Thursday, November 26, 2015

Began riveting VS#2 - 4 hours



I fitted/riveted the VS ribs and spars. Things started out well, except for when I tried to rivet the VS-202, VS-704, VS-705. This is a very difficult area to rivet without help. I tried to use a straight rivet set, which set the center rivet well, but its short so I could not reach the outer rivets. I tried to use double offset rivet set but the rivet wants to fold to the side. Had to drill them out a couple of times, at which point I gave up. I was fortunate to drill the shop heads off and punch the rivet shanks out which resulted in very clean holes still. I eventually bent the VS-705 up out of the way a bit, taped the short straight rivet set into the rivet gun, and set the rivets.
Note to self....Order a long straight rivet set. Would have saved much grief.
I then cleco'd the skin to the structure. Again...Like the first empennage, its very difficult to get the structure in place with minimal scraping to the skin. I did much better this time.