some meat left, and they taper nicely along the spar channels and the edges are broken clean. I think thats the only requirements for this to be a safe part. I may ask the folks in the RV-7 sub just to make sure, since I can always trim them down more if I need to before priming.

I am still a bit confused as to how the HS-00001 doublers go into place, but I will read the SB some more and try cleco'ing everything together and lining them up before final prep and assembly. I left a note in my plans to come back to this.

Then I moved on to the last step and that was to countersink the holes needed on the front spar HS-702, HS-710 and HS-714. The plans state that the inner 4 holes must be countersunk from with the flush head facing aft. So, I setup my countersink cage using some scrap and a AN4264-4 rivet to get it at the perfect depth. Then I drilled the 2 center holes on each the HS-710 and HS-714 angle support bars. I used my DRDT-2 dimpler to dimple the light metal of the spar channel then test fit everything back together with clecos. They dimpled parts nestle together very nicely with no gaps. I was happy to close out the front spar assembly section with these results!

Some last few steps: After letting VS-146 dry, I noticed I was a bit light on my primer and missed the bearing housing a little. So I gave it a second light coat with the part on an angle to cover the sides of the bearing housing. I'll let it dry overnight before assembling it.

The next section of the plans was "preparing the ribs" which was really only two easy little steps, so I figured I would go ahead and knock it out while I was in the mood. I fired up some Blackberry Smoke to listen to, and prepped some metal!

I trimmed both HS-00006 parts making sure to take note of left / right orientation and then marking accordingly. If you are reading this and are on this step, make sure you double check the orientation on the plans!!! After smoothing out the edges I moved on to the others.

I picked parts (2 each) HS-00005, HS-706, HS-707, and HS-708 from their shelves and removed the blue plastic from them. I have read leaving the blue plastic on parts that will be mated together is not a good thing because it affects your measurements. These are all internal parts that I am going to be scuffing and priming anyways so it wasnt needed anymore. I used a 90 degree straight edge combination square to make sure all the flanges of each part were at a true 90 degrees. Some were pretty good, others needed a little tweaking with my edge seamer. Then I moved on to fluting the parts. These parts are fairly complex punched parts and due to the nature of press punched parts sometimes they are "warped" as slight degree. I laid them on my bench (both sides of them) to check their flatness. If any were not flat, I would make a couple of flutes and re-check, repeating the process until they were laying flat and true. Once I had a part trued and flat I marked its part number in sharpie and laid it back on the shelf. Some parts only needed 1 or 2 flutes, others needed more. I was happy with how they turned out. I will leave the deburring, edge finishing and scuffing until I get ready to bundle all the parts together and prime them.

Here are the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/o96i7MN8sSrisw2H7
 
November 5th, 2016. 6 hours

Today was a good day on the project, with lots of progress being made, and ultimately a flying surface assembled. Tonights work began with going back a few steps in the plans to assemble the HS-00001 doubler plate to the front spar. I measured out where the edges should be per the plans, and clamped them in place to drill their rivet holes. Once I had both sides done, I marked that step done in the plans and moved on.

I started the section in the plans called "Drilling the Horizontal Stabilizer". I spent a good bit of the time today just looking over the plans and laying out the parts to get an idea of how it all should look and how I should drill out the front spar and spar doublers. Over the short break from the last session I read up SB for the front spar to learn how it should be assembled and drilled. It wasn't as bad as I thought.

I picked out which ribs would be left and right, and marked them. Then I marked the centerlines using the dimensions from the plans for HS-00005 and HS-00006. I finally got to use the Noxon center punch to mark my drill location for HS-00006 and drilled the holes in the front flange.

Starting with the left horizontal stabilizer, I clecoed all the ribs and spars together to form the skeleton. Then I match drilled to #30 all of the holes attaching the ribs to the spars, except for where it attaches to HS-609pp. I left that hole untouched for now per the plans, until later on then drilled it to size#21. The un-clecod everything to clean out the drill chips. The pneumatic cleco tool make this work easy.

After re-assembling the left skeleton, I had my wife help me get the HS-601PP skin clecod to the skeleton. This took some finesse. Due to the gradual taper on the leading edge, we had to very gently flex the skin to fit around the nose ribs without bending them. After a few attempts, we managed to get the skin clecod down and looking like an airplane part!

Then it was time to fit, clamp and drill the HS-00005 and HS-00006 ribs. This took me a good bit of fiddling around. This started with fitting the HS-00001 doubler, and the HS-710 and HS-714 support bars to the front spar. Then I inserted the ribs and worked to get them lined up perfectly with the edge of the skins. These parts are not pre-punched so I marked a centerline across all the flanges just to make sure I lined them up to maintain edge distance on the skins holes. I used the front rib holes to back drill the front spar after I had it lined up with the skin, and then removed it so I could insert the rear rib (HS-00005) and line up the centerline mark through the holes I just drilled, then back drill it. After all the aligning and clamping and measuring, I ended up with the front and rear ribs completely flush against the edge of the skin, with the centerlines lined up on the skins holes. After everything was clamped and held securely in place, I began back drilling the HS-00005 rib using the holes in the skin, and then followed up with the HS-00006 rib in the same manner.

The last step was match and back drilling the skin to the spars and ribs using a #30. I clecoed every hole along the curves of the ribs and just removed the cleco to drill its hole then reinserted it to prevent the rib from shifting. After it was all done, I came out with a fully assembled left horizontal stabilizer! This was a good stopping point for the night, and I will work on the right one the next session. I predict it won't take as long since I am familiar with the process now.

Photos from todays work: https://goo.gl/photos/Bz4bwuyfd8rZLcFv5
 
November 7th, 2016. 3.5 hours

Today I worked on the right horizontal stabilizer. Technically I completed the "Drilling the horizontal stabilizer" section of the plans, save for the riveting.

Todays session was pretty much identical to the last one, except I was completing the right side horizontal stabilizer as opposed to the left from the previous session.

In summary, I clecoed the ribs, then match drilled them to form the skeleton. Then I worked on fitting the HS-00005 and HS-00006 ribs into the skeleton and marking, and back drilling them. The tedious part was the measuring and aligning, and then clamping everything to drill.

Once they were good to go, I started back and match drilling the skins to the ribs and spars. That wrapped up the session for the night. To finish out this subsection, I will disassemble both sides so that I can prep them for priming and riveting.

Thats going to include:
1. Deburring all the holes
2. Scotchbrite all the edges
3. Rounding any corners
4. Scuffing the surfaces
5. Cleaning everything with acetone.
6. Spraying Akzo
7. Dimpling the skins and ribs
8 Riveting everything together.

Heres the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/5XakAzTRj4FCnpic7

Sc3II9Fl.jpg
 
Last edited:
November 9th, 2016. 3 hours

Tonight I started disassembling the horizontal stabilizers to prepare them for priming. This the last step in the "Drilling the horizontal stabilizer" section of the plans.

I started by unclecoing the skin from the right stabilizer, and marking it and all the parts of the skeleton as I removed them. Noting their orientation and layout. Once I had the right side done, I did the same on the left, and kept all their respective parts in separate stacks on my parts shelves.

After they were all took apart, I finished drilling the HS-710, HS-714 and HS-00001 parts per the instructions. I needed to drill the last few holes on the bent part of the spar bars to match the HS-702 and HS-00001 doubler. This only took a few minutes to complete, since it was only a few holes. However, I do have a question about some of the extra holes in the HS-00001 that I am going to ask the forum about, and possibly Vans.

Next, I started on the left stabilizer skeleton parts but deburring the holes and finishing the edges. I also took care of the edges of the lightning holes. I didn't get all of the parts done for the left stabilizer, but I got a good majority of them. I'll leave the rest for another day. Once I have them all deburred and the edges smoothed, I will dimple the ones needing flush rivets and then get ready to paint them all (hopefully this weekend).

Here's the photos of tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/6vPJvvS4wQvg26Ym6
 
Welcome!
Looks like you right where I am at right now.

Awesome! I have found that I enjoy the assembly and drilling more than the metal prep so far. hah. At least during the assembly portion I feel like I am actually building something.

But its kind of nice to just chill out in the basement with some Blackberry Smoke playing drinking a few beers and deburring and prepping the parts.

Do you have a build log posted somewhere? I'd like to follow along!
 
Sort of...

Hey. Well I don't have a blog or anything. I have a thread here on VAF.

Build Project

I have had the kit for a while but I started a few weeks ago. I actually recieved my repaired compressor this afternoon. First test looked promising. I need to prep and prime and then assemble the first parts.

Same here. Prep work is a bit of a pain but I read it is really important bc of cracks that may form later. No idea I just do as best as I can. I made one mistake so far drilling but VANs said its just cosmetics "build on" is what they said actually :)
 
November 10th, 2016. 2 hours

Lots of part prep done tonight. I only have a couple hours I could spare, so I worked to wrap up all the prep work on the ribs, spars and skins.

Lots of deburring, edge breaking and smoothing, and filing on all of the left horizontal stabilizer. I also removed a few strips of blue plastic around the rivet holes on the skin, trying to leave as much as possible on the skin to help keep it protected. I used the soldering iron method to make the strips smooth and a ruler to help guide it. I also ground the tip of the iron down on my bench grinder so it's not sharp. Its almost rounded off, and does a great job of melting the plastic and not scratching the skin.

I had asked the forum about those last 4 remaining holes on the HS-00001 doubler, and it seems the consensus is that all the pre-punched holes on the doubler needs to be back-drilled into the spar and spar bar. So I drilled those out tonight and deburred them. Heres that thread for reference: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=143576

I also spent a little time practicing removing rivets from my practice kit. These kits are pretty handy! I have done a couple and I always find myself using them as "experiment pieces" months after I had completed them. I didn't take any photos of this since its not really relevant to the build. It was just me trying to work on drilling out rivets.

Heres a few photos from tonights work. There's not many, since there really isn't much to show: https://goo.gl/photos/ZDRwZgKYnNYLB6nUA

I am going to pick up a few tools to make things go a little faster:
1. Electric screwdriver for deburring
2. 1/4 adapter for deburring bit: http://www.cleavelandtool.com/HEX-ADAPTER-FOR-DEBURRING/productinfo/1095/
3. Movers blankets


My goal is to do the same to the right horizontal stab, and then move on to dimpling. If the weather holds up, and I get all these parts ready, I plan on spraying them with AKZO this weekend.
 
Last edited:
November 13th, 2016. 3 hours

The Dixon household has caught whatever sinus bug that has been going around, and then add onto that the horribly smokey air quality from all the wild fires makes for little motivation to work on the plane. But I did get to feeling a bit better today, and the baby is at "Nana's" house so tonight was a good work night.

I worked about 3 hours finishing up the metal prep for the right horizontal stabilizer. I deburred and dressed all the edges of all the parts remaining for both horizontal stabilizers. I also finished up the HS-710 and HS-714 as well as the HS-609PP rear spar bars. I decided to remove just the blue plastic around the rivet lines on the external skin surface to help keep them protected during storage. However, all of the internal parts have had the plastic removed.

I will finish these parts up by dimpling everything and then scuffing and cleaning them for priming. I still haven't decided if I am going to dimple the skins BEFORE or AFTER priming. The skeleton I am going to dimple before scuffing/priming. But the skin will be much, much easier to scuff and clean if its inside is free of dimples, but I might have to issues dimpling after its primed. We'll see.

Thats all for tonight. Heres the photos of tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/wFQ8iA6csKsPwUxZ8
 
November 14th, 2016. 2 hours

Tonight was just finishing up the metal prep work in advance of priming. I ended up getting all of the substructure dimpled and ready for cleaning and priming. I mostly used my DRDT2 to dimple the parts, since its so convenient and easy to use. But, it just won't get in to some of the hard to reach holes around the corners of the parts and the noses of the ribs. So, I had to fire up the squeezer for those few remaining tight holes.

There were a few holes that were too close to even fit my squeezer, especially on the HS-706 rib. Luckily I had just the tool for that:

ESyCh6sl.jpg


This pop-rivet dimple set worked very very well, and its worth every penny! I had never used one before, but figured it couldn't be too bad, so I gave it a go without trying a test piece first. It took a few tries of starting out gently squeezing, and moving to progressively firmer squeezes with the pop-rivet tool, but after the first one I realized that the nail "mandrel" could take a good bit of pressure. I kept dropping in a AN4263-4 rivet to check the dimple to make sure I had it flush enough. After a few tries I learned how to have good results like this one on the first squeeze:

VFCmZHHl.jpg


One foot note: While attempting to dimple the bottom flange on the rear spar, I realized I didn't match drill the entire bottom flange, because my dimple die would not fit in the hole. Whoops :) But it was an easy fix. I just re-clecoed the spar to its married skin, and matched drilled the holes. Then re-deburred the holes in the skin and spar, and proceeded to dimple as normal.

Not many photos from tonight since there isn't a lot to capture during dimpling, but heres what I took: https://goo.gl/photos/XBrdgZvJTqFzhiGP7
 
November 16th, 2016. 2.5 hours

Tonight I figured I would start on the vertical stabilizer. I have both my horizontal stabilizers ready for scuffing/cleaning and priming, but I don't want to do that until a few hours before I am ready to prime. With my work schedule running until 5pm, and getting dark at 5:30, I just don't have the time to setup for priming during the week. So, I am planning on doing that this weekend.

In the meantime, I figured I might as well start the vertical stabilizer, so I can have it ready for priming at the same time I do the horizontal stabilizers and save some time and mixing, and do them all at once.

The vertical stabilizer was actually really easy to assembly and get ready for metal prep. I don't know why Van's doesn't start the kit with this piece since its so easy to do.

I first started out by assembling the VS-808PP and VS-803PP. Then I clecoed on the hinges VS-410PP, VS-411PP and VS-412PP to the rear spar assembly. Once assembled I match drilled everything to a #30 except the very bottom holes in the bottom hinge, which will be drilled during the fuselage assembly.
After that, I fluted and prepped the VS-404, VS-405, VS-406, and VS-407 ribs and assembled them to the rear spar. Oddly enough, the instructions didn't say exactly to also assemble the VS-702 front spar but I took it as a given since Van's called for the skeleton to be assembled. Once I had everything assembled, I ended up with a nice looking skeleton for a Vertical Stabilizer! I then match and final drilled all the assembly's as called for with a #30. This is what it looks like:

53gOAR0l.jpg


Next, Van's called to cleco on the VS-801PP skin to the skeleton. This skin went on much more easily than the horizontal stabilizer skins! I double checked everything was in alignment and clecoed both sides together, skipping a hole between clecos. I decided to only remove the blue protective plastic from the inside of the skin so I get a good fit and proper alignment against the spars and ribs (which I had also removed the plastic from). It will be scuffed and primed in the future anyways.

Once the skin was cleco'd down, I matched drilled everything using the smaller #40 drill bit in all the skin punched holes. I had previously marked all my parts with a sharpie, and noted their orientation so I would be good to go when I disassemble the stab for priming. Here is how it turned out:

4UDhfGdl.jpg


That's about all I could get done tonight. In 2.5 hours I completed the drilling and assembly of the entire vertical stabilizer! This is a good place to stop, and tomorrow I will pick up by disassembling everything, making sure its all marked, and then deburring, edge finishing, and dimpling all the parts to prepare them for priming. I will get the vertical stab primed up with the other parts this weekend.

Here's a link to the full album of tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/1BmasXXJaBHai3Ko7
 
Im right about where your at!

Hey Lynn looking good. I just finished the VS and I'm all ready to put the HS together.

Ordered some parts for the Elevators.

great blog.
 
November 16th, 2016. 3 hours

Tonight I mainly focused on metal prep on the vertical stabilizer. I disassembled the stab, and then deburred all the holes. Then I marked which holes on the VS-808PP doubler and VS-803PP rear spar that needed to be countersunk / dimpled. I used my DRDT-2 dimpler to set the dimples in the VS-803PP, and then used a micro-stop countersink cage to machine countersink the holes for in the spar doubler. After a few test fits to make sure those two parts fit flush with each other, I moved on. It came out pretty good:

2oNnIKUl.jpg
2WjTqiKm.jpg



I then removed some strips from the rivet lines on the skins so I could deburr the skin, as well as removing all the remaining plastic from the other parts. I also finished the edges of all the lightening holes in the ribs and doublers. Tomorrow I will work on finishing the edges of all the pieces and then dimpling the skeleton, then it will be ready for cleaning and priming this weekend.

QicYWVFl.jpg


Not a lot of photos, since there really wasn't much to take photos of, but here's the photos from tonight work: https://goo.gl/photos/Ah54BATLQMPghYVg7
 
Hey Lynn looking good. I just finished the VS and I'm all ready to put the HS together.

Ordered some parts for the Elevators.

great blog.

HAH! We must have been typing up our posts at the same time. I just entered another post for my progress tonight.

Have you noticed that the VS is much easier to complete than the HS? I wonder why Van's doesn't have us start on it at first. Seems like the VS would be a great confidence builder for a first time builder, and you come out with a finished sub assembly pretty quickly.

I know one thing.... I DEFINITELY need to find some sort of powered screwdriver to run the deburring bit. My hands are so sore from spinning the wobbly screwdriver thing :)
 
November 17th, 2016. 3 hours

Tonight I simply finished up all the metal prep work on the vertical stabilizer. I deburred all the holes, and then finished all the edges on the ribs, spars and skins. The spar doubler I spent a good bit of time on getting it smooth since its a heavy piece of aluminum. I started on my bench grinder to break the edges, and then finished them off on the scotchbrite wheel. I used a deburring tool to round off the edges of the lightening holes and then use a scotchbrite pad to smooth those down. It came out smooth:
R57ofFjl.jpg


Then I finished up the night by dimpling all of the holes, while skipping the ones destined to have nutplates for the fiberglass fairing. I used the DRDT2 for most of them, and the squeezer for a few, and finally the pop rivet dimple die set for those last two in the nose rib.

That wrapped it up for the night. I don't have any work backlogged on my bench because I am waiting on this weekend so I can scuff, clean and prime the horizontal and vertical stabilizer parts/skins. I am spraying outside, so I need a day with plenty of daylight.

Only a few photos from tonights work, since it was mainly metal prep. Heres what I took: https://goo.gl/photos/kEVxThYQk7GBvHFf6
 
November 20th, 2016. 5.25 hours

Today was priming day! The weekend is about the only time I have available where I can get priming done. I am spraying the parts outside to keep fumes out of the house, so I am at the mercy of good daylight. Yesterday I my Shriners unit had a parade, so I drove my little parade car in it, and didn't get home in time to work so today was my work day.

I have the entirety of my horizontal and vertical stabilizers to prime today, and I got started around noon. I first scuffed down all my parts using a maroon scotchbrite pad. My goal was to only remove ay aluminum oxide that may have formed, while also giving the AKZO some tooth to bite into. I did not want to remove the alclad, as I have decided to leave it on the aluminum as an additional layer of corrision protection. The AKZO will be my primary barrier, while the Alclad will serve as a secondary. I also realized that the dimples tend to eat up a scotchbrite pad, so I may start leaving my dimpling duties until after I have primed, this might make scuffing easier and less abusive on the pads.

After I had all my parts scuffed up, it was time to clean them off. My chosen method is to use acetone. This will get rid of any chemicals and oils on the parts and give the primer a good clean surface. I first started by wiping the parts down with a dry micro-fiber cloth, the goal here is to remove any of the dust left from the scuffing.

Then I used paper towels and acetone to clean the parts completely, until nothing was being left on the paper towel. The skins were a little tricky because they had the red ink from the aluminum company, so I wiped it off with acetone first to keep it from smearing across the parts This made it a little easier to clean.
Here's a glimpse of a skin scuffed, cleaned and ready for primer:
c70Qtlml.jpg


Next step was to mix up my AKZO and give it the 30 minute induction time. I took a rough guess and figured a total of 8 ounces should be plenty for these parts. I shook the **** out of each of the AKZO cans, mixed them up with a paint stir, and poured 4 equal parts of "Part A" and "Part B" into my PPS cup. I learned that pouring the clear hardener (part b) first makes it much easier to see the ratio lines on the PPS cups. Here's my primer chilling out in the cup, inducting:
w7NYT89l.jpg


While the AKZO was inducting, I moved my parts outside and onto my spray table. Unfortunately, I had more parts than I had table so I used some old cardboard boxes for the others. I figured I would start flange up on the boxes, so when I flipped them over the flanges would hold my freshly painted surface off the cardboard and not smear it. It worked out pretty good.
ZET5Weyl.jpg
6UQRcWpl.jpg



Eventually I had all of my parts sprayed, and looking great. This stuff goes on really easily, and dries fast. I am also happy that you don't have to hussle to spray whats in your cup because you have a pretty long working time in your cup. Now, I will admit, my skins have some uneven spots where some areas was sprayed heavier than others, but my main concern was to make sure my skins had adequate coverage. I am not trying to get a show-room quality paint job since the only people seeing this will be me and the inspector. As long as there is good coverage, the AKZO will do its job preventing corrosion. I also had a few small runs on some of the parts, but again, I am not going to worry about them unless the run causes some assembly interference.

I had a few small places on some of my parts that I had to spray again to get good coverage, but I had plenty of AKZO in my gun so I didn't have to mix any up. The 8 ounces (I think the PPS cups are measured in ounces) ending up being just about the right amount, I had good coverage on my skins and parts, and had a little left over to touch up the areas that I missed. After it was all done, I had probably .25 ounce in the bottom of my cup, very very little. I ran some acetone through the gun's gravity feed and then moved the parts from outside onto my work tables to they can finish drying. They turned out really nicely!
2fSZrYnl.jpg
pZUx2BSl.jpg

ysFZL8Yl.jpg
C84tBcll.jpg


I'll let these things harden overnight, and probably start assembling them all together tomorrow or Tuesday night. This green color will look nice against the white/grey hinge brackets and gold colored rivets.

And always, here is a complete album of tonights photos: https://goo.gl/photos/X5mgorU1X4jzY4tE9
 
November 23rd, 2016. 4 hours

Tonight its time to rivet some parts together. The primer has been sitting a few days while I spent time with my wife and daughter these past few days, but I had some time tonight to work.

I started out by sorting my parts into the proper "piles". Left / right horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer, front / rear spar, etc. Then I picked up where I left off in the plans for the horizontal stabilizers. This section is the last one, titled "Riveting the horizontal stabilizer".

I first started out by locating and taping up the holes for HS-706, HS-708 and HS-00005 as well as HS-412PP hinge brackets. These holes don't get rivets just yet, so the tape will keep me from sticking one in there. Then I assembled the HS-609PP bars to the HS-603 rear spar channels, cleco'ing every other hole while ignoring the taped up holes.

Then I used AN470AD4-6 rivets to attach the bars to the spar. I used my squeezer to set these rivets. Once I got the first batch set, I removed the clecos and riveted the remainder. I did mess up on one rivet, and flinched the squeezer right as it compressed the rivet, causing it to mess up the manufactured head:
oc2OBFyl.jpg


So, I figued now is as good as time as any to drill it out and fix it. I took my time, and used a #40 drill and slowly drilled the head off, then broke it off with a punch. The just used the punch to push out the shop head. The hole wasn't damaged and it look good, so I stuck in a fresh rivet and re-squeezed it with great results:

hjEHCJpl.jpg



Next up was to rivet on the hinge bracket, HS-412PP and HS-413PP to the rear spar. At first, when I inserted the rivet called for, AN470AD4-5, it seemed a little long, but a quick search of this forum returned that this is normal, and thats indeed the correct size. So I squeezed them with my squeezer and they turned out good.

4W7NF9Ol.jpg


Somehow I managed to damage the shop head on one of my HS-412PP hinge brackets. It has a small dent in the top of the shop head, and I am not sure if I should drill it out or if its OK as is. I am going to ask the forum to get advice. It's easy enough to get to as-is, so I can drill it out with no troubles if need be. Here is what it looks like:
GDJCALsl.jpg


It looks like my squeezer set was offset a little on the shop head, and the lip bit into the rivet. We'll see what everyone says is the best route to take.
Here is the link to the thread where I asked everyone: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?p=1129120#post1129120

Next I pulled out the bolts, washers and nuts for the HS-411PP center bearing to bolt it to the spar. I have a decent craftsman torque wrench but I am not sure what torque to use. Nor am I sure which side the washer should go on, bolt head or nut side? So, I just fingered tightened them for now, and will ask the forum for advice.
Here is the link to the thread where I asked this question: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?p=1129119#post1129119

So that was all I accomplished tonight. I have two "pending" items from this work session, that I am waiting on advice for.
1. Should I drill out that rivet in the hinge bracket
2. What torque do I need to use, and which way do the washers go for the HS-411PP center bearing.

Here is a link to tonights photos: https://goo.gl/photos/BGhzL2yD4LqPLxhD6
 
Last edited:
November 24th, 2016. .5 hours

After reading some of the replies on what I should do about my messed up rivet, I decided to drill it out. I had some time to work on this before we head out to my parents house for thanksgiving, so I figured I would try to drill it out.

First I used a my noxon punch to dimple a point in the head of the rivet. The little center dimple from the factory was barely visible, so I used it to center my punch. Then I took a fresh #40 bit and slathered it in boelube and chucked it up. I put it in the center punched dimple, and turned it by hand a few times to get the bit started. Then I slowly drilled the head down deep enough I could break the head off with the butt end of an old drill bit.

Then I got a bit creative.... I didn't have a receiving bar to drive the rivet into, so I ended up using a pair of vice grips. I stuck the jaws into a pair of leather gloves to keep from scratching the parts, and opened the jaws just enough so the rivet would fall into it. Then I used a punch and a small hammer to gently drive the old rivet out. My vise grips/glove worked pretty good as it received the rivet, and didn't scratch my skins!

Ihg0CMel.jpg
myOu6z3l.jpg


I checked the rivet and noticed that I had drilled perfectly center, and then checked the parts and the hole was undisturbed, so a regular rivet should work OK.

I stuck in a replacement normal rivet (AN470AD4-7) and squeezed it making sure I had my squeezer lined up and centered. It turned out great, and took about 30 minutes total time, since I was being cautious. I did end up scratching the nice paint on my bracket, I dropped the stupid punch as I pulled it away and the tip dug into the paint a little. Doesn't appear to be anything than just paint, so I will hit it with some rattle can primer to seal it up against corrosion, and let it ride. Here is the end result, with a fresh rivet:

FbFlGLml.jpg


I also learned that the washer should go on the nut side of my HS-411PP and that I should torque it to roughly 25 inch/lbs. I ended up buying this torque wrench so that I can read what the torque is from the nylon lock nut, and then add that to my final torque value: http://amzn.to/2gl2Axd

Once the wrench gets here, I will torque down the AN3 bolts and apply some torque seal (also on the way). Here is the photos from what little work I did today: https://goo.gl/photos/kxhRmW3LXQTkWas9A
 
November 26th, 2016. 2.5 hours

My torque wrench hasn't shown up yet, so I wasn't able to finish up the last steps on the rear spar. I decided to continue on to the front spar and return to the rear once I get my wrench and can torque those 4 last bolts to the proper specs. The next step in the plans is to rivet the front spar assembly.

I started out by clecoing HS-710, HS-714, and HS-00001 onto the HS-702 front spar, so I could make sure everything lines up correctly before riveting.
HmQMXokl.jpg


The plans call for a AN470AD4-7 rivet where the HS-710 and HS-714 go together with the HS-702 front spar and the HS-00001 doubler plate. There are also a few location where you do not want to rivet, because the HS-000005 and HS-00006 ribs will attach later, as well as the holes that will be drilled later when the tail is attached to the fuselage. To keep myself from sticking a rivet in those holes, I covered them with masking tape. The only photo I have of my masking tape is from AFTER driving the rivet.

bCCmUqkl.jpg


I used my squeezer to drive all these rivets which made it super easy to get them correct. Once I drove all the longer -7 rivets, I moved on to drive the shorter AN470AD4-5 rivets where the HS-00001 doubler plate attaches to the HS-702 spar. These are shorter because they don't have to go through the thick spar reinforcement bars. You can see the two rows of these rivets in the middle of the spar in the photo above.

The next step was to rivet the 4 flush head rivets into the HS-702 to HS-710 / HS-714 reinforcement bars. I had previously countersunk the bars, and dimpled the spar, so these 4 were easy to set with the squeezer.

VbZntlll.jpg


After squeezing those last 4 flush head rivets, my front spar assembly was completed. I am pretty happy with the way it came out. I didn't have to drill out any rivets, and I made sure they were all set correctly by measuring each and every one with the rivet gauge. This is how it looked once it was all done and completed. I removed the masking tape since it's not going to be needed anymore.

yWaoZ72l.jpg



Here is a link to all the photos I took for this work session: https://goo.gl/photos/Swd5BBf6HfW5jP2h9
 
November 27th, 2016. 1.25 hours

I didn?t have much time tonight, I was working on my parade car most of the day. But, I did find a little over an hour to get some work done on the airplane. My beam torque wrench was delivered today, so I also torqued the bolts that hold the HS-411 hinge bracket to the rear spar. Referring to the chart in the Van?s manual, I am supposed to torque the AN3 bolts down to 20-25 inch pounds, adding in the torque required to turn the nylon lock nuts. My beam wrench was showing 5-8 inch pounds required to turn the nylon nut on the AN3 bolt, so I figured I would torque the bolts down to a total of 28-30 inch pounds. After torquing the nuts down, I marked them with an ?X? using a sharpie. I will apply some torque seal once it gets here. This way I know which bolts have been torqued.

FTcebcfl.jpg


Having completed that, I figured I should go ahead and dimple the right horizontal stabilizer skin, since I had a little bit of time left for the night. I used my DRDT-2 dimpler to do the work, and it went smoothly. I already had the dimpler set up from last nights work, so I just popped in the sets, and went at it. I also remembered to mask off the holes in the skin that do not need dimpling, since they will be getting nut plates. The skin turned out well.

bblxdwAl.jpg


I spent a few minutes tinkering around with the pressure settings on my rivet gun. I will be riveting the ribs to the skins in a few sessions, so I want to make sure I have everything set right. I think I might spend some more time on the practice kits doing flush rivets over again. This will give me some more practice, as well as let me fine tune my rivet gun for the -3 flush rivets.

Here is a full photo album of tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/upb27wsi3J5HnDuu5

Hours Worked: 1.25
 
November 27th, 2016. 2.5 hours

After riveting the front spar, I was still wanting something to do, but nothing very involved. I realized I hadn?t dimpled my skins yet, since I was waiting to do that until after the primer had cured. Since the next step in the plans call for me to rivet on a few ribs to the left skin, I figured this was just a good a time as any to start!

I used the DRDT-2 dimpling tool to dimple all my skins. I used a piece of scrap aluminum to set the dimple dies and the compression on the dimpler to form a perfect skin dimple. A lot of folks don?t do this step since, and just go right to dimpling. There?s nothing wrong with doing that, but there is an issue of under-dimpling which causes the skin to look like it has a ?dished in? surface around the dimple. You end up with this weird wavy looking skin surface. Again, theres probably nothing wrong with have an under dimpled skin, so long as the part fit together snug, but I am wanting to build a quality airplane that looks excellent, so I take the extra time to set these things. After a few test dimples in my test coupons of aluminum, I started on my left horizontal stabilizer.

Y2okVIHl.jpg


The DRDT-2 makes this work a breeze! I still need to get some carpet or moving blankets so that I don?t have to worry about my work surface scratching my skins. Right now I am using the plans manual under the skin to keep it off the rough work bench. It works, but not ideal. It takes a good bit of pressure to get a solid, clean dimple. I am also using spring-back dimple dies from Cleaveland tool and they need a good bit of pressure to form a good dimple. I spent about an hour going around the skin bottom. Then I marked off the top side of the skin using masking tape. There are a few rivet holes that will be used later on to install the tail fairing, and we use nutplates for that. So, Van?s has you not dimple a few holes in the top skin. I covered them with masking tape so I wouldn?t accidently dimple them.

x9a7CQRl.jpg


This process went pretty quickly because of the dimpler. I did have a few tricky holes towards the leading edge of the skin (where it curves/wraps around). I had to take the skin off the table, and hold it with the opposite hanging down in front of the dimpler so I could reach them. All in all, I think the dimples came out great. I test fit them with a spare AN426AD-3-4 rivet, and the rivet fits in perfectly and there is no wavy-ness or under dimpled holes.

6CsyJ15l.jpg


Since I won?t be working on the right skin for a few more work sessions, I figured it was time to stop. It was also close to 1:15 AM, and I was a little tired by this point. I?ve always heard its good to stop before you get tired, because you will make a mistake.

Heres all the photos from tonights work session: https://goo.gl/photos/8H9dqyZWPKZR22A77

Hours Worked: 1.0
 
November 29th, 2016. 3.25 hours

Tonight started off by riveting the HS-00005 and HS-00006 ribs to the HS-702 front spar. I was able to use my squeezer to set these rivets, but only just barely! I had to do some finagling around the front spar support bars, especially the larger HS-714 to get the squeezer to line up on the rivet heads. I did have to insert two rivets in the opposite direction in order to set them, but other than being cosmetic it won?t hurt anything.

toIT5kyl.jpg


After completing the front spar, I moved on to the left HS-601PP skin. The plans have a unique way of final assembly, and after reading over the plans, and visualizing what would take place, I dived in. This method is a bit different than the George Orndorf method I watched in his videos, but I am not using a RV-6 jig.

It starts off my clecoing HS-707 nose rib to the skin and then riveting it. After making sure everything looked good and flush, I riveted the rib to the skin. This was the first official piece of work that I riveted that would be seen from the outside, so I went slow and took my time. I was happy with the results!

WmyaVA3l.jpg


And this was the first ever flush rivet to be set!

hV0P6t1l.jpg


After riveting on the HS-707 nose rib to the top skin, the plans have me cleco the end rib, HS-706, to the skin, as well as HS-708 to help hold everything tight. This makes riveting HS-707 to the bottom of the skin much easier. HS-707 nose rib was a tricky part to rivet! I messed up two rivets so I had to drill them out and replace them after I got all the other rivets done. I have practiced this on scrap material a bunch of times, so it was no biggie.

woxDraBl.jpg


And voila! You can?t even tell it was fixed:

4bgO07Al.jpg


Once I had both sides of HS-707 nose rib riveted and done, the next step was to insert the front spar assembly so I can be riveted in place. So I got it all situated, and made sure everything was lined up and clecoed every hole to hold it in position. Once the front spar was fastened, the plans have you use a blind rivet (pop rivet) to hold HS-707 nose rib to HS-702 front spar and HS-708 middle rib. These rivets were a little tricky because the space is pretty tight and I have big ole gorilla hands. Not to mention the head of my pop rivet squeezer barely fit between the rib and the rivet mandrel. But, after some patience and a little wiggling, I was able to fully seat the three blind rivets that holds those two ribs to the front spart assembly.

Gj8Ck4zl.jpg


As a side note, I learned from the Vans Airforce Forums that a good trick to protect your skins during riveting is to wrap your bucking bar in athletic tape, except for the tiny bit you are using against the rivet tail. This is a really good suggestion, because it helps you hold on to the heavy bucking bar, AND protects the primed surfaces from getting scratched up from the sharp edges. Since the athletic tape doesnt stick to anything but itself, it leaves no residue on the bucking bar!

8jN0dG7l.jpg


Thats all for tonight. A little over 3 hours of work and I have my left horizontal stabilizer partially riveted and ready to finish up. I will leave the other work for another session when I am a bit more refreshed and ready.

Here is an album of all the photos, some showing better detail of the work: https://goo.gl/photos/KbJZJgAqgg6pmFCt8

Hours Worked: 3.25
 
December 1st, 2016. 3.5 Hours

I spent about 3.5 hours on riveting the horizontal stabilizer, and ended up getting the left side completed, and ready for the rear spar. I also got a start on the right side and have it ready for final riveting.

First off I riveted the HS-706 to the front spar HS702 using universal head rivets. These were quick and easy:

lKbdtuEl.jpg


The skin riveting work started out by riveting the ret of the skin to the skeleton, on both sides. George Orndorf suggests riveting from where the HS-707 and HS-708 meet at the front spar (HS-702), and then working your way outward from that center point. This helps to reduce any oil-canning that may occur and its also a lot easier to do. So, I started out at that junction but using an AN4263-4 rivet. The -4 length is needed here because the ribs, spar and skin are all riveted together. The plans calls for an AN4263-3.5 rivet everywhere else on the skin. Here is where I first started riveting:

WSUckkHl.jpg


These came out pretty great and I checked each one using a rivet gauge to make sure I was setting correctly. Then I just continued radiating outward from that center point, working left-right-center in order until I reached the edges. I am happy with the results, there was no denting, dishing or smiles! Looks smooth and flush:

3BDEcM8l.jpg
x87k81ul.jpg

And here are a few shots of the completed left horizontal stabilizer, inside and out:

8cmCm2ml.jpg
MrxbToQl.jpg

z4FLSfTl.jpg
djVaUBAl.jpg


After I finished up the left stabilizer, I had some time left so I moved on to starting the right horizontal stabilizer. Its done exactly the same as the left, so I followed the plans like I did last time. I cleco?d HS-707 nose rib to the skin and then riveted it to the top skin. Then I used HS-708 and HS-706 to hold the skin in place with clecos while I riveted HS-707 to the bottom skin. Then I pulled HS-708 out and inserted the HS-702 front spar assembly. Now this thing is starting to look like an empennage!

WODMVuwl.jpg


After getting both sides of the right stabilizer clecoed in place to keep any undue stress from the skeleton, I called it a night. I will rivet this skin to the skeleton as well as HS-706 to HS-702 in the next work session.

Here is all the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/GxeabPSKq5DGGumt9

Hours Worked: 3.5
 
I just updated this build log with some entries I had saved up on my website. I have started putting them there first, and then I will copy them to over here. These last 4 or 5 posts were all individual work sessions that I had not logged n here yet, so I updated them all.

As of right now in summary:

  • Left horizontal Stabilizer has been riveted to the skeleton, will wait on the rear spar and edge rivets until an EAA tech counselor has a chance to look it over.
  • I started on the right horizontal stabilizer tonight, and it is ready to be riveted to the skeleton this weekend.
  • Vertical Stabilizer primed and ready to be assembled and riveted.
  • Total hours so far: 59.75
  • Total Hours spent priming (included in the total hours): 5.25
 
December 2nd, 2016. 1.5 Hours

Tonight I spent about 1.5 hours on riveting the right horizontal stabilizer. I am very close to getting these skins riveted on, and almost to the point of attaching the rear spar. I have decided to wait on attaching the rear spar until I can get an EAA Tech Counselor out to take a look at my work to see if I am on the right track, and that my rivets are looking OK.

I started this work session off my attaching HS-708 center rib, to HS-702 front spar and HS-707 nose rib using LP4-3 blind rivets. From doing this on the left side, I knew it was going to be tight, so I took my time and got them set. My hands were almost to large to work the pop rivet gun in that little space!

y0EKJ5bl.jpg


Next up was to rivet in the AN470AD4-4 rivets that attach the HS-706 end rib to the HS-702 front spar. These rivets set OK, but I did let the rivet gun jump a little and scratch my primer. Luckily it didn?t do any damage to the end rib other than cosmetic primer.

M5wA3Nsl.jpg


Then it was time to do the bulk of the work: Riveting HS-601pp to HS-702 and HS-708. Like on the left stab, I worked from the center outward to eliminate any oil-canning, and made sure to insert the single AN426AD3-4 rivet into the hole where HS-601pp (skin), HS-702 and Hs-708 meet. Once that guy was set, the rest of the rivets were AN426AD3-3.5. This turned out pretty well, and I didn?t have any dishing or denting. I also checked the rivets with a rivet gauge to make sure they were set correctly. I am finding that my ?ear? is getting used to the sound of a correctly set rivet, and I am getting them at the perfect depth almost every time. Here is how the skin turned out:

kEqDtgQl.jpg


I completed the whole bottom side of the right stab skin tonight. After setting those rivets, my left arm was pretty beat from holding that bucking bar, so I decided it best to quite for the night before I messed up that pretty skin. I will finish up the top side tomorrow, and that will have the skins riveted, save for the HS-00005, HS-00006 ribs and rear spar, which I will hold off on so that the Tech Counselor will be able to look inside the stab?s to inspect.

Here?s all the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/k3pWa5Hoduz2MCyf7

Hours Worked: 1.5
 
December 4th, 2016. 1.75 Hours

I was able to finish up riveting on the skins of both sides of the horizontal stabilizer. I had only planned to rivet on the right side skin to HS-702 front spar and HS-708 rib, but that only took about a half hour to complete. So, I decided I should continue on! Here is how the riveting turned out on the spar and rib:
LLhGgCnm.jpg
mz2bwZGm.jpg

3QrSFRfm.jpg
T5neBhRm.jpg



I was relieved to have finished off all the rivets that needed to be set using a rivet gun and bucking bar. I am very happy that the skins turned out looking perfect and I didn?t dish or dent the skins. These are going to paint up really nicely, and hopefully be show quality!

After getting the skins done, I continued on to riveting on the HS-706 end ribs and HS-00005 and HS-00006 end ribs on both sides. These pieces are all done using a squeezer, so I wasn?t worried about them getting messed up or taking a long time to do. Once you get the squeezer set to the right depth, every single rivet turns out the same, making for very pretty work. I started out on the HS-706 end ribs, since they were easy to access. I worked them from the leading edge to the trailing edge to prevent oil-canning. They turned out great, without needing any re-work:

x05U7e5l.jpg
dNWWLvPl.jpg



Then I turned to the inner HS-00005 and HS-0005 ribs. Like I did with the HS-706, I started from the leading edge and worked my way back to the trailing edge. They also turned out really nice. Once I had both sides done, on top and bottom, I decided to call it a night. I will leave the rear spar off until I can get the EAA Tech Counselor to come out and take a look. With the rear spar off, they can peak down into the horizontal stabilizer and verify all my rivets look OK. Once they have signed off on my work, I will rivet on the rear spar using the squeezer.

Here are all the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/FQVT4UEbrgBXFXVv6

Hours Worked: 1.75
 
December 6th, 2016. 2 Hours

I worked about 2 hours tonight on the vertical stabilizer rear spar. I also spent a few minutes coming up with a way to mount my horizontal stabilizer on the wall to keep it safe and out of the way. For about 2 bucks in hardware, here?s what I came up with:

9On8Oixl.jpg


And it actually looks pretty decent against the wall. At the very least, I will have some nice looking aviation related wall art 🙂

XPQgigfl.jpg


After that, I continued on to working on the Vertical stabilizer. Vans has us start on the rear spar of the vertical stab by clecoing on the Vs-803PP spar to the VS-808PP doubler, as well as the hinges VS-410PP, VS-411PP and VS-412PP. I also taped off the holes where the VS-704, VS-706 and VS-707 ribs would rivet on later, so I didn?t accidentally rivet those holes. img_0843

Once I had everything clecoed in place, and taped up, I was ready to rivet. The plans have a myriad of different rivet lengths due to the thickness of the doubler, and the hinge plates so I started out by riveting on the VS-412 hinges at the top of the spar. Once I had those on, I moved to the shortest rivet size group and worked my way up to the longest. Eventually I had all the universal head rivets squeezed with my squeezer, and I could finish up with the bottom section of the spar. This section I previously dimpled and countersunk because we need to use flush rivets on the face so that the spar will sit flush on the fuselage when we mount it. So, I put my flush set in my squeezer, set the depth and set all those flush rivets on the bottom, finishing up my vertical stabilizer rear spar. It came out looking really nicely!

G5LG6Ynl.jpg


Here are all the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/JJZC2YV1fNmMq3mVA

Hours Worked: 2
 
December 7th, 2016. 4 Hours

Tonight I worked about 4 hours and completed the Vertical Stabilizer, except for the rear spar, which I am leaving off until the EAA Tech Counselor can come by and take a look at my work. This will give them access to view and check my riveting and assemblies. Once they sign off, I will rivet on the rear spar to both the Vertical and Horizontal stabilizers.

I started off tonight by assembling the skeleton for the vertical stab but clecoing VS-704, VS-705, VS-706 and VS-707 ribs to the front spar, and making sure everything still aligns correctly. I temporarily attached the rear spar to double check, and then remove it to continue on. Then I riveted on VS-706 and VS-707 using AN470AD4-4 universal head rivets. I used my squeezer on them to set them perfectly. BUT, VS-704 and VS-705 end ribs were a COMPLETE pain in the butt! The plans calls for a AN470AD4-5 rivet to hold these two ribs with the VS-703 front spar sandwiched between them. The rivet was a little long, but I trusted the plans. I could not get my squeezer in there so I had to buck them. However, I could not use a standard AN470 rivet set, because the ribs did not have any clearance even if I flexed them out of the way. I had to use an offset head, and ended up folding a couple rivets over. After drilling out a couple of rivets, I FINALLY was able to get all three of these buggers set correctly. After reading on Vans Airforce, a lot of builders have trouble with these suckers, so I?m not alone 🙂 Heres what the skeleton looks like after it was all riveted:

peGbbpCl.jpg


Once the skeleton was done, it was time to cleco on the skin and make sure it was lining up correctly. This was about the time I realized I hadn?t dimpled the skin yet?whoops. heh. So, I rolled the DRDT-2 over to the bench and spent the next 15 or 30 minutes dimpling the skin. Before dimpling, I made sure to tape up the holes along the root that are marked in the plans for nut plates to hold the fiberglass fairing in the future.

wDiWl1yl.jpg


NOW, I can finally cleco the skin to the skeleton and get it ready for final riveting. I clecoed every hole on both sides because this is a large surface with some complex curves around the leading edge. I figure a little extra work of clecoing will pay off when the results are smooth and oil-can free. After the skin was clecoed fully on both sides I begin to rivet it down. The plans has us start out at the intersection of rib VS-707 and work towards the top along VS-702 front spar. This first rivet is a little longer due to the converging ribs, but thats the only one. All the others were a AN426AD3-3.5. After working up the spar to the top, I came back and worked toward the root along the front spar, alternating to the VS-707 center rib. This is to get the skin down flush and prevent pillowing or oil-canning. Once all the rivets were driven along the ribs, it was time to squeeze the ones along the end ribs. I started on VS-706 and the leading edge and worked toward the trailing edge, and did the same thing with the VS-704 and VS-705 root ribs. Once I had the left side done, I flipped it over and did the same to the right side. I am happy with the results! There?s no dents, dimpling, smiley?s or oil canning. This thing will paint up nicely along with the horizontal stabilizer. If I can keep this quality of work up, I might end up with a decent looking airplane!

ds7kZ9Rl.jpg
K8OHgiYl.jpg



After I got it all riveted up, I temporarily clecoed on the rear spar so I can hang it on the wall to keep it out of the way and safe. I am going to round up an EAA Tech Counselor tomorrow and see if they can come out and inspect them.

Here?s all the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/z48dTJShJuPsuRUQ6

Hours Worked: 4
 
December 8th, 2016. 4 Hours

Link to blog entry: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/fitting-the-stiffeners-to-the-rudder/

I started on the sections of the plans labeled ?Building the Rudder? and more specifically, the sub-section ?Fitting the Stiffeners to the Rudder?. The rudder is made of thin .016″ aluminum, so Vans uses tiny L-shaped brackets called stiffeners to help support the skin, and keep it from wobbling. In the kit, these are parts that you have to fabricate a little. The kit ships with 8 pieces of L-shaped aluminum that you have to trim into the shape of a stiffener. The plans has the dimensions, and there are some notches in the stock to help you align your cuts. I used my bandsaw with a metal cutting blade to make the cuts instead of using snips. Here is what the stock looks like:

6d166adl.jpg


And here is what it looks like after you rough cut the two stiffeners from one piece of stock:

HetGfSBl.jpg


After we have the stiffeners cut from the stock, we have to trim 7 out of the 8 per side to fit the rudder because it gets smaller towards the top. In the RV-7, Vans has made this really simple: You cleco on the stiffener and then mark the hole on the forward edge that is the closest to the spar, and then trim off the excess. It?s important to note in the plans, that we need to leave a 1/4″ edge distance from that hole which I did. I then used the non-trimmed stiffener as a template to mark the cuts for the end angles. Repeat this until you get 16 stiffeners and you are good to go!

XbZip0tl.jpg


Next up was to cleco the stiffeners to the skin to match drill. I started with the left side, marked my stiffeners and skin and then match drilled them right down into a sacrificial piece of particle board to hold everything secure. I did the same to the right side.

0V5iydQl.jpg


After everything is match drilled, I disassembled everything so I could prep the edges and debur the holes. This is going to take some time, so I only started on the left side stiffeners. I was able to round off all the corners of the stiffeners, as well as knock down some really rough edges. All 8 of the left stiffeners are ready for deburring, and then a trip on the scotchbrite wheel to smooth them out. But, thats work for another session, I have already put in 4 hours tonight cutting out the stiffeners.

Here is all the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/1RtwoBeyMD8rGqJo7

Hours Worked: 4
 
December 9th, 2016. 2.5 Hours

Link to the blog entry: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/finishing-the-rudder-stiffeners/

Tonight I finished up the rudder stiffeners. I filed down all the corners and smoothed the edges down. After that I ran them over the scotchbrite wheel to get the edges completely smooth and burr free. Once I had the edges and corners took care of, I moved on to deburring the holes. I finished all 16 stiffeners, 8 for each rudder skin, tonight and put them on the shelf until I can prime them.

N9ddNwpl.jpg


After that I removed the protective plastic from the inside of the rudder skins, and then a few strips along the outside where the stiffeners will get riveted. I?ll leave the majority of the plastic on the outside surface to protect the skins until painting, sometime down the road. I?ll prime the interior side in a few days.

Once I had the plastic removed, the skins are ready to be deburred and dimpled, along with the stiffeners. I?m holding off on the dimpling until I get the skins and stiffeners primered, then I?ll deburr and dimple. The skins went back on the shelf until priming time, and that was it for this session. Here?s the photos from this session:


Google Photos Link: https://goo.gl/photos/FTb5cd7oJkv4A7fB7

Hours Worked: 2.5
 
December 9th, 2016. 3 Hours

Link to the blog post: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/assembling-the-rudder-skeleton/

After a short break, I started on the second work session for tonight. I had finished up the rudder stiffeners prior, and now its time to construct the rudder skeleton. The assembly starts off by clecoing R-904 rib to the spar R-902. Once its clecoed, we need to wide the hole in R-904 to a 3/8″ hole to match the hole in the spar. This is where a hinge bolt goes in the future. I used a step-bit (Uni-bit) to widen the hole, which worked nicely.

B1q3s9Cl.jpg


Next I fabricated the R-917 shim from some of the scrap aluminum that Vans ships with the kit. There isn?t many parts you have to fabricate, but this one is pretty simple. The plans includes a full scale template of the part. After I had it cut to shape, I rounded the corners and dressed all the edges smooth.

QGesgHEl.jpg


Now that we have the shim made up, we can cleco on the rudder horn and being match drilling everything into place. The rudder horn required a bit of grinding to get it to fit snuggly inside the R-904 rib, which is called for in the plans. I used my bench grinder to get a rough shape that would clear, and then worked the edges down using a file. Once I had the edges rounded, I smoothed it all out on the scotchbrite wheel. It?s smooth as silk and fits perfect, even though this took quite a bit of time.

vRGb0FGl.jpg
95pPlmnl.jpg


I clecoed on the R-606PP, R-902 spar, R-917 shim, R-904 rib and finally the R-405PD rudder horn to the bottom of the spar. I also went ahead and clecod on the other two doublers, R-607PP and R-608PP. I then match drilled them all using a #30 bit.

vzNNZzzl.jpg


I then moved on to fluting and straightening the R-903 tip rib and the R-912 counterbalance ribs. These parts have some pretty aggressive curves punched into them, so they needed quite a bit of work to get perfectly straight and square. I used a metal rule to check that the holes were all lined up. Then I clecoed them both onto the R-902 spar, and match drilled them to the spar with a #30.

Sa2JZ6wl.jpg


This is where the lead counterbalance will go, and there is a .032″ thick piece of skin that wraps around them to form the counterbalance. The plans has us mount that skin and then match drill everything to a #40. This took a little bit of work and fiddling to get the thick skin to mold around the ribs just right to line up the holes, but eventually I got it clecoed on. Then match drilled all the holes to a #40 as called out in the plans.

0HaBfpCl.jpg


This was a good point to stop, as the next steps in the plans has us clecoing on the rudder skins, which I do not have ready yet. I still need to prime them.

Here?s the photos from this work session: https://goo.gl/photos/82etN8p4fCdzm8bs7

Hours Worked: 3
 
December 10th, 2016. 6 Hours

Link to the blog post: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/assembling-and-drilling-the-rudder/

Tammy and Acacia were out of the house for the night, so I made the executive decision to go ahead and rivet on the stiffeners to the skins without priming them now. I will prime them with the rest of the parts later on, so that means there will be a small section of metal that is not primed, between the stiffener and skin, but it is alclad so I am not too worried about it.

I started out by dimpling both the stiffeners and the skins using the DRDT-2. The thin .016 skin dimples incredibly easy, so I was ginger with the force. Then I back riveted the stiffeners onto the skins, being sure I kept the work on the back rivet plate. I wished I could back rivet the whole plane! The rivets came out looking perfect.

VKLE0SQl.jpg
didWrnRl.jpg


I had previously built the rudder skeleton, so the next step was to cleco on the skins to the skeleton and then match drill all the remaining holes, including the trailing edge wedge. I cleco?ed every other hole so I could drill perfectly aligned, and then moved the clecos to their neighbor hole and drilled where they were.

yelClnNl.jpg


Now that the rudder is assembled, the plans has us fit the R-710 rudder brace and then back drill it to the skins lower holes. First we have to trim away a little excess on the part, as noted in the plans. There are notches and holes that can be used as a reference to trim, but after reading from several other builders, I opted to trim on the outside of these lines to give myself some extra metal in case I have edge clearance issues. Other builders noted that if you cut along the notches, you an run into edge clearance issues after you drill the holes.
fbauUXql.jpg


The above photo gives a better idea of what I am talking about. The bottom line in the line Van?s has you trim, where I opted to give a little extra as you can see from the top line I drew. Thats the line I trimmed along and it worked out really nicely.
1f2Pd08l.jpg



I have plenty of edge distance for all the holes, and I will just file down the edges to make them smooth and get rid of that notches when I deburr and edge dress all the parts. I then clecoed this part to the skeleton so I could complete the next small bit of fabrication. Next up is to fabricate the R-918 rudder bottom attachment strips. These are strips of .032 that gets riveted onto the bottom of the skeleton to provide a flange for the fiberglass bottom cap to attach to. Van?s ships about 40″ of .032 that is already cut to the 1 1/8″ width, so all I had to do was cut them to 18″ long and then trim out the little notch as noted in the plans, which as easy enough to do.

1f2Pd08l.jpg


Once you have both sides fabricated, we use cleco side clamps to hold them flush along the bottom of the rudder, onto R-904 rib. Then, back drill each one using the holes in the skin as a guide.

ssNpWGyl.jpg


I was careful that I didn?t run into edge edge distance issues and used a Sharpie to mark the holes and check they were not to close to the edge. Once I was happy, I drilled them. I completed both sides of the R-918 and decided that after 6 hours of working on the rudder today, I?d call it a night.

Heres all the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/gozEbqnaSBR4ZtgT7

Hours Worked: 6
 
December 11th, 2016. 1 Hour

Link to the blog post: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/fitting-the-rudder-counterweight-and-beginning-metal-prep/

I only spent about an hour on the project tonight. All I have left on the rudder is to fit the counterweight and then start the process of deburring, dimpling, and edge finishing so I can get the parts ready for priming. I am seriously considering building an air tight spray booth in the basement that ventilates the air outside so that I can spray the parts regardless of time of day or weather outside. Thats a project for another day though.

Tonight I began with drilling the forward hole for the counterweight into the R-912 rib. I placed the E-614-020 lead weight in the rib and match drilled the hole. The plans calls for a #10, but after getting the screw and nut called for in the plans, I think a #12 bit will work just fine. I do however have a#10 dimple die set. I drilled a #12, and then dimpled the rib using the DRDT-2. I also had a #10 countersink, so I used that in my hand deburring tool to machine countersink the lead weight.

NXTtaM4l.jpg
IJzHAVSl.jpg

SSLUdlql.jpg


The rear hole was back drilled into the rib using the pre-drilled holes in the lead weight as a guide. Once I had that finished, I decided to work on preparing all the parts of the rudder.

Metal prep is something that you will spend A LOT of time on during a build. I am going to pick up an electric screwdriver to hold the deburring cutter so I don?t kill my wrists using the little wobbly-spinning screwdriver tool. There are thousands of holes in the plane that need deburring. There really isn?t much to photograph or even talk about during these types of phases in the projects. I started out by deburring a few pieces of the rudder, and then decided it was time to call it a night. I will pick up an electric screwdriver on Monday and make this work go a lot faster. I knocked a few pieces of deburring out:

fcw9L7Kl.jpg


Heres the photos from tonights short build session: https://goo.gl/photos/nvqHhj4oujqPV9bC6

Hours Worked: 1
 
December 18th, 2016. 1.5 Hours

Link to Blog Post: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/metal-prep-on-rudder-pieces/

Tammy and Acacia headed out to do some grocery shopping so I stayed at home and decided to work a little on the airplane tonight. I only spent about 1.5 hours on it, but I ended up finishing all of the metal prep on the rudder parts.

I started out by deburring all of the holes in the remaining pieces. I picked up a small little electric screwdriver which made the mundane process of deburring, really easy and quick. I switched out the normal deburring cutter with the single fluted deburring tool when I worked on the thin skins. I was also very careful on the .020″ skin to keep it from knife edging. I also removed some more strips of the protective plastic on the rudder skins, so that all of my holes are now clear of it.

Next up was to deburr the edges. I fired up the scotchbrite wheel and ran all of the parts across it to smooth out their edges. For the thicker rudder horn, I first worked it against the normal stone grinding wheel on the bench grinder, then smoothed it out on the scotchbrite wheel. I then used my handheld deburring tool to smooth out the edges of some of the larger holes, and finished off the hard to reach edges with a scotchbrite pad. I then rounded the corners of the skins, and hit their edges with the scotchbrite pad.

Not many photos since this is pretty simple work, but here is all the parts after they were done:

vPHagqBl.jpg


Hours Worked: 1.5
 
December 21st, 2016. 3 Hours

Link to Blog Post: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/trimming-the-stiffeners-for-the-elevators/

I started work on the elevators tonight. I have the rudder parts ready for priming, so I tucked it away on the shelf to get the elevator to the priming stage then I will do them together to save time. Like the rudder, the elevators use stiffeners that have to be cut and shaped from stock aluminum angle and then back riveted to the skins. Van?s has done a great job on pre-punching the aluminum angle stock that you use for the stiffeners and they even include punch marks to show where to trim each stiffener.

There really isn?t much to discuss on creating stiffeners, you simple use the aircraft snips and trim the angle at the marks and then round off all the corners with a file. There are quite a few of these buggers, but they go pretty quickly. Once you have them trimmed out of the stock, we have trim an angle down to the trailing edge to make room for the narrowing gap where the skins for the trailing edge. This is marked, so I just connected the punch marks with a sharpie line, and trimmed it out with my snips.

49IWeaZl.jpg


Then we snip down the leading edge of the stiffener for a bit of clearance, but not as a drastic a cut as the trailing edges. The photo above shows a finished stiffener. Once they are all trimmed out, I ran each one across the scotchbrite wheel to clean up all the edges and they are ready to be dimpled and riveted on to the skins.

Thats about it for tonight, these things took me about 3 hours to trim out, shape, and clean up. But, both sides are done and ready to be match drilled, then dimpled, then riveted onto both skins. Thats work for another session!

Here?s the photos from tonights work: https://goo.gl/photos/Gv8Dh1PQ74Xt4kPj7

Hours Worked: 3
 
January 6th, 2017. 2.5 hours

Tonight I spent a few hours working on the elevators. I removed the plastic covering from the inside of the skins, and then fitted the stiffeners to the skins. After I had one side fitted, I match drilled all the holes and then removed the stiffeners, making sure to mark their location so I can put them back exactly. Here is what the right skin looks like:

UXlxKABl.jpg
p4BNtm4l.jpg


I worked through the right elevator skin, and then worked on the left skin, which has the cut-outs for the elevator trim and the trim servo. Additionally, the plans ask us to also fit and match drill the E-615PP plate for the elevator trim opening the the left elevator skin. There are a few holes on this plate that needs to be match drilled, so I completed that portion and will add it to my stack of parts to be primed.

mKWxD2Zl.jpg
lrE57IBl.jpg


Next up will be to deburr all the holes and get them ready for priming. Thats a job for another session!

Here is a link to the google Photos album: https://goo.gl/photos/UuNx1PH8UqWDLNzT7

Hours Worked: 2.5
 
January 8th, 2017. 2 hours

I have made a decision to at least do something on the airplane every night, even if its just a few minutes. This way I am always moving forward on the build, every day even if its just a small step. I wasn?t feeling 100% tonight, so I decided to deburr the elevator stiffeners. Since it was very cold down in the basement tonight (its about 12 degrees F outside), I brought the stiffeners upstairs and deburred them over a little trash can to keep the shavings contained. There was a bunch of these things, but I got them all done.

I then decided to remove the plastic on the exterior elevator skins around the rivet lines. I brought them upstairs and used my soldering iron and a ruler to remove the plastic and then called it a night. Only just a few photos tonight, but hey, its progress!

IMAG0002-768x434.jpg


IMAG0003-768x434.jpg


Hours Worked: 2
 
January 11th, 2017. 2.5 hours

Link to Blog post for tonights work: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/assembling-the-right-elevator-skeleton/

Tonight I assembled the skeleton for the right elevator, and then match drilled the parts. There is a service bulletin SB 14-02-05 for the mounting brackets on the elevator spars that was released by Vans a while back. Luckily, my kit had all the new parts included to address this service bulletin, and tonight I fitted those parts to the elevator spar.

It starts out by separating the E-00001A and B doubler plates and radiusing their edges to fit into the E-702 spar. I used my file to get the radius just right, and then finished off the rough edges. Then I fitted the doublers, the E-610PP and E-611PP plates to the E-702 spar, clecoed them along with the nutplates for the mounting bolts and then match drilled everything.

IMG_1007-300x225.jpg
IMG_1008-300x225.jpg



After the doublers were finished up, the plans have us working on the E-703 end rib and E-704 counter balance rib and fitting the lead counterweight to them.First I fitted the two ribs together and match drilled them.

IMG_1010-768x576.jpg


Once they were fitted together, I clecoed on the E-713 counterbalance skin so that I could match drill the lead counterweight using a #12 drill bit. Drilling this big hunk of lead took a lot of Boelube on the drill bit, and pulling the bit out frequently to clean the chips out of the hole.

IMG_1014-768x576.jpg


Once I had the holes drilled, I machine countersunk by hand the lead weight and then dimpled the holes on the E-713 skin so the flush head AN screws would fit snugly.

IMG_1016-768x576.jpg


The last step for tonight was to fit the E-709 rib to the inner part of the spar to create the skeleton for the elevator. Then match drill the rib to the spar. I fitted the outside end rib assembly to the spar to finish the elevator skeleton and did a quick test fit with the skin to make sure everything was looking great.

IMG_1018-768x576.jpg

IMG_1019-768x576.jpg


I stopped here for the night, because I need to bend the trailing edge of the elevator skin, and then back rivet the stiffeners to the skin before I can start match drilling it to the skeleton. I think I am going to setup for some priming this weekend, because I have a stack of parts that are collecting on the shelves waiting on priming. I like to prime in batches so I hold all my parts up to a point and then spray them all at once. It's looking like its getting time to prime!

Link to the Google Photos Album: https://goo.gl/photos/nF92cd5gg6WzbgzT7
 
January 14th, 2017 .75 Hours

Link to Blog Post: http://theskunkwerx.com/rv7/metal-prep-on-right-elevator-parts/

I have been working on the shop these past few days, cleaning, organizing and setting up a new tool chest so I haven?t spent much time on the plane. But, I have my workshop much more organized and easier to work in now. I am planning a primer session this week, so I wanted to finish up the last few parts from the right elevator skeleton.

I only had a few parts to get ready for priming, so I used less than an hours work on prepping the parts. I finished all the edges on the skeleton pieces on the bench grinder, and deburred the machined holes. I still have some drilling to do so I won?t deburr those holes till after they are primed. I aspire leaving the dimpling until after priming because the parts are much easier to scuff and clean. I also finished off the edges for the skins, so they are ready for priming.

IMAG0004-1024x579.jpg


At this point I am ready to prime the rudder and the right elevator. I?ll save the left elevator until the next session. I?d like to finish up the rudder and move on to do the elevators together.

Hours Worked: .75
 
January 16th, 2017 5.75 Hours

Priming and Stiffeners?.the two things I like the least on this build. But, you can?t have an airplane unless you do these two things. I have been holding back several bits of work in order to batch all my priming into one big job, and tonight I planned to tackle this. I won?t be batching parts up any longer?.more on that later. All in all, I had all the parts for the rudder (skins, stiffeners, skeleton and doublers) that needed to be primed, in addition to the right elevator skins, stiffeners, and skeleton. In hindsight, this was way to many parts to deal with in one session, and I don?t think I will batch this many up next time.

I started out by scuffing all the rudder parts with brown Scotchbrite pads first and then using a microfiber rag to clean the dust off. Then I put them in the paint booth to be cleaned with acetone before being primered. After the rudder, I gathered up all the right elevator parts and did the same procedure with them, making sure to keep these parts in a separate pile in the paint booth to avoid confusion with the rudder parts. This is where I should have stopped scuffing and went right into priming, but my wanting to get things done told me ?go ahead and get the right elevator skin and stiffeners done while we are at it!!?. I already have these parts drilled and ready for priming, so I went ahead and added them in to the work. My hand was KILLING me by the time I was done with all that scuffing, and I still have to clean and prime all those parts!!! Since I had scuffed away the Alclad and the oxidation layer, I couldn?t leave them overnight, because they would oxidize again, and I would have to scuff again. I powered through the pain of a cramping hand and kept working. 🙂

IMG_1020-768x576.jpg

IMG_1021-768x576.jpg

IMG_1022-768x576.jpg


Now I had all my parts in nice neat stacks in the paint booth, I went ahead and proceeded with the work of cleaning the with acetone to remove oils and residue, cleaning with paper towels until the towel came back clean with no black on them. With scuffed and cleaned parts I was ready to prime! I learned tonight that I absolutely despise all these little stiffeners, they are so fiddly to scuff and clean! I need to find a better solution to this nagging problem.

I mixed up a full 20 ounces of AKZO primer in my PPS cup. I figured I would use most, if not all, of the primer so I filled it up with equal parts A and B, and let the mixture sit for the 30 minutes to activate. I used this time to put on a full Tyvek suit with booties and hood, and then donned a full face respirator with really good 3M filters designed for spray painting, and organic vapors. Then, setup my parts on the spray table and closed up the paint booth.

IMG_1024-768x576.jpg


IMAG0030-576x1024.jpg


After about 45 minutes of spraying parts, I had everything done and looking good. As usual, the first spray was a little heavy and ran a bit on the rudder trailing edge, but I?m not worried about it since its primer and on the inside of the rudder, no one will see it. AKZO sprays really easily, and drys quick making it super easy to use. Now, I?ll let the parts lay up in the booth to cure over the next couple of days. I?m going to put an order in for some ProSeal and pickup some angle aluminum to get ready for riveting the rudder trailing edge.

IMG_1028-768x576.jpg


IMG_1030-768x576.jpg


Heres all the photos from tonights work:
https://goo.gl/photos/6Ac2yeEXDjRy2RPD6

Hours Worked: 5.75
 
January 25th, 2017. 4.5 Hours

NOTE: I am behind on sharing my progress here on VAF, so I will be posting several updates in this thread to get it caught up.

Well, I had some downtime, and didn?t get much done on the plane since I sprayed the primer. I wanted to let the parts sit and the primer cure for a few days, but I wasn?t planning on this long 🙂 None the less, I got back on the ball today, and got some work done. I want to finish up the rudder to the point of riveting the trailing edge, and then I will hold off on the Proseal until I need it for the elevator stiffeners as well. So, lets build a rudder skeleton!

The work started off by gathering up and marking all the parts for the rudder. Some of the marks were covered up with the primer, so I needed to find all the parts again. I also took a little time to read the plans and get re-familiar with the rudder. I had already deburred the parts before priming, so I needed to dimple the skins, spar and ribs. This went pretty quick with the DRDT-2, and using the pop-rivet dimple die tool to get the very end of the ribs. I am still not sure how the heck I am going to rivet those things.

With all the parts deburred, dimpled, primed and ready to assemble, I began the work of final assembly on the rudder skeleton. We start out by riveting all of the reinforcement plates, R606PP, R607PP, and R608PP to the rudder spar R902. I also riveted on the K1000-6 nut plates to the proper sides of the rear spar. I decided to leave these unpainted, since they have corrosion protection already applied.

IMG_1038-768x576.jpg

IMG_1039-768x576.jpg


Once the reinforcement plates are riveted on, I moved towards the bottom of the rudder and worked on the lower rib and rudder horn. The R-904 has several different pieces that all fit together on the spar to form the lower assembly. I attached the R-904 to the R-902 rear spar, fitted the R-917 shim, and finally fitted the R-405PD rudder horn with clecos. Then I attached the K1000-6 plate nut to the assembly and riveted everything together. There are several different lengths of rivets in this section, so I had to pay close attention and double check each rivet before setting it.

IMG_1043-768x576.jpg

IMG_1042-768x576.jpg


Now that the bottom of the skelton was done, I moved on to finish the top. Vans has us rivet the R-912 counterbalance rib to the rear spar, and then fit the R-913 counterbalance skin over the rib. I attached the skin with clecos due to its thickness and the complex curve it has. Then once I was happy the counterbalance skin was fitted nicely, I removed one cleco at a time and riveted it in place. It came out looking great!
IMG_1050-1024x768.jpg


The last step on this skeleton was to install the lead counterbalance weight. I had pre-drilled and countersunk it a few weeks ago, but I still needed to do a little trimming to get the counterweight to fit around the rivet tails that were now sticking inside the skeleton. I didn?t have to remove much material, so the balance shouldn?t be affected. Then I secured the weight with the AN509 screws and torqued them down to 30 inch/lbs. This is the 25 inch/lbs that is called for, plus the drag of the nylon lock nut, which I measured at about 5 inch/lbs. I followed that up with a little torque seal to mark that I had them torqued, and also to show in case the screws start to work loose.
IMG_1048-768x576.jpg

IMG_1052-768x576.jpg


I called it a night at this point. I have a full rudder skeleton, and the next step is to cleco on the skins and start getting them ready to rivet, and then place the end rib on the top. In the next session, I will cleco on the skins and make sure every thing is still lined up, and then use one of the skins as a guide to drill some aluminum angle for the trailing edge.

And the Google Photos link: https://goo.gl/photos/SRSXVZCsuYNEQqeY6
 
January 26th, 2017. 3.75 Hours

Tonight I continued working on the rudder final assembly. I stopped by Home Depot and picked up some 1.5″ aluminum angle so that I could use it when I bond the trailing edge. It came in an 8 foot length, so I trimmed to be just a few inches longer than the trailing edge, finished out the rough edge on that cut and then marked the center of one side of the angle to help align my drill holes. I laid one of the rudder skins on flat against the angle and the lined up the mark I made with the pre-drilled holes in the skin. Then I match drilled a hole to start and clecoed the skin and angle right into my work table. Then, to keep from over-drilling the skin, I just drilled every two holes all the way through and clecoed. For the remaining holes, I simply ran the bit for a few seconds to start a hole using the clecoed skin as a guide, and then pulled the skin off and finished drilling the holes through the angle. I then laid the skin back over my holes and clecoed it in a few spots to make sure it was still lining up, and it was.

IMG_1053-1024x768.jpg


IMG_1056-1024x768.jpg


Then I set the angle aside and kept on working on the rudder itself. I decided to fit the bottom R-710 rudder horn brace to make sure I could rivet everything in place with the brace installed, and luckily my squeezer will fit in the tight space of the horn brace and set the rivets easily. I decided to use the AN470 rivets instead of the blind rivets that is optional for this part. I used my squeezer to set the rivets and left the ones that the skin rivets too for later. You can see in the photo below that the access hole in the R-710 horn brace gives just enough clearance for the squeezer to get in and set the rivets along the bottom rib.

IMG_1064-1024x768.jpg


After that, I decided to get the trailing edge ready for assembly before I cleco on the skins. First I used the DRDT-2 to dimple the trailing edge of the skins, and the I used a new jig from Cleaveland Tools that makes countersinking the trailing edge wedge a breeze! This thing is dead simple, its shaped to fit the angle of the trailing edge wedge, so that the working surface sits flush and allows all of the countersink cage to sit flush while countersinking. This is something a lot of builders have a hard time with, and struggle to make a good jig, so Cleaveland made one from a solid piece of billet. Here?s how it looks:
IMG_1060-1024x768.jpg


IMG_1063-1024x768.jpg


You can see how the trailing edge wedge sits perfectly in the groove, and the holes in the jig allow the nib on the countersink cutter to travel completely through. This little $36 tool made this job so simple I was glad to have it. I had both sides of my wedge done in about 30 minutes, counting the time I took to adjust the depth.

IMG_1059-768x576.jpg


IMG_1061-768x576.jpg


With the trailing edge wedge done, I was ready to cleco on the skins and make sure everything still aligned right before riveting them on. I clecoed on both sides and then inserted the trailing edge wedge and clecoed it together. My rudder is still in alignment and its looking great. However, while I was sitting down admiring my work, I started questioning when I should insert the rod end bearings for the rudder mounts. They thread into the plate nuts I installed into the spar, but the plans has some specific lengths they need to be, and it looks like its measured from the inside of the spar to the center of the hole in the rod end bearing. Heres what I am talking about:
D02guVel.jpg


Of course, with the skins on, I wont be able to measure from the inside of the spar, and it looks like its calling for a distance of 51/64 in this particular instance. So, I am going to ask in the forums if I should go ahead and install those rod end bearings before I rivet on the skins. So, with that little dilema, I decided to call it a night and wait until I get some advice on how to proceed before I make it harder on myself down the road. This is a good stopping point anyways!
IMG_1070-1024x768.jpg


Google Photos album link: https://goo.gl/photos/aHYpcitVP9jL4eYBA

Hours Worked: 3.75
 
January 31st, 2017. 3 Hours

Tonight I started riveting the rudder together. I planned on getting the majority of the rudder riveted, while leaving the out the last few rivets along the trailing edge. This way I can more easily spread the trailing edge to make it easier to bond the trailing edge wedge and rivet it. I spent about three hours on the rudder tonight, and it came out really great so far!

The work started by rolling the edges of the skins where it laps over the counterbalance skin. I used my edge rolling tool to accomplish this, and it formed a nice little break that will let the two lap joints fit nicely with no lipping. I also rolled the edges of the leading edge skin so that it will lap together very nice when I finally finish up the leading edge. After that, I studied the plans, as there are several spots on the rudder that require different sizes, and made sure I had the proper locations identified.

I started riveting at the overlap of the R-901 skin and R-913 counterbalance skin. These rivets have to be set first, because they become inaccessible once we install the R-903 tip rib. Once I had these rivets set on both sides, I installed the R-903 tip rib and clecoed every hole because this is a rather compound and complex curve. I started riveting by pop-riveting the rib to the R-902 spar per the plans. Then I used the AN426 flush rivets on the very leading edge, where the tip rib fits into the counterbalance skin and began working my way toward the tip, removing one cleco at a time and then riveting in that hole. Flipped the rudder over and done the opposite side.

IMG_1092-768x576.jpg


IMG_1091-768x576.jpg


IMG_1093-768x576.jpg


On the upper side of the rudder, I left the last 6 or so rivets out of the tip rib/skin so that I can flex it open to install the trailing edge. Once I had the upper tip riveted up, I decided to continue on and rivet the skin to the spar on both sides and then rivet the bottom rib. I started out by riveting the skin to the rear spar in every other hole that way the clecos would hold the skin flush to the spar nicely. Once I had every other hole riveted, I removed the remaining clecos and riveted those holes. This worked really well, as I could insert all the rivets, and squeeze them in ?batches? instead of one by one. Once I had a side completed, I flipped the rudder over and riveted the opposite in the same manner. It turned out looking very nicely, but pardon the dust 🙂
IMG_1106-1024x768.jpg


ll that was left as this point was the bottom rib, the R-710 rudder horn brace and fiberglass mounting strips. I started out by swapping out the nose on my squeezer so that I could fit into the tight space of the rudder horn in order to set those rivets. I had BARELY enough clearance to get them done, but it worked out after being very careful with the squeezer.

IMG_1098-1024x768.jpg


Now that the hard part was riveted on, I continued on down the bottom of the skin and squeezed the rivets along the R-904 bottom rib, R-918 attach strips and the R-901 skin. All of the rivets on the rudder I was able to set using my squeezer, so the results came out very clean and neat. I did leave the last few rivets along the bottom rib out so that I can spread the skins to bond the trailing edge wedge. I will set them while the trailing edge is bonding, so that will be in the next few coming weeks. Here is what the rudder looks like after tonights session:

IMG_1102-1024x768.jpg


All in all, I am very happy with the way the rudder has turned out so far. All the rivets are clean and flush, there is no warping or twist in the rudder that I can see, and I am ready to go for the trailing edge bonding. That?s exactly what I had hoped to accomplish for this session, so I decided to wrap it up by clecoing on the my aluminum angle to the trailing edge and installing the edge wedge. This way my rudder will be held perfectly straight while its sitting on the shelf waiting on the Proseal bonding, which I hope to do in the next couple weeks.

Google Photos link: https://goo.gl/photos/zmNYk13To4x1Ju6c8

Hours Worked: 3
 
jFebruary 8th, 2017. 3.25 Hours Worked

Stiffeners. I swear this plane has more stiffeners in it than skin. Since I am holding off on bonding the trailing edge of the rudder for a few more days, I decided to move on to the elevators and start riveting the stiffeners on. This will help get me to the point of bending their trailing edge and bonding the trailing edge stiffeners, which is what I am waiting on for the rudder. This way I can mix up one batch of ProSeal and do them at the same time. I already have my skins and stiffeners primed and ready, I just need to deburr and dimple them before riveting.

Thats where tonights work started. I deburred the stiffener holes in the both the E-701 left and right skins. Then I fired up the DRDT-2 dimpler and dimpled both skins, as well as all the stiffeners for both sides. This went pretty quickly, since they were all AN4263-3.5 rivets. The dimples always turn out nice:

IMG_1115-768x576.jpg


IMG_1114-768x576.jpg


IMG_1113-768x576.jpg


Next up was to back rivet all of the stiffeners to the skins, so i started on the right being that its the easiest. Back riveting is one of my favorite ways to rivet, and I’d gamble probably most of the other builders out there as well! The rivets set so nice and perfect, and its pretty easy to do so long as you keep an eye on where your back rivet plate is. I picked up a longer 16″ plate to have more room to work and its been awesome. Here’s some quick shots of the end result on the right skin.

IMG_1124-1024x768.jpg


IMG_1122-1024x768.jpg


IMG_1125-1024x768.jpg


After I had the right skin all completed, I put it on the shelf and started on the left. The left is slightly more complicated because it has the elevator trim system, so we have a few more pieces to work with. I started out by marking where the E-615PP support plate went on the inside of the skin, and then deburred and dimple those holes on the skin and the plate. This plate will get some nut plates around the inside opening, so I need to dimple the nut plate mounting holes and screw hole. Here’s where I had a head-scratcher. I have in my dimple die collection a 5/32 and a #6 dimple die….The plans call for a #6 screw to be used with the nut plate, so that means I need to use a #6 dimple die, but I cannot figure out which is the 5/32 and which is the #6!!! The markings are no longer on the side of my dies and they are VERY close in size. I also took some time fitting the plate and pondering if I should dimple the AN4263-3.5 holes that the plans calls for, or if I should use some NAS1097 rivets and countersink them. If I dimple, I will have to fiddle with dimple the nutplate ears, and that gets messy. I am thinking about using some NAS1097, AKA “oops rivets”, instead. They have a smaller countersink on the head, but since these are just holding the nut plate in place there isn’t much load on them. Using NAS1097’s will let me machine countersink the plate and get a very close fitting rivet set and not have to worry about the nut plate ears. I figured I would just call it a night here, and put some thought to this overnight and ask some folks on the Vans Airforce forums. Maybe they can help me sort out which is a 5/32 and which is a #6 die as well! �� Here’s the work I did get done one the E-615PP:

IMG_1126-768x576.jpg


In the next session, I will back rivet on the stiffeners to the left skin, and figure out this E-615PP support plate conundrum, and probably make up the trailing edge bending jig.

And heres the Google Photos link: https://goo.gl/photos/ZMa9huaebXyCxRGS7

Hours Worked: 3.25
 
Back
Top