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When I'm tired I'll stick to either stopping altogether or, if I'm too tired after a long day at work, I'll do things like peel blue vinyl off of parts or deburring parts (no power tools!).
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I decided early on that there's a no-alcohol rule for anything other than shop cleanup, vinyl removal and sheet metal edge deburring. I may let a beer slowly get warm while doing those things... for anything else, the opening of a beer or the arrival of a non-helper signifies the end of the work session. When my feet or back get tired, it's time to knock off because my patience gets short and I'm much more likely to decide that "airworthy" is good enough. |
I can't imagine it's possible to build an airplane and not -- somewhere -- read what constitutes a properly set rivet.
The problem here isn't that one particular bucking bar was used or one wasn't used. The problem here is that the builder didn't care and had no sense or interest in building an airplane properly and setting an acceptable standard of performance. Ain't nothing you can buy gonna fix that. |
Goodness
I probably set 1000 rivets before I stopped checking each one with a rivet gauge. Even now when I haven't riveted in a while I'll check the first dozen or so. I will throw in a CherryMax rivet in those few spots where I can't seem to get an adequate set.
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Seriously, I am a bit paranoid about foreign object damage. I wanted to be sure a dropped rivet wasn't hiding inside a structure, where by Murphys Law it would jam a linkage somehow. |
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I have no dog in this particular fight since I'm building another aircraft type. I learned to rivet many years ago in a shop doing structural re-builds. When our QA inspector looked at my work one day and didn't find a single bad rivet I was so proud! Sometimes I thought he just circled rivets to make me mad, but in the long run he drove home some valuable lessons.
Fast forward a few decades. We now have aircraft like the RV12 where the largest portion of the rivets are pulled rivets. Pulled rivets are clearly NOT fool-proof, however they are somewhat more idiot-resistant. Perhaps there is a segment of the population which, upon inspection of their work, be advised to concentrate on a "pulled rivet" airplane. Then again, with human personalities being what they are, the folks who will put together an airplane with multiple rivet deficiencies are likely the folks who either would not seek the counsel of more experienced builders, or would not accept that counsel if it was given. Without doubt we must be vigilant and this discussion thread is a good opportunity to keep ourselves on our toes. Whenever I see where somebody else has screwed up I take that as an opportunity to ask myself if I have done the same or similar. It's this sharing of knowledge that makes the aviation community a true community. |
I have very similar rules as those expressed above. I never use a rivet once it's taken a trip to the floor. There's just too much opportunity to damage a rivet by stepping on it, rolling over it with my stool, etc. Rivets are cheap, mistakes can be costly.
I also struggled with deciding when I was too tired to work early in my project. The typical day then was go to work early, leave work early in the afternoon, then work on the project into the evening. I discovered the hard way that when I got fatigued it only took me seconds to make mistakes that required hours to repair. My pattern now (with thanks to my flexible work schedule) is to get up early and get 1-2 hrs in the shop before I go to work. I find that within 10 minutes of getting up, I can have a cup of coffee and be in the shop completely alert and can work with laser focus over that 1-2 hr period. Even on the weekends it's easy to keep this early morning shop schedule, and I've come to covet my early mornings as part of my daily routine. |
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Everyone should be paranoid about foreign object damage (FOD). During a routine flight control check while taxiing out in an MD-88 I felt significant binding in the elevator. A week later I called the maintenance department to find out the cause of the binding. The airplane had just returned from depot level maintenance and the shop ends of some drilled out rivets jammed between the control cable pulleys! I always vacuum out my airplane at every opportunity in every crevice. |
Condition of Builder
I don't go anywhere near my table saw after about...8pm. I still have all my fingers except when I miscount them.
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