Riveting bottom of E-607PP (trim tab spar)

Hi All,
Can i get a survey of how you riveted the bottom row of rivets on the E-607PP trim tab spar....
I use Dan the man's web site very often for reference and see that he used blind rivets there, and if you go by the manual you should be able to use solid rivets there and I agree with Dan that it is going to be very tight because the first step that it tells you to do is bend the TE...It doesnt seem like I over bent the TE....but has anyone had luck squeezing these without ending up reshaping or overstressing the trim tab skin?

BTW: I'm a member of the ONE trim tab club....YEH RIGHT...
I'm on my third and hopefully final....
Advise to anyone not yet to this point:
Make triple sure that you get the tabs ON THE ELEVATOR bent correctly in location first by laying out the trim tab itself in position....I bent mine apparently wrong (too far inboard) and it throws the whole trim tab inboard also.... if you have 3/32 minimum gap between the trim tab and elevator tab bends..
I will have to cut the tabs off and use the little rib idea here because I'm not going to redo the entire left elevator.
THis has been the only difficult part of the emp in my opinion.
My wings have arrived and cant wait to get this emp finally done.
Advise on unloading wing kit: Have at least one friend available plus truck driver....These cartons were heavy and awkward!!!!!!!
Appreciate any advise,
Jim King (back hurting)
7A

IIRC, I delayed bending the trim tab and back riveted the rivets on the spar with a long back rivet set (the one used for back riveting the wing upper skins).

skyyking56 said:

Hi All,
Can i get a survey of how you riveted the bottom row of rivets on the E-607PP trim tab spar....

Click to expand...

Jim,
I used the longeron yoke to set all of the rivets. I needed to put some washes under the flush rivet set in order to raise it high enough to clear the spar. FYI, I cut off the ends of the trim tab and fabricated my own riblets, so getting the yoke around the spar and skin was easy.

Good luck, and don't feel alone in the triple trim tab club. I am a member also.

thanks

Thanks for the help gentlemen!!!
I appreciate all the help I can get.
Jim

bullojm1 said:

I used the longeron yoke to set all of the rivets.

Click to expand...

Ditto on my 2nd trim tab. All solid rivets on the spar. No special tricks needed other than the longeron yoke (which I didn't have when I built my first one, now I won't live without it).

I dont remember for sure, but I do know that they are all solid I THINK I hit/bucked them, which is my little way of getting around the whole blind rivet thing (I don't like blind rivets... which sucks because I've used more than my share already).

I used longeron as well for most of the rivets but couldn't reach rivets well in thicker end of the tab. Those I run with back rivet set.

I'm sure thankful for all of you on this web site

Thanks again everyone...
I also respect all of you that built years ago without help like this.
I cant imagine

Ditto the Longeron yoke and maybe playing with different legth sets in the squeezer to get in there. I honestly don't remember this being a major problem so good squeezer options must be the answer as I have quite a few toys for the squeezer.

Now the problem I had was the hinge where it's mounted to the elevator. I had the hinge all mounted to the tab but couldn't figure how in the heck to buck the rivets between the tab and the elevator. I spent 40 minutes on the grinder and buffer to make a 45 degree edge on the backriveter plate to try and make an angled bucking bar to get in this strange space. It didn't work well at all and I gave up after a single mangled rivet. I was about to just do pulled rivets when yes it finally occured to me......................




Yes, have you figured out the answer yet?????????????





No really, who doesn't see it coming because I sure felt DUMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





I took the hinge pin OUT, getting the trim tab completely off the elevator, and squeezed every blessed rivet in the elevator piece of hinge pin in about 90 seconds after spending at least 3 hours active (and several weeks thinking of answers) trying to figure out how to hit and buck in the space between the elevator and the trim tab at an angle. I nearly went straight out for a vesectomy to make sure I didn't pass on my DNA after that one.

Here's a simple and inexpensive tool that I used for the trim tab spar. Brown Tool has a 3/4" tall squeezer set for $5.95. Add a couple of plain flat washers to the back of the squeezer and you can reach over the trim tab spar all the way across with a standard 3" yoke on a hand squeezer.




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RV-8 tail complete. Starting on the wings.

I back riveted them, then noticed my longeron yoke sitting there, got mad, and went to bed.