To match drill or not?

[robertahegy]

I drilled and deburred and made sure everything fit properly before riveting. That's what Van's intended and I agree. The new RV-12 has the holes to finished size and uses pop rivets that don't need dimpling.


Roberta

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by rv7charlie

I've heard that the RV-12 kit instructions just say to assemble & rivet (no match-drilling). Anyone know for sure?

Charlie

That is the process for the RV-12, but it has two major differences to the other kits.
The skin holes do not get dimpled, and blind rivets (which have less expansion pressure) are used.

[LifeofReiley]

The only way... match drill, debur, then countersink or dimple. This is the standard and MUCH preferred practice.

[Huck]

At the tail school they taught me to drill, then ream, then deburr & dimple.

Does anyone else drill and then ream?

[burgundyja]

you need another choice on the poles. drill, debur then debur again because you cant remeber what you already did last week then dimple, rivet, then drill out the rivets then rivet again and last have a beer. or 2

[allbee]

Originally Posted by Huck

At the tail school they taught me to drill, then ream, then deburr & dimple.

Does anyone else drill and then ream?

The way I see it, you are doing a double duty. Second, by putting that drill bit in there first, you are messing up the hole. The reamer does a beautiful job and should be done as a stand alone. Now if you are doing a brand new hole, I would drill undersize than use the reamer to bring it to the right size.

[Kahuna]

You guys crack me up. Allow me to stirr the pot a little more.
1. There is a reason that the cracks introduced during the dimpling of these undersized holes will NEVER amount to anything. Do you know what it is?
2. There is a reason that the supplier of the materials undersizes these holes and wants you to follow the process they have laid out. Do you know what it is?


Rubber stamping a party line does nothing to further the discussion. Many RV have been built and flown for thousands of hours and did not follow the manufacturers reccommendations on MANY things. These kits have been further developed through the efforts on many that DID NOT follow anyone elses way of of doing things.

Discussing the merits of those deviations is a worth while cause. How about bringing science, facts, experience, and experiments to the table.

All in good fun.

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by allbee

The way I see it, you are doing a double duty. Second, by putting that drill bit in there first, you are messing up the hole. The reamer does a beautiful job and should be done as a stand alone. Now if you are doing a brand new hole, I would drill undersize than use the reamer to bring it to the right size.

IMHO, this is overkill.

How many airliners, Cessnas, Pipers are built with just the standard drill and deburr method vs. drill, ream, and deburr? I would suspect almost all are done with just the drill & deburr.

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by Kahuna

How about bringing science, facts, experience, and experiments to the table.

Good idea Mike...but you did none of those with the information you included in your post .

I know you have experience... but no one has experience with what will show up on an RV after 20 years when the pilot of a dimple die set has been driven into thousands of holes that it would not fit.

Once again going on record that I think dimpling without final drilling is a bad idea. This results in driving a die pilot into a rough sheared un-debbured hole (stretching it) and then dimpling it (stretching it more).

Match drilling...thats builders choice. Probably doesn't matter (most of the time )

[Webb]

Come on folks.....it's called MATCH DRILLING for a reason.

You have 2 different pieces of metal that have been punched and no guarantee they will line up 100% absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, perfect. Guess what, you get a chance to make them mate nice and even.

Just for kicks and giggles, please be sure you put on the for sale sign that this plane has not been matchdrilled and see if your buyer still wants it.