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McCoy's RV-10 Build

msmst25

Well Known Member
Well, I finally started on the process as of a couple of days ago. Spent about 6 hours going through the inventory process. Built the phone holder and I also purchased the light box from Van's to get some obviously much-needed practice on sheet metal techniques. I'm going to try to document the process by video, but as Jason Ellis said, "That's a lot of work". Thanks to all of you that have already helped me with some confusion along the way. I'm sure there will be more.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCertsGoRitNUgIvqZVYo8tg
 
So they HAD to pack it up like they did for the 20 minute trip? Seems like you could have avoided some of the packing for such a short trip. Hope you make it to the Homecoming fly-in this year (assuming they have it). We come up every year for the fun.

-Marc
 
So they HAD to pack it up like they did for the 20 minute trip? Seems like you could have avoided some of the packing for such a short trip. Hope you make it to the Homecoming fly-in this year (assuming they have it). We come up every year for the fun.

-Marc

I live in Eugene and I also pick up my kits as I need. You can forgo the crating charge and just get the kit. However you are responsible for loading and any damage at the point of pick up. Pay the crate charge, return the crates for a bit of credit on the next kit. Works great for me. Of course I've made some extra trips for shall we say "owner misaligned parts".
 
Update #2

Slowly making some progress. I felt like things were going really well until I got to page 6-3 of the Vertical Stabilizer. Unfortunately, when I picked up my kit, part VS-1004 was on backorder, and they don't know when it will be in stock. So I had to move on to the rudder. Installed my first aluminum skins of the project, drilled everything, removed the skins, and promptly put a crease in it with the edge rolling tool. I thought it might be salvageable, but then I put an even bigger dent in it while trying to fix it. At least I have a large piece of scrap to practice on from now on.
I've tried about 10 times to share a pic from Google Photos, but the link never seems to work.
 
Great progress! I was on the 4.5 year program with my slowbuild -10. You?ll have tons of fun along the way
 
First meeting with my Tech Counselor today

I met my EAA tech counselor, Jim Frisbee, today. That has to be the greatest benefit of EAA membership. It was extremely informative, and now I feel (mostly) comfortable enough to move on with the rudder assembly. I used the double sided tape on the trailing edge wedge and have it all clamped together. Planning to do the double blind rivets tomorrow. I practiced on the trailing edge of the practice kit, and the results with the pneumatic squeezer and the trailing edge set from Cleaveland tool seemed very good. If you wonder why there aren't clekos in every hole, it's because the holes drilled in the angle aluminum didn't line up well enough and I didn't want to force it and risk damage to the rudder skins.
Untitled by Matt McCoy, on Flickr
 
Riveting

Matt
Great to meet you!
Glad to help you get started!
One thing more on the trailing edge.... I would recommend against using
The pneumatic sqeezer, as the plans say to lightly set the rivets at first, then
Come back to finish them when they?re all in place.
That can really only be done by using the back rivet system.
The introductory chapters explains that.
Check it out

Good luck
Jim Frisbie
 
Horizontal stabilizer coming together

Made some more progress today. This thing takes up a lot of room. I drilled a hole in the wrong spot in one of the inspar rib tabs, but was able to get a replacement from Van's within an hour (so happy I live nearby) for $6. I ran out of cleco's on this one. Now I just need a 90 degree #30 bit to drill 16 holes so I can start disassembling and start to have some deburring fun.

Untitled by Matt McCoy, on Flickr
 
I’m a few steps behind you and trying to learn from those in front of me. I do not have a 90 degree drill but I want to buy one before I end up waiting on one. How much room do I have. In the situation where you needed one? Should I get one of those tiny ones like what goes in the air drill or would a battery operated right angle drill be small enough? I’ve been looking at the Milwaukee and Bosch ones for a while and I like that they have a chuck and would work for lots of applications, but they do get kind of bulky at the end.
 
Right angle

I’m a few steps behind you and trying to learn from those in front of me. I do not have a 90 degree drill but I want to buy one before I end up waiting on one. How much room do I have. In the situation where you needed one? Should I get one of those tiny ones like what goes in the air drill or would a battery operated right angle drill be small enough? I’ve been looking at the Milwaukee and Bosch ones for a while and I like that they have a chuck and would work for lots of applications, but they do get kind of bulky at the end.

I can't say from personal experience, but I've heard that the right angle attachments with a chuck are too big for tight spaces. I feel like I've had just enough room using the attachment that I have, but make sure you order the appropriate sized bits (i.e. #30 and #40), because the sets usually don't have those sizes. I have one very similar to this https://www.cleavelandtool.com/coll...angle-drill-attachment?variant=31585281769534
Hopefully that link isn't prohibited as some type of advertisement.
 
Matt
Great to meet you!
Glad to help you get started!
One thing more on the trailing edge.... I would recommend against using
The pneumatic sqeezer, as the plans say to lightly set the rivets at first, then
Come back to finish them when they?re all in place.
That can really only be done by using the back rivet system.
The introductory chapters explains that.
Check it out

Good luck
Jim Frisbie

After watching his build videos & hearing McCoy talk through things as he begins building the 10 and experiences speed-bumps & mistakes etc ... and now after seeing Jim's helpful comment here ... I'm 1000% sure there is no way I should try to tackle building a 10 without a Jim near me in Salt Lake City to help (maybe multiple Jim's lol). Going to an EAA open hangar night this coming Saturday to meet the chapter. Unless I can get tons of help, McCoy's videos have convinced me I have no business buying the 10 kit (or the 7A I'd love to build after the 10).
 
I wouldn’t give up that easy.

Every day leading up to my next work session, I am scared. Something about the next set of instructions always has me nervous. Doing the trailing edge, painting/priming, riveting way down in the horizontal stabilizer, drilling spars....the list goes on and on.

If you read the instructions one sentence at a time, and do that step. You can build it. Small bites and one step at a time. All of the things that I was scared of turned out to be a non issue too, btw.

I did use a squeezer on my trailing edge. I just went in two steps. I used the flat does to partially set the rivet, just enough that it started to expand and the head was set at depth in the dimple, the. I swapped for the tapered dies from Cleveland that are meant for this task, and set the rivets flush after that.

This was my first trailing edge, but I think it came out great.
 
Inspirational posts.

To McCoy and those responding on this thread,

Keep it up!

I just ordered my RV10 empennage and tool kit and am ready to get this going.

Your comments and pictures and videos are awesome, thanks.

arr

Andrew
 
I would hope that nobody would be discouraged by my videos. I had no metal working experience prior to this and there is lots of help available online. I’m just trying to show my mistakes so that others can hopefully avoid them. I would definitely get the practice kits. If you have the time and money, I’ve heard great things about the Synergy courses.
 
One more thing

Several of the mistakes I’ve made have been due to rushing and not reading every word of each step. I highly recommend reading through the whole page before picking up a tool, and marking off the completed steps as you go.
 
Absolutely great progress! And the videos are helpful.

Thanks and keep it up!

Andy
 
It's so great to see the teenager out there!

I have four teenagers (long story involving nephews...)

My twin girls who are 17 have been out in the garage "sharing" quality building time together.

Your son's hair reminds me of my son at that age. He is now 30 yoa and has a career.....and a hair cut.

Cheers,
Andy
 
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