Whee, time to break out the C-frame! Well, actually, first I got out the edge rolling tool and put a little roll in the edge of the top skins that will overlap the bottom skins. Then, since I already had the squeezer out with the dimple dies in it, I dimpled the spots that weren’t good for the C-frame. Then I went back and C-framed the majority of the rivet holes.
Dimpled skins:
I didn’t really intend to start doing any riveting tonight, but I figured I’d at least read over the instructions and get an idea of the procedure. I’ve seen where other builders weren’t happy with how the instructions are here, and at first glance, I agree. The instructions basically just say to cleco everything together minus the spar, then start riveting the skins to the ribs. But doing it that way would remove access to rivet the internal ribs to the pseudo spar on the bottom skin.
So far, I think my general plan will be to first rivet the internal ribs to the bottom skin with the top skin not in place. This will allow good access to shoot the skin rivets and squeeze the spar rivets. Next I can cleco the top skin in place and shoot those skin-rib rivets. The rivets joining the top and bottom skins should be lots of fun, there’s not much space to get in there and buck. I’ve seen others use a back rivet plate as a bucking bar back there; I guess that’s probably what I’ll try to do.
I clecoed the internal ribs to the bottom skin while thinking this through. Oh look, here’s a picture:
At this point, I decided to instead go ahead and rivet the reinforcement plates to the spars and inboard end ribs. Fairly straightforward stuff here, though I came frighteningly close to riveting the spar reinforcement to the wrong side of the spar when I did the first one…
Inboard spar ends with reinforcement angles:
Inboard ribs with reinforcement plates, also showing the nutplate inside the rib where the actuator will attach:
And now I’m going to do some research to get a better handle on how to approach riveting. Hopefully I can get started on that tomorrow night…