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Bracket Match Drilled Without Spacers

jwilbur

Well Known Member
I match drilled the angle on my torque tube brackets to the rib's web without the spacer between the brackets. This causes the holes in the rib's flange to not line up anymore when the bracket is attached to the web.

Naturally, I didn't notice this until a lot of rivets were set (but thankfully, I noticed now and not while trying to get skins in place). After hurling a few insults at myself, I began setting up to drill out all the offending rivets, but decided first to take a breath and ask if anyone thinks there might be another option. This bracket assembly was a real pain to get in place to begin with and I've read on some build logs that others have had issues with this same bracket assembly. My error was just stupidity, but maybe it's not as bad as I first thought.

If I align to the holes in the web, the flange holes are too far off to just drill out for oops rivets, but could I match drill the flange of the bracket to the flange of the rib? This would leave big figure-8s in the bracket which I could cover with a doubler plate on the inside of the bracket flange?

Or I could alight the bracket to the rib's flanges and ignore the holes now in the web and drill new ones through the angle and the web? I lean against this. I'd rather not drill extra holes in the rib anywhere.

It's probably best to just order the new angle and redo it. But if I can avoid drilling out these 15 rivets (same error on both wings), and potentially mangling the holes, it might be worth pursuing a safe alternative.

I appreciate any suggestions.

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Drill out the rivets. It will only take a short time and you will never worry about it. It is just not worth trying a work around for such an inexpensive piece of angle. If you are uncomfortable drilling the rivets out, ask an experienced friend to come over and help you or practice on another piece. Those universal head rivets are much easier to remove than the CS. You will be happy that you did not compromise your build standards when it is all done.
Bill
 
I basically agree with Bill on this. I'm still trying to figure out how you drilled the angles without the spacer and didn't have a mismatch in the rib web when you added it. But, assuming the rib web holes are still #30, then fabricate new angles, cleco the bracket assembly (with spacer but without the angles) to the flanges, and then clamp and drill the new angles. That should fix your problem as cheaply as possible. While I swear sometimes when Van's sequence has me driving difficult rivets, in this case their assembly instructions make sense.
 
Thanks

Thanks guys. I do agree completely. Just thought I'd get some other opinions before drilling.

Thanks again.
 
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The true cause...

The true cause of my troubles were that I riveted the wrong face of the angle to the bracket (on both sides). Upon drilling it all out and flipping the angle, everything aligns correctly. This illustrates that it's not only important to mark your pieces and orientations before priming but it's also equally important to remember what the markings mean...

Thanks to those who replied - especially flion who indicated that something didn't seem to add up in my explanation.
 
Been there, done that ... probably again tomorrow.:rolleyes: Glad you got it resolved painlessly.
 
I don't know about you guys, but I had to take a rubber mallet and hammer/force the brackets into the ribs to get the holes on the ends to line up. Did anyone else have this problem?
 
Unwieldy.

It's been awhile since I fabricated those inboard ribs with the attached brackets and I do remember them to be particularly unwieldy.
I remember I wished for those parts not to be prepunched so you could make them fit nicely and drill. In the end you want a precisely fitting part and not one that was easy to fit.
 
I used a file to radius the bracket assembly to nestle into the radius of the rib web to flange transition to get it to fit. Using a hammer (even a rubber mallet) is not the best idea as forcing the parts can cause cracks or other problems.
 
Try adjusting flutes.

I found that my fluting of the rib in an earlier step was contributing to the dificulty. By adjusting the flutes between the flange holes where the bracket fits I was able to get it pretty close - close enough that the 3/32 clecos easily fit. I still have a little concern that when the rib is aligned with the skin, the bracket holes may de-align themselves with the rib a bit, in which case, I'm prepared to expand to 1/8 rivets in those spots. But hopefully this won't be an issue.
 
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