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mis-drilled skin hole

dritt06

I'm New Here
This morning I was finishing up drilling the HS skin and managed to mess up a hole through the skin and HS-702. It was one of the holes that was pre-punched in the skin but not in the spar. I attribute it to a bad drill bit that needed replacing several holes ago. Anyways, my question is how to proceed with this hole. Is this a good candidate for an oops rivet where a bigger hole will eliminate most of the damage in the skin? Or is it something that can be sanded out and then proceed with a normal -3 rivet? Picture is attached but no guarantees it works the first time. I'm still struggling with getting these image links to work. Thanks in advance for any tips.

Dustin

AF1QipNdyP3D3NyA9rX0hdIIUHQTWtmwiA-F_91UVvJi


Another Link here that might work:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UqfMA1tjvjE3rCai7
 
Hard to tell the damage from the photo, but it does look minor and if a #30 drill cleans up the hole on both the skin and the understructure, while maintaining edge distance on the flange underneath, then a NAS 1097 (oops) rivet would work fine. Otherwise you could clean up the holes as best you can and add a rivet each side of the hole in question.

Van's approves both repair methods in various similar applications but it would be best to check with them for your own peace of mind at this early stage in the build.

Post your results for our future reference!
 
Agree with NZRV8 that It hard to see what the mistake was from the picture. The picture looks as though the hole in the spar flange isn't even to the final size of the hole in the skin yet. If that were the case, the fix is trivial, just upsize the hole to the required #40.

What exactly was the mistake?
 
Blue film

Hi you really need to remove the blue film to give a better shot of this. Most people use a hot soldering iron to cut a strip 1/2 inch from the rivet edges. Do not press on the iron just lightly pass it over the film

From what I can see to hole is oval and an oops or an mk319bs may sort it. I usually try the my first as it is 7/64 rather than 1/8th.
 
I had a similar mistake except mine was due to a dimple 8. Vans suggested cleaning up the hold to make sure the edges were smooth and then placing a rivet on either side of the error. I still set a rivet in the bad hole as well. Should be an easy fix and a little filler at paint will make it disappear, so I'm told...

You could try up sizing the hole to #30 to "encompass" the ovalness and use a NAS1097 rivet but that seems to be the more risky option and likely to make this situation worse.

Here is my example and how I fixed it.
i-nWRCPVW-L.jpg

i-CMs6msq-L.jpg
 
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Spar

The critical part here is the spar. If you have enough edge clearance go to an oops. Then as someone has said you can put rivets each side to carry the load.

Make sure the skin is smooth..... no stress risers.
 
Thanks guys for keeping my sanity over the weekend until Vans responds. Looks like best case maybe an 1097 rivet and worst case will be two additional rivets. Originally I had fears of needing a new skin and better luck for doing 16,000 holes perfectly the first time around. I'll throw up a photo of the repair for future reference.
 
I'm building an RV-3B, where nothing is pre-drilled. I get to drill everything. My source for drill bits is

www.gen-aircraft-hardware.com, 877-434-6889 for you easterners. The west phone number is 888-247-2738.

I've gotten some relatively poor bits from other sources. That doesn't happen with gen-aircraft-hardware. Except for being a pleased customer, I have no other connection with them.

Dave
 
A skill builder . . .

Thanks for the help. I did retake a photo of the error and placed a -3 rivet next to it for size comparisons. Hopefully this makes it a bit more clear. As far as I can tell, it looks like my drill bit walked on me and made an oval out of the skin. The hole into the spar looks to be normal and round.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=dHJDaGM4dUh5OXBOVlRmdUFna25HT3RxbmpDa3Zn

Ouch, That is a risk of match drilling using a thin material as the drill guide.

I might make a test piece exactly like it, then drill to #30 using a clamped drill guide (.063") and then dimple (both) for a -4 rivet and set it. I would not try an NAS (oops) rivet as this needs a full head. That should work if you get the larger hole in the middle of the elongated one.

To do this for real clamp the guide if it is in reach from the edge. Good luck
 
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