Dimpled the bottom skin. Today’s word of the day: unwieldy.
Riveted the doublers and stiffeners to the bottom skin.
Dimpled the gear brace bracket and machine countersunk the gear brace bars. Riveted the gear brace assembly together and then riveted it to the skin.
Clamped the lower fuselage substructure to the bench and clecoed the skin to it. Ready for riveting.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 6.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 37.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 491.5 |
Fluted the outboard seat and baggage ribs to mach the curve of the bottom skin. Riveted nut plates to the seat ribs.
Bolted and riveted the seat ribs to the bulkhead assembly.
Riveted the seatbelt lugs and routing angles to the baggage ribs.
Riveted the aft bulkhead to the seat rib assembly. Drilled and riveted the doubler to the bulkhead. Fabricated and riveted together the idler bearing assembly and riveted to the bulkhead.
Clecoed the bottom skins together and match drilled some holes. Cut the landing gear leg openings in the forward skins. Machine countersunk the doublers and dimpled the skin stiffeners. Drilled the 9/16″ hole in the skin with a step drill. This hole will be used to mount the transponder antenna.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 5.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 31.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 485.5 |
Primed all the mid fuse lower structure parts. There are a lot of them!
Riveted the doublers to the baggage ribs.
Dimpled the seat ribs. Riveted in the nut plates. Riveted the bushing clips to the ribs. Riveted in the rib doublers. Riveted in the routing angles. Riveted the crotch strap brackets to the ribs.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 4.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 26.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 480.5 |
Received the new bulkhead bars from Van’s. Cut and deburred them. Scuffed them, Machine countersunk and riveted them. Reamed all the holes and bolted them to the aft bulkhead.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 22.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 476.5 |
Scuffed all the parts.
Peeled, Deburred, and scuffed the bottom skin.
Hit Harbor Freight today… Picked up a stand for my grinder and a new HVLP paint gun. Using the grinder on the bench has been a bit of a pain. Up to this point I was using a small touch-up gun for all of my priming. For the bigger sessions, I would have to refill the paint cup multiple times. This gun has a bigger cup and is better quality.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 20.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 474.5 |
Deburred the edges of all the parts.
Scuffing and Priming next.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 18.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 472.5 |
Picked and inspected all the parts. There are a lot of them.
Cut all the parts that needed to parted using hacksaw, bandsaw, and Dremel. Pro tip: peel the parts BEFORE you cut them. Otherwise there are a lot more of them to peel. Duh!
Peeled all the parts.
Ready for edge deburring.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 16.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 470.5 |
Riveted the cover ribs to the forward center section bulkhead. Added the AN3 bolts, nuts, and washers and torqued them down.
Secured the bearing bracket braces to the bearing brackets with screws, washers, and nuts. The riveted them to the bulkhead and opposing ribs.
Reamed the .375 and .311 holes in the center section bulkheads.
The parts I ordered from vans should be here Tuesday. Then I can finish out this section.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 2.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 13.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 467.5 |
I was using the squeezer to do some dimpling and riveting. About halfway through it started leaking air from the valve. I disassembled the valve and found that the o-ring that prevents the poppet from-over extending had sheared in two. I called Cleaveland Tool and they were more than happy to ship a new o-ring at no charge. Nice folks over there. In the meantime I’ll be using the DRDT-2 and C-frame dimpling duties and shooting all the rivets with the gun.
I assembled the bulkhead bars. Unfortunately I screwed up one of them and had to order a new part from Van’s. Here’s the good one…
I moved on the the aft center section bulkhead. I machine countersunk all the holes then riveted the nut plates in place. Then I riveted the side angles to the bulkhead.
I countersunk and riveted the bearing brackets.
I dimpled the cover ribs and riveted the nut plates in place. I riveted the bearing brackets to the ribs as well.
Machine countersunk the bearing bracket braces and riveted on the attach angles.
Moved on to the forward center section bulkhead. I machine countersunk the holes on the flanges and riveted on the nut plates. Then riveted and bolted the side angles in place.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 5.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 11.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 465.5 |
Primed all of the parts.
Dimpled the bulkhead and side channels.
Riveted the doubles to the bulkhead.
Riveted the side channels and doublers to the bulkhead. Unfortunately I didn’t see the note in the instructions indicating that the manufactured heads should be on the aft side until after I had driven all the rivets. So I got to drill them all out and do them again. Yay.
All’s well that ends well.
| Today’s Time (hours): | 3.0 |
| Fuselage Time (hours): | 6.0 |
| Total Time (hours): | 460.5 |
Ron's RV-14A Build Log 