More work on bulkheads

Modified the bottom of the 1408 bulkhead.

Deburred and dimpled all the 1407 and 1408 bulkhead parts.

Separated, deburred, and dimpled the bell crank ribs.

I realized when I went to drill the battery angles that I somehow modified the wrong one. I could swear that I marked these parts carefully before I separated them but it appears I switched the A and B markings. I don’t think this will be a problem though. I just needed to modify the correct one. The modification to the wrong one is not consequential.

Once I fixed that, I drilled and countersunk all the nut plate holes and match drilled the angles to the bell crank ribs. I deburred and dimpled the 1406 bulkhead as well.

I think next weekend I’m going to have two solid days of scuffing and priming all these parts.

Today’s Time (hours):	4.0
Empennage Time (hours):	141.0
Total Time (hours):	141.0

Finished Elevators and Worked on Aft Three Bulkhead Assemblies

Yay! Rivets came in the mail and I was able to finally complete the elevators.

Cleaned up the edges and deburred the longerons and J stiffeners.

Matched drilled the aft bulkheads to the VS aft spar.

Countersunk the tie down support.

Dimpled the bulkheads. I think I found a problem with the plans. They called for dimpling the #30 holes in the web of the bulkhead. Note the two dimples along the edge of the tiedown bracket. they are keeping it from sitting flush against the bulkhead. I’ll likely need to undimple these holes somehow.

Match drilled the next bulkhead to the HS attach bars and dimpled the flanges.

IMG_1885-1

Likewise with the next bulkhead…

Ready for deburring, scuffing, and priming.

Today’s Time (hours):	6.0
Empennage Time (hours):	137.0
Total Time (hours):	137.0

Riveted Spars and Ribs in Left Elevator

I started off the day by taping the trailing edge to the bottom right elevator skin with the 3M VHB. tape.

I also completed the trim servo assembly. I need to order a crimper to terminate the wires from the trim servo with the supplied micro molex connector. I also need to get a label maker to label all the terminations.

Then my new squeezer set from Aircraft Spruce showed up. It’s nice having them relatively local. If I order by 4:00 they’ll ship same day and shipping via UPS ground gets it here next day from Peachtree City.

With the new squeezer sets I was able to complete the riveting of the hinge portion of the skin to the aft spar.

I essentially completed all of the steps that I did to the right elevator yesterday to the left elevator today. So now both elevators are ready to have the aft ribs glued and the trailing edges riveted.

Today’s Time (hours):	6.0
Empennage Time (hours):	118.5
Total Time (hours):	118.5

Riveted Spars and Ribs in Right Elevator

Unfortunately Jared was unable to make it over to work with me today. I’ll be docking his pay. 🙂

Work on the the left elevator is still halted until I have a means to rivet the hinge portion of the aft spar. To wit I have ordered a complete range of squeezer flush sets from Aircraft Spruce. They should be here tomorrow.

Significant progress to report on the right elevator however…

Riveted the rear spar and rib assembly to the bottom right skin.

Actually some progress was made on the left elevator. I was able to rivet the ribs to the bottom skin as well as the trim doubler assembly.

I riveted the skin to the rear right spar using the special bucking bar to reach the shop heads.

Side view of the special bucking bar in action.

I fabricated the tool called out in the plans but didn’t actually need it on the right elevator. Maybe it’s necessary on the left?

I blind-riveted the top and bottom halves of the ribs together. I was able to reach the aft rivets with no problem.

Here they are all riveted.

I riveted the forward spar to the ribs.

…And then riveted the skins to the spar with the squeezer.

I riveted the skins to the and root ribs as well.

Next I’ll glue the aft ribs in place with Pro Seal, install the trailing edge, shoot the last few rivets in the root and tip ribs and she’ll be done!

I had one oops today and a gripe with the plans. They remind you that the counterweight skins go under the elevator skins after you’ve already riveted the aft spar and the ribs. This made it impossible to correct. I tried to carefully pull the skin out and bend the counterweight skin up as little as possible but it left a bit of a permanent bend. Nothing tragic. Just annoying. It would have been more helpful if the plans provided this warning when they had me cleco in the forward spar assembly.

Today’s Time (hours):	4.5
Empennage Time (hours):	112.5
Total Time (hours):	112.5

Riveted Aft Spars to Skins

Began riveting the bottom top left skin to the aft spar.

Everything was going great until I got to the part with the trim tab hinge. My bucking bar won’t reach around the hinge eyelets.

Side note: after all of this, I realized that the shear clip was supposed to be on the outside of the closeout tabs in the picture below. So ended up drilling it out and re-attaching it properly. Funny thing is that last week I mentioned to Jared and Wes that I thought it would look better on the inside. Subconscious got the better of me i guess.

I thought of using the squeezer on these rivets but I only have two flush sets. One is too long and the other is two short. I hit up Jared and he’s got a flush set that’s halfway between the two. He volunteered to swing by tomorrow morning and do some building with me. So I set the left elevator aside until tomorrow.

I moved on to the right side and riveted the bottom skin to the aft spar. I taped all of the rivets in place to back rivet the ribs. I shot one row but it’s really load and it’s getting late so decided to call it quits for the night.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.0
Empennage Time (hours):	108.0
Total Time (hours):	108.0

Riveted the Forward Spar Assemblies

Riveted the gusset to the left root rib and riveted the inboard and outboard halves of the tip ribs together. Spent a bit of time with a square and hand seamers tweaking to ensure everything is straight.

Riveted the tip ribs to the spars. Riveted the hinge reinforcement plates and nut plates to the spars.

Clecoed and riveted the counterweight skins to the tip ribs.

Riveted the elevator horns to the spars.

Bruins vs. Blackhawks in the winter classic on tv… taking a break to watch a little hockey.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.5
Empennage Time (hours):	106.0
Total Time (hours):	106.0

Assembled Trim Tab

Bought a 3/4″ MDF panel at Home Depot. Leveled it out on the bench and shimmed the dead spaces with sheets of paper to create a flat surface.

Prepped the skins, spar, and trailing edge with isopropyl. Mixed up a small batch of fuel tank sealant and put a thin layer on each side of the trim tab ribs and set them in place. I used the 3M VHB tape on both sides of the trailing edge. Used clecos to align it with the bottom skin and set it in place. Then I clecoed the top skin in place along the spar and trailing edge. I peeled the paper from the VHB tape between the top of the trailing edge and the top skin removing clecos as I went to avoid tearing the paper. I replace the clecos to clamp the whole sandwich together while the tape sets up.

The sealant is ridiculously sticky and smells like ass.

I riveted the top skin and hinge to the spar.

All done!

Weighted down the skin with a board and some 2×4’s to ensure contact between the skins and the ribs until the sealant sets up. The spec sheet says there is a 6 hour cure time for the B 1/2 sealant I used.

Today’s Time (hours):	1.5
Empennage Time (hours):	101.5
Total Time (hours):	101.5

Primed, Dimpled, and Started Assembly

Busy day of building today! Started off with a Home Depot run to pick up some paint pots and gloves. Then I got set up and shot all of the elevator part and skins with primer.

That was a lot of stuff to prime. Didn’t mix enough and had to make a second batch to finish the skins.

Once the primer was dry, I brought everything in the house and dimpled the skins and all the ribs, spars, and other miscellaneous parts. Clecoed the forward half of the trim tab hinge to the aft spar and machine countersunk the portion of the aft spar that attaches to the hinge. Did a similar job on the trim tab spar later.

Modified my female #40 dimple die to enable dimpling of the nut plates needed for the trim tab servo doubler. I just ground off a bit of the edge on the bench grinder.

Here’s the modified die in action squeezing a dimple into a nut plate.

And here are the nut plates installed in the doubler.

I machine countersunk the parts of the trim tab pushrod and double flush riveted it together. The plans called out AN426-3-3.5 rivets but those were too short. I used -4.5’s and they came out perfect.

Clecoed together the trim tab with the spar and trailing rdge and final drilled the holes in the closeout tabs.

I machine countersunk the the trailing edges for the trim tab and left elevator using the tapered-pilot countersink cutter. I’m still waiting for the right trailing edge from Van’s to replace the one a screwed up.

I riveted the trim tab horns and spar to the bottom trim tab skin.

Taped off the places on the skins and spar where I’ll bond the ribs and trailing edge in order to prep for the ProSeal and trailing edge tape. I removed the primer with isopropyl. I scuffed with 150 grit sandpaper. Then cleaned the scuffed areas with acetone. Then I removed the tape.

Tomorrow will be my first experience with ProSeal. I’ll be using it to glue the trim tab ribs in place. Plans call for a “well and truly flat” work surface on which to weight down the trim tab while the ProSeal sets up. I don’t consider my workbenches to be “well and truly flat.” So I’ll be off to Home Depot again tomorrow to come up with something. Maybe a steel plate or a 3/4″ MDF panel?

Today’s Time (hours):	9.0
Empennage Time (hours):	100.0
Total Time (hours):	100.0

Horizontal Stabilizer Complete

Riveted the skin to the forward spar and all the ribs. Did all of these rivets with the gun and small tungsten bucking bar. It was a long day. Only had to drill out a couple of duds, though.

Then clecoed the rear spar to the ribs and skins and riveted in place. The inboard and outboard ribs are riveted with AN470-4 rivets while all the others are blind-riveted with LP4’s. I used the squeezer to rivet the skins to the rear spar flanges.

Et Viola…

Merry Christmas!

Today’s Time (hours):	7.0
Empennage Time (hours):	76.0
Total Time (hours):	76.0

Prepared HS Ribs

Deburred all the HS ribs with 400 grit sand paper. Sand paper seemed like the most straightforward approach because of all the segments in the flanges. I was able to get in between the segments with it.

I fluted the ribs and modified the two nose ribs and two inspar ribs per the plans and marked them.

I drilled the inboard nose and inspar ribs to the forward spar. Then I deburred all the holes in all the ribs and then dimpled all the ones that mate up to the skins. So. Many. Holes. I can’t even imagine what the wings are going to be like.

I also created a template to make cradles to hold the HS when assembling. I’ll scrounge some plywood to cut them from and some sort of square stock for the bases.

Today’s Time (hours):	3.0
Empennage Time (hours):	61.0
Total Time (hours):	61.0