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Holes sizes

Brent 801

Member
I'm a little confused by the hole sizes called out in the plans. Different pages refer to what I believe are #40 or 3/32 holes as 2.4mm or even 2.5mm holes. What's up?
 
Holes

I'm a little confused by the hole sizes called out in the plans. Different pages refer to what I believe are #40 or 3/32 holes as 2.4mm or even 2.5mm holes. What's up?

Most skin holes are #40 (3/32") and some are #30 (1/8"). You will also have #27 for #6 screw, #19 for #8 screw, #12 for AN3 bolt and 1/4" for AN4. If you haven't already, pick up reamers for each of those sizes, they leave a nice hole when it calls for final drill. Match drill, use the bits. You will also need a .3875 reamer and if I remember an undersized 3/8" reamer. It's noted in the plans. I know nothing about the metric sizes and never used that with drilling, but did on occasion for measuring. Hope that helps.
 
Brent,

I haven't seen the -14 plans, but what you're describing sounds like a hole size for a 3/32 rivet . They are designated in engineer speak as AN(X)-(Y)-(Z) (where X is 426 or 470, Y is diameter in 32nds of an inch, and Z is length in 16th of an inch). AN426 are countersunk (flush) rivets and 470s are regular button heads.


So, for example an AD426-3-3 rivet would be a countersunk (flush head), 3/32 inch diameter rivet that is 3/16 inch long.

Hopefully this isn't insulting, but a #40 drill bit makes a hole diameter for a 3/32 inch rivet.

Check out this link for info from vans:


http://www.vansaircraft.com/pdf/materials.pdf

Hope that helps.
 
The majority of the dimensions in the RV-14 manual contain dual designations.
The metric values have been also included for international builders that use the metric system for measurement.

The reference of 2.4 MM and 2.5 MM is likely the difference between when talking about a hole for an AN3 rivet that needs to be final drilled vs one that is already final size.

A 3/32 hole is .094 / 2.4 MM

A #40 hole is .098 / 2.5 MM

(this is approx., the actual values have been rounded up or down slightly).
 
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I must say that I have ignored the metric sizes so I haven't noticed that.

Are you seeing 2.4mm and 2.5mm both referencing to a #40?

They are both very close but the 2.5mm is closer.

3/32 = .0938
2.4mm = .0945
#40 = .0980
2.5mm = .0984

A 2.4mm is smaller than a #41, which is .0960

I have not come across any plans page that calls out for a #41 hole so if I were using metric I would stick with just one, and it would be the 2.5mm. The difference is literally a rounding error when measuring to 1/1000 of an inch.
 
Thanks for all the answers. Now I understand the diffference between a #40 hole and a 3/32 hole. Small difference but just wanted to make sure the plans were refering to the holes for a AD3 rivet when they called out a 2.4mm hole on one page and a 2.5mm hole on another.

Thanks again.
 
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