Elevator dimpling

Guys,

Finishing up on empennage and working elevator. I am getting ready to dimple the skins for the stiffeners. Have you guys used the C-Frame to dimple the skins for the stiffeners? The only way I see to do it is to roll the skin back to get to the holes near the spar. Is that how you guys did it?

Thanks....

I believe I did this before riveting to the spar. But in your case I would probably just use a pop-rivet dimpler for the hard to reach ones if you can't easily get to it with the c-frame. If you don't own the pop rivet dimpler, buy one now, along with the vise grimp dimplers. Worth it.

http://www.averytools.com/prodinfo.asp?number=1022

Chris

I did two things to make this job easier for the springy elevator skins (works, too, for the ailerons). 1) I clamped a piece of scrap wood to the c-frame to extend the top of the C about 3-4 inches to keep the skin from getting anywhere near the c-frame or the hammer. 2) I clamped another piece of scrap to the bench along the line of the bend in the skin at a distance that gets close to placing the holes in the skin near the dies. This keeps the skin from springing back. You'll need to adjust the distance of the cross piece as you get closer to the apex of the bend, but it's easy to do. Do one row, flip the skin, do the row on the other side, and then adjust inward.

I don't have an actual picture of the setup, but I tossed the stuff together on the garage floor to help illustrate:

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I "invented" this procedure after putting an unplanned dimple in my aileron skin when it jumped while dimpling. This prevented another call to Van's

This is why I love this web page. I am a rookie at this but having a great time building and learning. This is about the 4th time I have gotten great ideas from this web page.

Pop Rivet Dimpler

I used a pop rivet dimpler - took a lot longer, but was a heck of a lot easier.

Edge of bench

I used the DRDT which is similar to the C-frame but uses hand lever instead of hammer. I slid the frame to the edge of the bench and draped the skin not being dimpled off the bench and skin being dimpled in the frame. Male die on top and female inside skin. Had to angle the frame and skins to reach some but did all the holes with the frame. Pop-rivet dimples didn't work well for me.

Good luck

A combination of hand squeezer with long yoke and home made DRDT dimpler did the work for me