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Continued work on the rudder
This morning I riveted all the stiffeners to the skins, even got a little help from mom on a few of the rivets. In the end all of them came out perfectly. Next I began on the rudder skeleton. It’s a much more involved structure than the stabs were. Here you…
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Began the rudder
Today I started working on the rudder. I began by trimming to size the rudder skin stiffeners. Once they were cut to size roughly I then used my scotchbrite wheel to shape and deburr all the edges of the stiffeners. I then match drilled all the stiffeners to the skins. Once…
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Finished Vertical stab and…
…I placed the order for my quick build wings and fuselage! It’s a big step for me (also a big purchase) and I’m excited to enter into the next phase. This morning before work I got up and riveted the root ribs to the front spar of the vertical stab. I the. Proceeded…
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Began riveting vertical stab
Tonight I spent 2 hours and I cleaned, primed and began riveting the vertical stab. Here’s all the skeleton parts after priming. Here’s the rear spar flush rivets set. I was able to reach all of these with a squeezer, the ones holding the bottom rudder hinge bracket were a little tricky, but I managed…
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Prepped vertical stab
Today I spent 3 hours disassembling and prepping all the surfaces for primining. Here you can see the dimples on the vertical stab skin, these will accept the flush rivets that attach the rear spar to the skin. Here’s another view of the dimples, these were all reached with the DRDT-2 dimpler. Super easy to…
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Began vertical stab
Today I spent a couple hours on the vertical stab. I spent about an hour clecoing the skeleton and then match drilling all the holes in the rear spar. I then edge finished all the ribs, per the plans, and then clecoed the assembly together. I then put the skin on and clecoed and match…
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Finished Horizontal Stabilizer
Today I spent a 7 hour session, bringing my total to 30 hours, to finish riveting the h-stab. I began by riveting the front spar to the skin. Having a riveting buddy would have been great, but it was a good experience to do this by myself. Working in the tight spaces was tricky, but…
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Continued riveting the stab
Yesterday I continued to rivet the skeleton together and began riveting the skins to the spars and ribs. Here you an see the middle nose and main ribs clecoed to the skin. The nose rib gets flush riveted to the skin. This was super difficult to get the skin to lay flat against the…
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Primed and began riveting stab & Happy Thanksgiving!
This morning I cleaned, and primed all the internal structure. I’m using a self etching primer that’s super easy to use. I also primed the rivet holes of the interior of the skins. The paper used to ship the parts is perfect for painting on. I then used a heat gun to dry…
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Deburred and Dimpled H-Stab
Today I spent 4 hours deburring, edge finishing, surface prepping and dimpling the horizontal stabilizer skeleton and skins. I did all of the dimpling on the ribs and spar using the pneumatic squeezer and the -3 dimple set. I then used the DRDT-2 to dimple the skins. I used cushions on either side…
RV-7 N890GF 