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Drilled wrong sized hole

mcoyne34

Member
Building a RV-8. Working on the horizontal stabilizer. While drilling HS 708, I used a #30 bit where the skin attaches. Obviously this is too large for the rivet size I would normally use to attach the skin. Does anybody know off the top of their head what size rivet fits in a #30 hole and has the same head as the rivet that would fit in a #40 hole?

Thanks
 
Wait.

For *all* the skin holes, or just one? If you did them all, you might be better off just using 1/8" rivets. If HS708 gets dimpled, then 1/8" rivets would seem the obvious solution to me; #30 is the drill size for 1/8" rivets. A whole row of 'oops' rivets on a piece of structure (stabilizer spar?) would mean very little material under the heads of the rivets, right?

If it's a whole row, I' *definitely* run it by Van's engineers before using oops rivets.
 
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It was a whole row on HS706 (outermost Rib) but only on one side of it. And i did a few on HS603PP (rear spar) but only one side. I did not however drill the skin.
 
It was a whole row on HS706 (outermost Rib) but only on one side of it. And i did a few on HS603PP (rear spar) but only one side. I did not however drill the skin.

Then you should use 1/8" rivets. "Oops" rivets are not meant to be used in a continuous row.
 
I made a similar mistake when building my vertical stabilizer. I simply completed the row with 1/8" rivets all the way. Van's said oops rivets are fine for a hole or two, but not structurally sound for a string or row of them.

Besides, no one other than an experienced RV builder will ever know that it doesn't require this size rivet anyway. And once it's painted, I bet even the experienced builder wouldn't notice.
 
In addition, the Oops rivets are intended for a -3 dimple. if you already drilled to #30 before dimpling you need to use -4 dimple dies, so a -4 rivet is the right way to go. The oops rivets are good if you accidentally oversize a hole already dimpled for -3.
 
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