Tonight I spent about 1.5 hours on riveting the right horizontal stabilizer. I am very close to getting these skins riveted on, and almost to the point of attaching the rear spar. I have decided to wait on attaching the rear spar until I can get an EAA Tech Counselor out to take a look at my work to see if I am on the right track, and that my rivets are looking OK.
I started this work session off my attaching HS-708 center rib, to HS-702 front spar and HS-707 nose rib using LP4-3 blind rivets. From doing this on the left side, I knew it was going to be tight, so I took my time and got them set. My hands were almost to large to work the pop rivet gun in that little space!
Next up was to rivet in the AN470AD4-4 rivets that attach the HS-706 end rib to the HS-702 front spar. These rivets set OK, but I did let the rivet gun jump a little and scratch my primer. Luckily it didn’t do any damage to the end rib other than cosmetic primer.
Then it was time to do the bulk of the work: Riveting HS-601pp to HS-702 and HS-708. Like on the left stab, I worked from the center outward to eliminate any oil-canning, and made sure to insert the single AN426AD3-4 rivet into the hole where HS-601pp (skin), HS-702 and Hs-708 meet. Once that guy was set, the rest of the rivets were AN426AD3-3.5. This turned out pretty well, and I didn’t have any dishing or denting. I also checked the rivets with a rivet gauge to make sure they were set correctly. I am finding that my “ear” is getting used to the sound of a correctly set rivet, and I am getting them at the perfect depth almost every time. Here is how the skin turned out:
I completed the whole bottom side of the right stab skin tonight. After setting those rivets, my left arm was pretty beat from holding that bucking bar, so I decided it best to quite for the night before I messed up that pretty skin. I will finish up the top side tomorrow, and that will have the skins riveted, save for the HS-00005, HS-00006 ribs and rear spar, which I will hold off on so that the Tech Counselor will be able to look inside the stab’s to inspect. Here’s all the photos from tonights work:
Here is the Google photos album link: https://goo.gl/photos/k3pWa5Hoduz2MCyf7
Hours Worked: 1.5