Tonight I continued work on the Elevators. First I had to trim some of the material off the trim tab skins. Then I made the bends in the left elevator skins, where they overlap near the trim tab. Only I bent both skins in the wrong direction…so I had to take my time and fix that before moving on. Then I finished off the night with clecoing both the elevators together to be setup for the next steps tomorrow.
Tonight I started work on the Elevators. There was a lot of prep work on small parts tonight. First I had to cut and separate the forward elevator rib halves. Then I cut and separated the rib shear clips. Finally I cut and sanded the foam aft elevator ribs.
The forward elevator ribs before being cut and deburred. Notice the black pen lines, they indicate where the ribs need to be separated The rib shear clips, ready to be separated and trimmed The shear clips after being cut and separated Foam block with the paper template for some of the aft elevator ribs glued on with spray adhesive The foam ribs, but out on the bandsaw and sanded, using the paper template as a guide
Today I finished riveting the Horizontal Stabilizer. Zak came out and hung out for a few hours and tried his hand at riveting. Today became one of those trying days when missing a simple detail in the instructions results in almost two hours of rework. I ended up riveting the rear spar in upside, and caught after setting the 200 rivets that hold it in…so it was a nice long session of drilling out rivets before re-riveting the rear spar back in, this time in the correct orientation.
Today I countersunk the Horizontal Stabilizer spars. 200 holes each, for a total of 400 countersunk holes. Then I got started on riveting the Horizontal Stab together. I ran out of steam about half way through. I should be able to wrap up the riveting tomorrow.
The rib and spar structure riveted together The Horizontal Stab in the cradles I built. The riveting is about half way done at this point.
Today I dimpled and primed the Horizontal Stabilizer skins. I also primed the remaining ribs. A little more countersinking and I’ll be ready to rivet everything together.
Wendy came down tonight and helped me dimple the skins. It's much easier with a second person.
I started the day off building cradles that Van’s calls for. There used to hold the Horizontal Stabilizer for final assembly. After that I riveted the doublers onto the front spar. I finished up the night deburring and dimpling all the ribs. Tomorrow I’ll get them primed and ready for riveting.
The Horizontal Stabilizer cradles. They'll get clamped to the workbench during final assembly The front spar with the doublers riveted on The ribs all dimpled and deburred and ready for priming The rest of the ribs ready for priming
Tonight I continued work on the Horizontal Stabilizer. Most of the work was on the forward spar. Similar to the work I did yesterday on the rear spar. A lot of back drilling, deburing and countersink. I managed to get all the parts primed before calling it a night. Should be able to rivet the fwd spar components together tomorrow.
Rear spar and doubler after being primed Spar reinforcements after being primed
Today I started working on the Horizontal Stabilizer. Most of the work was on the rear spar. It involved match drilling and the doubler and the spar. Then I primed both of them and riveted them together. Afterwards I match drilled and riveted on the hinge brackets.
Deburring the rear spar The doubler riveted to the rear spar I used the C-Frame to rivet the hinge brackets on The rear spar, doubler and hinges riveted on, with all parts primed.
Today I finished riveting the rudder together. All that’s left is the do the fiberglass fairings. Vans has you circle back at the end and do the fairings on all the control surfaces last. I like that idea, I want the limit the number of times I have to mess around with fiberglass. Next up is the Horizontal Stabilizer.
The rudder all riveted together Another picture of the rudder all riveted together
Today I finished dimpling the rudder parts and countersunk the trailing edge wedge. Next I back riveted the rudder ribs halves on to the corresponding skin. Tomorrow I’ll tackle the dredged trailing edge wedge riveting
A bazillion countersinks had to be machined into both sides of the wedge The rib halves and shear clips riveted to the skin