Monday, June 26, 2017

Rivited the 2nd left aileron skin to the spar - 3 hours

In order to attempt the riveting of the 2nd aileron skin i decided the best course of action was to call in some experienced help. I asked my friend Mike who is an AME to come give me a hand bucking the rivets. Sure enough, we ran into the issue of the rivets wanting to slump straight away. We drilled a couple out and tried again. Yup, they have a tenancy to want to slump. We double checked everything we could, the bucking bar is nice and straight but just not bucking good.

We then decided to brace the aileron with a framework to help alleviate and bending while riveting. We suspect that the forces placed on the aileron while trying to buck is bending/tipping the aileron enough to affect how straight the rivet is with the bucking bar. 

The frame work certainly helps a lot, rivets went together nice and straight. However we found towards the middle of the aileron the there is a tendency again for the rivets to slump. So, we decided to back rivet these with a C-frame rivet set and mike on the bucking bar on the exposed side. We did a partial set of the rivet and then switched back to the bucking bar inside and rivet gun outside with the flush set to complete the rivet buck. Worked like a charm. I am very satisfied with the result. Very good rivets.

I am all ready for pre-close inspection