Well, that hoped-for long evening in the garage didn’t really happen. I was still able to get a bit done, but I was limited by my need for (and therefore availability of) a helping hand.
I started with riveting the HS-707 nose rib on the starboard side. I wanted to try my alternate method of starting with the forwardmost rivet, but that didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Even clecoing only the hole just aft of that pesky bugger, the rib didn’t want to sit flush against the skin. Oh well. So i went back to what I did before and started at the back, working my way forward. I made a brief try at shooting these rivets solo, which was a bad idea. The angle meant that I’d have to shoot with my left hand and buck with my right. First rivet went great, but I somehow set the second one with the shop head sticking a good bit out of the skin. I suspect that I had a tendency to put too much pressure on the bucking bar and not enough on the rivet gun..so yeah, left-handed riveting is apparently not wise. I got that SOB drilled out-thankfully without damaging the skin- and waited for help on the rest. Once Josie was able to help, we got the rest of the nose rib rivets set. It was again getting late by this time, so I decided to clean up, cleco the front spar in place, and leave the rest for tomorrow.
We’re going to be out of town again this weekend, so I feel compelled to make the most of of the weekday nights. I was a little bummed that I didn’t get more done tonight, but things are still coming together. After a lot of head-banging, some ruined parts, and lots of steps forward and backward, I finally have something nearing a finished airplane part.
Josie grabbed a photo of me clecoing everything together so I could jump right back in tomorrow evening (I seem to be concentrating really hard!):
