2004-10-15


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OK, Now here's what I'm talkin' about. Kathryn got me this shirt. Kathryn goes for the points every time. 

 
Today we back rivet. It's how you attach the stiffeners to the skins. From what I've read, it's easier than front-riveting. The bucking plate that I got with the Empennage Toolkit specifically for back-riveting was this wimpy little one. I hope it's enough.
You put all the rivets in first, then tape them in. You're supposed to use some special back-riveting tape. I used painter's masking tape. I know that people use that blue masking tape so I figured that this stuff would work as well. 
Now you flip over the skin and stick the stiffeners on the rivets. It's funny, I was holding the stiffener in one hand so that I could take a picture. After the picture I tried to place it on the rivets and noticed that it's the wrong one. You'll notice that it's too long for the spot I'm putting it in. BTW, In case you're wondering, that's not my belly in the pictures. I hired a professional stand-in belly model for these shots. 
Ahhh, the fun must've started because her royal highness showed up and grabbed the rivet gun. This was actually a lot of fun. The plastic sleeve that fits over the rivet set is spring loaded so it presses the stiffener up against the rudder skin automatically. I had the pressure at 35 pounds and about a 1 second burst of gun rivitation and  the shop head was perfect.  
Once the skins were stiffened, it was on to the frame. Here is the belly model again demonstrating that if you can squeeze the rivets, you squeeze them. No sense risking smiling things up. 
This is absolutely my favorite part of the whole process. Putting everything together. It's all nice and primed and it all fits perfectly. 
The instruction manual doesn't help you a whole lot at this point. If you think things through you should be OK. Don't install the horn brace (R-710) until you have the rest of the riveting done. 
Enough for today. Tomorrow I am driving the family to Binghamton, NY (about 200 miles) to attend a wedding and then driving back. I don't think I'll be able to do too much on the plane. We'll see. Maybe I can get up early and get some stuff done.