Left elevator prep work

Darren was away this weekend so I did a few things to get us ready for work on Tuesday night.  I dimpled and deburred a few of the parts.  With the exception of the skin, I prepped and primed all the parts.  On Tuesday we'll finish dimpling, prep and prime the skins.  If there's enough time, we'll start assembling the right elevator. 

Left Elevator Progress

Tonight was a mix of tasks.  We manufactured an attach gusset (it reinforces the joint between the rib and the trim tab spar).  We finished match drilling the last few holes, deburred and dimpled the ribs.  We machine countersunk the trim tab spar.  We also begain prepping the finished parts for priming.  We have a few more parts (the spars and the skins) to dimple and then it will be time to prime and assemble the elevator.

We noticed we have not created the gusset piece yet. 

The specifications.

Scott working on creating the gusset. 

Darren showing off is skills gained as part of the government workforce.... Looking busy... but what is he doing????

Finished Right Elevator Assembly

Today we spent time doing the final assembly of the right elevator (for those who are watching closely we moved our building day to Sunday this week).  We first attached the main spar to the top of the skin.  The elevator skins are pre-bent so this was actually quite difficult as we needed to hold the skins apart to rivet the spar and skins together.  We next back riveted the stiffners to the bottom skin before riveting the main spar to the bottom skin.  We did this with a combination of solid rivets and pop rivets.  We used our new pneumatic pop-rivet gun (a cheap investment but really cool) which made this step a breeze.  Finally we riveted the ribs to the skins.

Before we left for the day we brought the left elevator down and got ourselves oriented for the work on Tuesday. 

The new pneumatic pop/blind rivet gun.  A Princess Auto special. 

Scott setting up a jig to hold skin open while we rivet the skin to the skeleton.

The skin clamped into place.

 Scott operating the new pop riveter.... It is unecessary but a nice to have.

Time to pull out the Left elevator.

Start of right elevator assembly

Tonight we started the final assembly of the right elevator.  The first step was to attach the hinge reinforcement plates and the nut plates.  We next attached the bracket and riveted the top stiffners to the skin.   Finally we assembled the counter balance ribs and attached the skin.  this was a logical spot to stop while we take a few weeks off.  Our next update will be on May 24th.

Darren squeezing a rivet on one of the hinge reinforcment plates. 

Scott squeezing a rivet. 

Scott performing some riveting on the elevator skeleton.  We bought the longeron yoke for our squeezer so we should be able to avoid using the rivet gun for the similar peices on the left elevator.....  

 The skin after the top stiffeners have been attached.

Skeleton assembled, and some work finished up on the skin.... 

Right elevator primed

Tonight we added an extra few hours to wrap up the priming of all the parts for the right elevator.  Nothing too exciting but absolutely necessary.  We'll be able to start assembly of the right elevator on Tuesday.

Rudder Assembly and Right Elevator Prep

There's not a lot to say for the work today.  The plan was to assemble the rudder.  Before we started we primed the counterbalance skin where the main rudder skin overlaps it.  There was quite a lot of riveting to do but the rivet squeezer saved us a lot of time.  We assembled as much of the rudder as possible (had to leave the trailing edge and one of the bottom sides open for inspection).  The last thing we have to do is to roll the leading edge.  

Before we quit for the day we finished dimpling the right elevator skin. 

Scott performing some assembly work.

 The skeleton awating the attachment of the skins.

 Darren rereading the instructions to make sure he didn't miss anything.

 Scott working with the pneumatic rivet squeezer.

Darren standing next to an almost completed rudder.