goatflieg
Well Known Member
The day I have dreaded has arrived. Ths morning I made my first major mistake on an aircraft part. I've read accounts of other builders making this same mistake, and swore it wouldn't happen to me... I even devised a strategy to avoid it. But my strategy failed.
I had finished deburring all the horizontal stabilizer parts, and was beginning to dimple the skins. I thought I'd start with the hard parts. I wanted to see how many of the center rib leading edge holes I could dimple with the C-frame table before I had to resort to using the rivet puller and close-quarters set. Other builders had made the mistake of punching unwanted holes when the dimple die came astray of the rivet hole. I thought I'd avoid that mistake by carefully locating the male die into the hole, then pre-loading the female die to sandwich the piece firmly in place before striking with the mallet. Well... it came astray anyway... and I ended up with a punched and dimpled hole just adjacent to the one that should have been dimpled.
Fortunately, this happened on the bottom of the skin, so whatever corrective measures I make won't be glaringly obvious to the appearance of the aircraft. As I see it, I have several choices:
1. I flatten the errant dimple, dimple and rivet the correct hole and leave the error as is... or perhaps fill it with bondo, liquid metal or welding before painting.
2. I leave the errant dimple, dimple the correct hole, drill a corresponding errant hole in the rib, and rivet both holes.
3. Order a new skin, re-drill, deburr and hope the holes match the ribs and spars.
My biggest concern is the proximity of the holes. They're very close together, and I'm sure that complicates the situation. I did some more research here to see if other builders' errors were similar to mine and what corrective measures they took. I read many accounts, but I did want to share this situation with my compatriots before deciding on my own plan of action.
Well, I knew it was coming... and I'm sure there will be more mistakes in my future. Build and learn... that's what it's all about.
I had finished deburring all the horizontal stabilizer parts, and was beginning to dimple the skins. I thought I'd start with the hard parts. I wanted to see how many of the center rib leading edge holes I could dimple with the C-frame table before I had to resort to using the rivet puller and close-quarters set. Other builders had made the mistake of punching unwanted holes when the dimple die came astray of the rivet hole. I thought I'd avoid that mistake by carefully locating the male die into the hole, then pre-loading the female die to sandwich the piece firmly in place before striking with the mallet. Well... it came astray anyway... and I ended up with a punched and dimpled hole just adjacent to the one that should have been dimpled.
Fortunately, this happened on the bottom of the skin, so whatever corrective measures I make won't be glaringly obvious to the appearance of the aircraft. As I see it, I have several choices:
1. I flatten the errant dimple, dimple and rivet the correct hole and leave the error as is... or perhaps fill it with bondo, liquid metal or welding before painting.
2. I leave the errant dimple, dimple the correct hole, drill a corresponding errant hole in the rib, and rivet both holes.
3. Order a new skin, re-drill, deburr and hope the holes match the ribs and spars.
My biggest concern is the proximity of the holes. They're very close together, and I'm sure that complicates the situation. I did some more research here to see if other builders' errors were similar to mine and what corrective measures they took. I read many accounts, but I did want to share this situation with my compatriots before deciding on my own plan of action.
Well, I knew it was coming... and I'm sure there will be more mistakes in my future. Build and learn... that's what it's all about.
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