Tip: Skin Dimpling made easier

[Rick6a]

Sometimes you could sure use a third set of hands when dimpling skins. Out of necessity, I discovered a much easier way to keep the skins perfectly flat while dimpling. Here are a couple of pics of my RV-8 fuel tanks under construction. You know how difficult it is to bend the skins out of the way of the hammer blows when dimpling holes closest to the skin's leading edge. I originally bought several 25# shot bags to lower the tail on my 6A when working on the nose tire or anytime it is convenient to raise the nose when working under the engine. Works great. http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...ead.php?t=2105 These pics illustrate how easy it is to lay a couple of those same lead shot bags on the fuel tank skin firmly holding it in place, in effect, a third set of hands. This first pic shows the natural curve of the fuel tank skin just laying atop the dimpler without any weight on it. The second shot shows how flat it becomes with 50 pounds of weight placed on it. The last shot shows the dimpler over the hardest to reach forward most hole on the fuel tank skin, held flat and accessable totally by the strategic placement of weight of the shot bags. By visually sighting the male dimple protruding through a hole also reduces the chance of accidentally generating a double dimple too.