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  #1  
Old 07-24-2013, 08:12 AM
krueger44 krueger44 is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: West Hartford, CT
Posts: 21
Default RV-7 forward fuselage floor stiffeners

Any suggestions/experience relative to reworking the joggles on the floor stiffners to improve the fit up?
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  #2  
Old 07-24-2013, 12:11 PM
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BSwayze BSwayze is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Molalla, Oregon
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I have been very impressed and complimentary toward Vans in regard to the quality of their kits. The quality and engineering is outstanding for the most part. Having said that, these stiffeners, and some others like it, leave a lot to be desired. This is the poorest-made part I've run into so far. They suck. The ends are lapped up on top of another angle and they've tried to joggle the end in an unnatural way so it can rest on the crossmember and still lie flush against the skin below. How are you supposed to rivet this to a flat skin without distorting it?



The problem is obvious:



So what did I do? I clamped the stiffener to my backriveting plate on my workbench. The end is lapped up on top of a scrap piece of angle that's the same thickness as the bulkhead in the fuselage that this part will be riveted to. I used this big hammer and my biggest, baddest bucking bar to beat the **** out of this part to try and flatten out the bottom while maintaining and improving the joggle on the end.



I improved it enough to flatten it out so it won't distort the skin, but I still wasn't happy. You can also see that I tried putting in a flute so the material on the vertical side of the angle has somewhere to go as you try to bend it upwards into a decent joggle. I wasn't totally happy with this either. I don't like the look of the flute and I wouldn't do it again. I'm not sure it helped.



In the end, I wasn't happy with the appearance I ended up with, but I did at least get it to lie flat and not distort the skin. Then, rivet it together and build on. It's about the best that can be done, unless you have some very elaborate and expensive metal-forming equipment of some kind.
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  #3  
Old 07-24-2013, 12:41 PM
rv7charlie rv7charlie is offline
 
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Location: Pocahontas MS
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It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure mine looked a lot better than that. Call Van's.

(There are other areas where I've had major complaints, but not there.)

Charlie
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Old 07-24-2013, 11:53 PM
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joe_rainbolt joe_rainbolt is offline
 
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Location: Northern California
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Default Me too

I'll have to second what Bruce said above. Mine looked exactly the same as his did. There are other locations besides the floor stiffeners which also require a joggle in the aluminum angle, such as the aft end of the F-719 forward longerons. On my slow build fuselage, I had to take a hammer to these as well and it wasn't particularly pretty.
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  #5  
Old 07-25-2013, 05:14 AM
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BSwayze BSwayze is offline
 
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Back when I did this, I wondered if I had perhaps been unlucky to get a bad part. Since I live close to Vans, I drove down there and showed them this part. They were nice enough to walk me out into the warehouse where the box of these stiffeners was on the shelf, and allowed me to pick through them to see if I could find a better one. They were all the same. And all just like the one in the photos above. I hope by now perhaps things have improved, but since this question came up on this thread, my hunch is it's still the same.
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  #6  
Old 07-25-2013, 07:23 AM
noelf noelf is offline
 
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On my -6A, Van's directions had me cut off an inch or so of the vertical part of the angle, and then form the jogel. The bottom of the angle stayed flat against the floor, and the jogled part stayed flat on the lower firewall angles.
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  #7  
Old 07-25-2013, 09:26 AM
krueger44 krueger44 is offline
 
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Location: West Hartford, CT
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Thanks for the input. I think I may go with a combo of flute and material removal, i.e. try to maintain as much stiffness as I can.

Rick Krueger
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  #8  
Old 07-26-2013, 04:15 AM
hayabusa hayabusa is offline
 
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Have you tried taping a steel spacer to either side of it as a forming die and then clamping it in your bench vice (with soft jaws of course) to form it?

Last edited by hayabusa : 07-26-2013 at 04:22 AM.
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  #9  
Old 07-26-2013, 05:18 AM
Loman Loman is offline
 
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Location: Dublin, Ireland
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Default Check the EAA video on making Joggles

Quote:
Originally Posted by hayabusa View Post
Have you tried taping a steel spacer to either side of it as a forming die and then clamping it in your bench vice (with soft jaws of course) to form it?
There is an EAA Homebuilders Hints video using this kind of technique except it concerns sheet material rather than angles. Still, the technique might be of benefit, especially since the joggle is already formed (but mis-shaped). It can't hurt to try it before resorting to your hammer or hacksaw.

My own were quite good as delivered and certainly nothing like those in the pictures, so Vans are definitely capable of doing these right. I don't understand how their entire stock, as described by Bruce, could fall so far short of their own best standard.
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  #10  
Old 07-26-2013, 07:41 AM
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Lemmingman Lemmingman is offline
 
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I'll be getting to this step shortly after Oshkosh. I'm going to go work on my brakes and rudder pedals today, if I can. I just went upstairs and checked my stiffeners; sure enough they look the same. Thanks for the tip Bruce.
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