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Tailcone Advise

asw20c

Well Known Member
I'm getting close to the point where I will be closing the tailcone. The only way I see being able to finish riveting the top skins is to have someone crawl inside to buck the rivets. How have you guys done this without damaging any of the stiffeners or bulkheads? Those are really thin aluminum and I can see them getting mangled easily if a helper were to inadvertently sit on them, or kick one with a knee. Do you stuff a bunch of blankets and pillows inside?
 
Yep - then general consensus from blogs I visit is to crawl inside. I put the tailcone on the floor on a few layers of moving blankets, and used a combination of moving blankets, cushions and foam to fully bridge all the bulkheads and crawled inside. If you have a backriveting set - try backriveting from the inside rather than bucking. I found this great backriveting bar to make this easy for the assistant: http://www.cleavelandtool.com/Back-Riveting-Bucking-Bar/productinfo/BB46/#.WLRPZhIrK9Q
 
I also back riveted a lot of the tail cone and it worked very well. Hardly had to get inside at all.
 
I back-riveted my entire RV-10 tail cone, which is similar to the 14 I believe. One other option I saw someone did was to stand up the tail cone vertically on some sawhorses and then had a person stand up inside it to buck rivets. Wear a headset and earplugs, I'm thinking...
 
tail cone

I personally wouldnt get inside the tailcone it is pretty flimsy. You can reach all the rivets by reaching in through the hole in the back bulkhead just fwd of the horizontal and you can turn it on its side and reach all the fwd rivets by reaching in through the front. If you are shooting/bucking with someone make sure the bucker pushes the rivet out once so the shooter knows hes on the rivet. Alot of the rivets are easier just to shoot and buck by yourself so you know your on them when you cant see the tail.
 
I would get the back rivet set that Turner has linked and use pillows or moving blankets inside to build up the cavities until you are putting no pressure on the bulkheads. This way is much easier than bucking and your helper really needs minimal training to hold the back rivet set square to the skin and on the rivet vs learning how to use the rivet gun or bucking bar. You can set most of the skin rivets yourself until you get to the center middle skin, or if you are lucky, your helper can back rivet most of the skin rivets with you.
 
I rigged a pully and hung it vertical. Made access easy and no weight on cone. Stabilised it by tying it off to nearby infrastructure. Riveting buddy stood on a chair with earplugs in place.
Didn't take long.
 
I rigged a pully and hung it vertical. Made access easy and no weight on cone. Stabilised it by tying it off to nearby infrastructure. Riveting buddy stood on a chair with earplugs in place.
Didn't take long.

That's what I did, very simple to do.
 
I must not have a creative bone in my body, so thank goodness for this forum. You guys have great ideas.
 
Another in the back riveting camp

We also took the back riveting approach. Quite easy to set the rivets well and quickly. Did crawl into the tailcone, using some wood blocks on the skin (against floor) to stay off of the j-channel and bulkheads.
 
Couldn't help but take this picture.

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