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How do I dimple the aileron leading edge???

What-Now-Ski

What-Now-Ski

Member
I'm trying to figure out the best way to dimple the leading edge of the the aileron skin....right where the skin meets up with the counterbalance. I'm having difficulty getting anything in there to dimple with and the DRDT-2 certainly isn't working. Any hints would be greatly appreciated!!!
 
What I did for this is countersink the galvanized pipe for the pop rivets. Next I clecoed the skin to the galvanized pipe. I put an extension on the 1/8" male dimple die out of a threaded rod. I put the dimple die in the hole and wacked the threaded rod a few times with a hammer. The countersunk galvanized pipe acts like the female dimple die.

I took some pics of how I did it here:

http://www.rvplane.com/?categoryid=3&dayid=291
 
aileron dimpley thingy

A simple way would be to drill the holes throught the skin in to the counter balance pipe. Remove the pipe and counter sink the holes and deburr every thing. Cleco the counter weight back in every other hole. Try putting an An426 rivit an just tap it with a hammer, the counter weigh will be the die for the counter sink. Yes you will destroy a couple of rivits, and maybe you might modify a #6 screw to do the dimpling.

Hope it helps.

RT
 
bullojm1 said:
What I did for this is countersink the galvanized pipe for the pop rivets. Next I clecoed the skin to the galvanized pipe. I put an extension on the 1/8" male dimple die out of a threaded rod. I put the dimple die in the hole and wacked the threaded rod a few times with a hammer. The countersunk galvanized pipe acts like the female dimple die.
Click to expand...
I'm not there yet, but it sounds like a job for this tool:

http://www.averytools.com/p-617-dimpling-riveting-block-set.aspx

Yeah, I'm a tool junkie.
 
bullojm1 said:
Mel-

The female die would "ding" the inside of the skin since the skin is pre-bent for the radius of the pipe.
Click to expand...

Yes, it will. And so will the small female dimple die that comes with the avery kit - http://www.averytools.com/pc-578-17-small-diameter-dimple-dies.aspx.

Shipping on the replacement leading edge skin is as expensive as the replacement skin itself - I think about $25 for the skin and about $25 for shipping. It comes in a nice wooden souvenir box though :rolleyes:

(When I did it the 2nd and 3rd times around) I counter sunk the pipe, cleco'd the skin to the pipe and dimpled the skin with a center punch I had that approximated the angle.
 
Do you need to dimple the aileron leading edge?

I Just re-read the section on the aileron leading edge. For the RV-8, the instructions say, "Machine countersink the holes in the counterbalance pipe. The countersink need not be 120 degrees to match that of the rivet heads. The .20" skin and the aluminum blind rivet will deform sufficiently to contour to a 100 degree countersunk hole."
When assembled, the leading edge will not be visible.
 
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