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countersinking elevator trim cover plate

coffeeguy

Well Known Member
The directions for the E-01402 elevator trim cover plate say to machine countersink the #040 holes. The material is not really thick enough. I tried to countersink it, but it came out horribly. Elongated holes. I belatedly realized that I should have used another piece of material behind it to keep it centered. Even so, the rivets sit a little proud of the plate. It seems to me that these holes could be dimpled, as well as the E-01409-L & -R Servo Support C-Channels. Has anyone dimpled these holes and the C-channels?
 
I did my empennage at Synergy Air, and while I was working something else, one of their folks assembled these parts as you suggested by dimpling instead of countersinking. I didn't think anything of it until a few months later when my parts were delivered to my home and I realized that by dimpling it distorted the parts just enough that the cover plate will not sit flush when the trim motor is installed no matter how tightly the screws are torqued. Others may have different experiences but that is what happened with mine. Not sure which is worse after your description. I have new parts to rebuild this assembly but have not put them together yet.
 
RV14 same as RV9?

Not sure if the 14 is same as my 9, but my trim plate doesnt sit flush either. The reason is because the trim plate is thicker than the skin. I almost put a shim plate between the skin and the flange plate, but didnt discover this until after everything was dimpled and figured i could never get the holes/dimples lined up in the shim plate so i gave up.
 
I used my deburring tool to countersink the 6 holes. Just remove material a little at a time and check depth with a rivet often until you get it where you want it.
 
Thanks for the suggestion for using a deburring tool.

And the cover does appear thicker, haven't mic'd it, so it would be raised. I was referring to the AN3 rivets that stood a little proud of the plate.
 
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