Rudder Stiffeners

Pic #1 - Right Skin stiffeners lined up after using them on the new bench sander. The bench sander is my new GO TO tool!

Pic #2 - I need another identical table. One for the power tools, and one to fabricate. Also shown is the new Bandsaw.

Pic #3 - My faithful partner, Nicholas, cleco'ing the stiffeners in place.

Starting Rudder

Pic #1 - Stiffeners cut to size

Pic #2 - Marking areas to cut and remove

Pic #3 - rounding and smooting corners

Pic #4 - lots of careful work here

I'm sure there's an easier way, but I cut the stiffeners using snips, and then had to round all corners. A little done on the grinding stone and then finished up with the 3M Scotchbrite wheel. This is easy to mess up...

Stabilizer Complete

Pic #1 - Primed Vertical Stabiziler

Pic #2 - Cleco'ing Vertical Stab

Pic #3 - Middle rivet is back side of a Blind rivet, compared to the other unset Blind rivets.

Pic #4 - Complete Vertical Stab

I took the time to prep and prime the areas that were not primed by the previous builder. He only primed the mating surfaces, but I went ahead and primed everything I could. I like taking the rest of the vinyl off when the parts are complete... Shiney Metal!!

Vertical Stabilizer

Pic #1 - Isabella helping to clear debris

Pic #2 - Reviewing the Build Binder/Blue prints and work already competed. I still find it helpful to highlight the parts in Yellow on the Blue Prints as I read the directions. It helps me remember what part numbers go to...

Pic #3 - The previous builder only primed the mating surfaces. I wanted to prime most everything, especially structural components. I cleaned and scotchbrited, and wiped down the Vertical Stab.

Pic #4 - Nick and Isabella liked blowing the dust away prior to my final wipe down. The primer went on well. Very light coats to begin with seem to do the trick best.

Pic #5 - Vertical Stab fully primed.

Stabilizer Complete

I finished the Stabilizer today. I received the Stab mostly complete, but the satisfaction came in an actual complete part as well as learning a few more skills. I needed to use the Rivet Gun for the first time and learned how to drill out a bad rivet. I also installed a Blind Rivet aka Pop Rivet (guess why they call it that!)

Nick and Isabella still show interest in helping out! They're happy rivet-ers!

Pic #1 - Nick installing rivets

Pic #2 - Blind/Pop rivets ready to install

Pic #3 - Complete Stabilizer, removed protective blue vinyl

Pic #4 - Using a rivet gauge to check my first rivets

Dupli-Color Primer

I had an email discussion with Eric, a fellow builder, and he turned me on to this product. I'll try it out, and it looks good...

It was about $5.99 can at Checker's Auto Store.

Learning the Tools

I want to complete the HS, and after taking the step by step instructions, there's really only the riveting of the Rear Spar to the skins and a couple of ribs left to do. I really want to thoroughly complete one section before moving on to the next, so I need to learn to rivet.

Actually, I need to learn a lot, so I began with the bare basics... My experience really shows that you learn by doing and Anyone can learn to do this... I had scrap Aluminum to experiment with.

Object: rivet two pieces of Aluminum together

Difficulty Level: Geez!!! It shouldn't be this hard...

The rivets needed to finish the HS are AN426AD3-3.5

So, I get some of those rivets out, two pieces of Aluminum out

Which drill bit is correct? refer to the Vans Binder, and Aircraft Construction book to make sure... Well, its a .980something, or a #40 or almost a 3/32th

Then I want to dimple the thin Aluminum, so I know there's this thing called a DIE... Look in Avery's Catalogue for a picture, find it in my tool box welded onto a vise grip, ah, hand dimple die! Works well!!!

I can't hand dimple die the second piece of Aluminum, its too thick... Countersink it, can't get the 100 degree countersink pointy part thru the #40 hole...??? whatda?? figure it out tomorrow, I really want to rivet something... So, I manually countersink with a deburring tool.

Pneumatic rivet gun... read the instruction, try, fail, try, fail, hey this one ain't to bad!! purposely make a few bad to understand the why, and try the rivet gauge thing....

This all took time as I read all the tool manuals...!! My daughter Isabella & Mommy kept me motivated.