March 26-27 Progress Update

Sat, March 26th - It was a productive day with many hours spent working.  We took everything apart and I helped hold the skins for dimpling.  Dimpling is pressing little tapers into the rivet holes so that the rivet heads will be flush with the skin of the airplane and not cause increased wind resistance.  It also makes the rivet joints stronger.  Mark then polished the edges of every piece.   No piece can have any rough marks, sharp edges or scratches as those can become stress points for cracks over time.  Next came painting everything with an aluminum primer and we left it overnight to dry.

Sun, March 27th - We practiced riveting together with some scrap metal, Mark with the rivet gun and me holding the bucking bar on the back side.  We finally took the plunge and began riveting on the horizontal stabilizer (still looks like a tail to me).  We were pretty nervous that we would screw it up but it came out looking great.  We measured the thickness and diameter of the rivet heads with a gauge and everything was to spec. We were pretty proud of our first rivet job and no longer nervous about bucking rivets!

Enjoy the pics!

Started off the week with a few hours of good work

With the start of daylight savings time, it seems like the evenings are so much longer after work.  We spent about an hour and a half working last night.  I am even getting pretty quick with the clecos.  Clecos are those things that look like pins sticking in the wing below.  They are used to temporally hold things tightly together as you drill the rivet holes.  They are inserted and removed with a special tool.

The fun has begun in earnest - It looks like a tail!

After much deliberation over primer, Mark picked up the final items to get the project started.  We kicked the weekend off with a riveting evening on Friday watching a video on how to build an RV7 tail.  The weather was beautiful on Saturday, so Mark went flying bright and early then spent the rest of the weekend in the garage.  I put in a few clecos although I wasn't too much help beyond delivering food and beverages.  Well, the real work has begun and it's already beginning to look something like a tail!  This is deceiving as after everything is drilled, deburred, dimpled, shaped, polished, and fitted together with clecos, it will all have to come apart again to be primed before the first rivet can be squeezed.

Below are this week's pics.

Setup Finished, Tools Ready and the Fun Begins!

As you can see, the tables have been constructed -- two worktables and a dimple table.  All of the tools have been stowed, shelf space cleared and space to lay out the plans created.  The fun should begin in earnest this weekend.

Garage Cleaned and Workbench almost Done

Mark spent most of the weekend cleaning the garage, he is trying to figure out how to pack way too much stuff in too small of a space for all of his myriad projects.  It was cold so I didn't help.....


He also, almost, completed the below workbench based on an EAA standard plan that he modified to suit his tastes.  The dogs and I provided moral support, from the couch, in front of the fire....

We buck our first rivet next weekend; the tail begins.  Woohoo!

Empennage Kit Arrived

The empennage kit has arrived, and as you can see, it is in the living room.  Mark inventoried all of the parts and we sorted and labeled rivets.  Today, we will build the workbench and move everything out to the garage.