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First mistake

D

daviid

Well Known Member
While dimpling away on the VS Skin, I got a little excited and with about 6 holes left, dimpled one of the holes on the bottom the plans say to not dimple. Not to be stifled by this, I decided I was going to pound it back with my rivet gun. In a additional stroke of brilliance, I decided to use a bucking bar on top of the dimple. This caused a small crease, I want to say less then 2 inches long. It doesn't seem to bad, but im curious if I should replace the skin

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I don't think its blatantly obvious that is there, but if I look for it, I can see it
 
daviid said:
While dimpling away on the VS Skin, I got a little excited and with about 6 holes left, dimpled one of the holes on the bottom the plans say to not dimple. Not to be stifled by this, I decided I was going to pound it back with my rivet gun. In a additional stroke of brilliance, I decided to use a bucking bar on top of the dimple. This caused a small crease, I want to say less then 2 inches long. It doesn't seem to bad, but im curious if I should replace the skin

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I don't think its blatantly obvious that is there, but if I look for it, I can see it
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I would not replace the skin unless you absolutely *must* build the perfect RV-10. If you go that route, please send me all of your cast-off's, because you'll have enough discards to build an extra airplane.

If the crease is an "innie", your painter will be able to fix it with ease. An "outtie" will be more noticeable. Next time you make an accidental dimple, use your squeezer and a pair of flat sets to undimple it.
 
There is a fiberglass fairing that will cover the lower inch or so of the vs, so no sweat. You are leaving the hole undimpled because it will eventually have a #6 nutplate behind it that will allow you to secure the fairing.
 
Thanks guys, I was more concerned from the structural point of view. Seems like I was going to go bonkers for nothing
 
An engineer, one I had great respect for, had this saying in a plaque on his wall: "In our pursuit of perfection, we oft mar what is well." I think it is from Shakespeare, King Lear "Striving to better, oft we mar what?s well."

You can decide what will solidify this lesson so that your building habits and procedure avoids such events in the future. I think this is why the emp section on most planes has the most "blemish cream" (high build primer) under the paint. I go a lot slower now and think several steps ahead. It is not always enough.

Happy building.
 
It's hard to tell from your photo, but I would make sure that there are no fractures in the metal. Look very closely with a magnifying glass. If you don't see any then build on.
 
aturner said:
There is a fiberglass fairing that will cover the lower inch or so of the vs, so no sweat. You are leaving the hole undimpled because it will eventually have a #6 nutplate behind it that will allow you to secure the fairing.
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Doesn't the fairing flange go underneath the aluminum skin in the area...thus not covering up the blemish?

Either way, I wouldn't worry about it unless the skin is fractured.

David
 
Replace it. The integrity of the metal is compromised. Hide it and you won't see it crack later on.
My 2 cents but I'm flying with no worries.
 
I called Van's one time about a similar kind of mistake. His answer..."you're not building the Space Shuttle"...keep building.
 
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