Jeff R
Well Known Member
How do you handle a bad riveting job when you manage to ding up the skins? I am riveting the skins onto my HS. I started Tuesday night on the bottom side since, still being quite new at this, I figured I would be making most of my mistakes there and being on the bottom, they would not be noticeable to most casual observers. To my delight, I did a pretty decent job. Last night, I started work on the top side, confident in my abilities, and yet I managed to bong up a few really bad. Some of the damage to the skin is pretty unsightly, where the rivet gun pounded in the skins pretty bad. Structurally, I think things are fine, but appearance wise -- ugh. Are these "blemishes" (to use a nice term) able to be filled in later, during the finishing stage? If not, I am going have to paint this plane a matte color!
Maybe last evening was a bad night. I got a late start and, too, I was in an uncomfortable and awkward body position to buck the rivets. Maybe I wasn't holding the bucking bar as tightly as I should have. I just know that I hadn't changed the air pressure on the gun or anything since the previous night.
Well, I did ask a tech counselor to come visit and look at things before I close up my VS (where I did a decent job on the skins) and this side of the HS (still need to rivet in the aft spars). If I still have troubles tonight with the opposite-side HS, I will ask him to observe me and tell me what I am doing wrong all of a sudden. At least along the outer edges the pneumatic squeezer is making some fine looking rivets.
Overall, this has been my most frustrating time. Do most guys ding up their skins like this, or am I simply inept???
Maybe last evening was a bad night. I got a late start and, too, I was in an uncomfortable and awkward body position to buck the rivets. Maybe I wasn't holding the bucking bar as tightly as I should have. I just know that I hadn't changed the air pressure on the gun or anything since the previous night.
Well, I did ask a tech counselor to come visit and look at things before I close up my VS (where I did a decent job on the skins) and this side of the HS (still need to rivet in the aft spars). If I still have troubles tonight with the opposite-side HS, I will ask him to observe me and tell me what I am doing wrong all of a sudden. At least along the outer edges the pneumatic squeezer is making some fine looking rivets.
Overall, this has been my most frustrating time. Do most guys ding up their skins like this, or am I simply inept???