Disaster stikes the Left aileron - 3 hours

Well, I have gone and done it. Totally ruined my left aileron trying to rivet the skin to the main spar. What an awful area to try and rivet. The spar flange has a slight acute angle to it which presents a bit of a challenge to get the bucking bar at an angle to help sit flush with the rivets. I used just about every method I could think of to try and rivet these properly. I used a small oak shim in an attempt to prop up, or adjust the tungsten bucking bar to the appropriate angle. I've tried different bucking bars, different angles, different shims, taking angry, talking pleasant, massaging it, giving it a break, everything!!!! and in the end, every rivet shop head wants to dump to the same side every time. Worse than the right aileron.  Of course once a dimpled rivet hole has been dumped now the nightmare begins. Will it dump again, well chances of it going awry are growing. Too many times, now an opps rivet. ****! the oops rivet has dumped...They all dump in the same direction. After about 3 hours if consistently terrible rivets all dumped the same direction I have successfully ruined a potentially perfect aileron.

Today....building my plane has not brought joy to my life!!

Just a sampling of how things have gone astray....It all starts going downhill from here!

In retrospect I am trying to figure out why this is happening. I'm not sure if its a fitment issue with the three pieces, if I have a bucking bar angle problem, or am I simply pressing too hard with the rivet gun. Perhaps if I am pressing too hard with the gun, the angle inwards is going to increase that angle, lending itself to dumping those rivets down. The more I think about it, I bet that's exactly what happened!

Riveting the right aileron - 3 hours

Well...Having a difficult time riveting the top skins on the aileron to the spar. I have cut down the wood shim to lower the bucking bar which provides a much better angle to the rivet. When eyeing it up it is perfectly flat to the rivet.

But unfortunately the rivet has a tendency to dump down. I tried various configurations of the bucking bar, different shims, positions, ect. They all have a tenancy to slump the rivet down. I am puzzled. I finally defaulted back to the method I had used on the flaps and taped the end of the bar up to give proper offset.

This resulted in an acceptable rivet set. The tricky part is to set the rivets that are directly in line with the stiffeners. Seems that I may need to default back to the other bar setups to clear these.


Not the easiest riveting, but I am happy with how it turned out.

Begin assembly of the Ailerons - 4 hours

With everything primed, I am ready to begin assembly. I had borrowed a small space pop rivet tool which is very much needed to get the rivets into the front nose rib. I can imagine being able to do this with any other rivet puller.




Next I had clecoed the entire aileron together so I could get the nose ribs sitting proper to rivet them to the spar.
 
Bit of head scratching on how to set these, no way I want to pull out the double offset rivet set.
Fortunately my pneumatic alligator squeezer is perfect for this job. Takes a little bit of time to get it set up right. But it does a great job!




Since I am on a roll....Why not keep going. Next I need to set up the ailerons to rivet the top skins to the spar. So I set up some blocks and screwed the aileron to the them.

 Next I needed to set up the bucking bar for the required angle. I used my stubby tungsen bar and wood shim. The wood shim is a bit wide, so I will need to cut it down a tad to get a perpendicular plane on the rivet .

Dimpling and priming the Aileron - 5 hours

I quickly finished dimpling all the outstanding dimples on the ailerons. I used the DRDT every place I could, and the pneumatic squeezer for all the tough areas. For the curved portions of the skin I used the small diameter female die.
Next taking the same approach as documented by Mike Bullock on his RV build page, I used a 2x6 on edge and taped some dowels to it, this allows for the galvanized pipe and leading edge skin to sit nicely so I can begin dimpling the skin.

I quickly realized that using the CS4 male die on the rivet gin (with light pressure) was not the answer, the outer edges of the die mark the skin, its cosmetic, but doe not look great. I will have to buff these out... Grrrr!!! So I took the die off the rivet gun and dimpled them all by hand with a mallet on the rivet die holder. Few light taps does the job. But it is still easy to get that mark. Mental note, use a wooden dowel for the dimple hole....I suspect the pipe is just to hard and the curve and nature of the dimple contributes to those pesky marks.
 
I was now ready to prime. Everything got a nice scrub with 3m scotch brite and a good wipe with MEK. And next came primer.

Drilling the holes for CS4 rivets - 4 hours

In all my wisdom, I hadn't opened up the #40 holes in the bottom of the aileron for the CS4 rivets yet, so I spent a bunch of time re-celcoing all the ailerons together and then drilling out the bottom holes that will require the CS4 rivets. All of the holes where dimpled for #40 which is just fine....but drilling the larger hole in the dimple results in a very sharp edge of the protruding dimple. So again I needed to pull out my dremmel and buff each hole with 3M to smooth the sharp edges on the dimple holes. Extremely effective, but time consuming.

Mental note....Drill these holes #30 from the begining (Be sure to drill ONLY the correct holes) and dimple with the CS4 die. It saves time in the end.
  

Debur and edge prep of aileron parts - 5 hours

All of the prep work on the aileron parts needed to be done. I knew the nose ribs where going to take a lot of time and I wasn't looking forward to it. Before I dove into that I set up the drill press with the 120deg countersink bit and countersunk the galvanized pipe mounting holes. Again...I was careful to only countersink the front attachment holes. Next I decided to jump into the prep of the nose ribs.

First I used small files to break all of the rough edges, a vary tedious process with all the nooks and crannies. I then used a file to round out the curve on the front of the nose ribs. Careful not to remove to much material, just to break the segmented points. Once I was satisfied with the edges, I them pulled out my dremmel with a 1" square of scotch bride and I began to polish the edges, nooks and crannies.

Then I debured the holes and dimpled them. To dimple the holes in the curved edge, I used the small diameter female die on the pneumatic squeezer.

I then debured all the holes on the leading edge skin.
 
That's enough for a night. I'm full of 3M dust!

Finished the aileron push tubes - 6 hours

Bit of a long couple days. I've primed the outside of the tubes, and once dry I covered the primer with white automotive paint. I inserted the bearings and jam nuts in the tubes. Everything is identical to the when compared to the full size details on the plans.

More aileron push tubes - 6 hours

Using the V-shape block in the drill press, I began to drill the inserts in the push tubes. First I started off with #40 pilot holes, then I upsized the, to #30 holes.



Next I cut the steel aileron tubes to size.
Again, I used autocad to draw a template of where the holes needed to go and taped the template onto the rod.







It was now time to prime the insides of the tubes. I fastened a piece of scotch bright to a dowel and inserted it into the drill.  This polished and cleaned the inside of the tubes.

Once cleaned and ready. I taped all the holes and dumped wet primer in the tubes. I rolled them around a bit and then dumped the excess out. Next I wanted to get the inserts in the tubes before the primer dried. I used a gun and bar to set the steel tubes.

Started aileron push tubes - 2 hours

I started in on the aileron push tubes. There is a bit of controversy of the length on these. I suppose that I wont really know what the truth is until I install the wings on the plane. I decided to carry on with the plans and see how it goes. If I have to redo them in a year or two....oh well.

I cut them down with a hack saw, and then carefully took them down to the appropriate dimension with the sanding station. I had build a jig to ensure that all was level and square.

 Next I need to figure out where to put the holes in the push tubes. I measured the inserts that go into the tubes, they insert 0.5" so the rivets would need to be installed 0.25" in from the edge of the tube.
 
I decided it was best to draw out a template on autocad which would help show the 0.25" offset as well as the proper offsets around the tube.




Now I could easily see where each hole needed to go.

Mounting the pitot heat controller - 3 hours

One of the ideas that I liked while researching other builds was mounting the heat controller in the bay beside the aileron bellcrank. I figure the best way to align things was to cut out a template and use that as a drill guide on the wing rib rather than try to work with the actual heat controller.


Once I was satisfied with the alignment and the position, I drilled holes for #6 screws. Next I had given some thought to how I wanted the controller to be mounted to the rib. Most have screws but are accessed from the inside. I figured if I installed nutplates on the controller, I could easily install/remove the controller by having screws accessible from the access plate. So that's the direction I headed.

More Pitot work - 3 hours

More monkeying around with the pitot. Ive pulled in the lines and through the new bell crank bracket that I had made. At first it looks good, but then I see the top most line is awfully close to the bellcrank.



I may need to reroute that topmost line down a hole. The clearance is great if I did it that way. I also notice that the AN509-6R6 screws are just a bit too long for the pitot so I will revise these to AN509-6R5 screws (5/16" length)


I took the opportunity to prime the countersunk holes in the mast.

Looking good.