Glass half full or half empty?

[tim.randles]

Well I've had one of those weekends where it doesn't matter what I do, I just can NOT set rivets worth a darn. On the bright side I'm getting really good at drilling out bad ones.

In the spirit of commiseration, what other building tasks have given you fits?

[newtech]

Give it time, it will come. One day you will look back and wonder how you could have thought that riveting was that hard. It will become just about second nature. Oh trust me you will still screw up a rivet now and then but the ratio of good to bad will go up immensely. Or maybe your standards go down a little :-)

Keep pounding and you will look back on this time and smile.

Steve Eberhart
RV-7A Just about all of the rivet holes have rivets in them. Guess it is getting close to the time to birth this puppy.

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

Builder tasks that give me fits.

Getting to this point in the project (avionics and engines) and figuring out how the heck I'm going to pay for it.

(didn't help that I did my taxes this weekend and have to pay ANOTHER $1,700!).

[macrafic]

I've got a twist on this for you, Bob! What if, during the 3 years it has taken you to get to the point of completing the fuselage, you have managed to save $30K for the ongoing process.

Where do you put your money! The engine and firewall forward would consume just about all of that, leaving nothing for the avionics/finish kit. Full avionics/finish kit would also consume all of that. I know, hidden in here, is the debate about engine first vs avionics first. Of course that is a consideration, but I don't want to inflame those debates again.

I'm thinking that I start with the avionics/finish kit, with the idea that in another 2 years, I can save up a big chunk of change toward the engine, then borrow the rest (should have enough equity in the plane to do so at that point). I can help myself even further by planning my final panel, but only putting in the avionics I need to get flying, with the idea that I can put in the additional items as time goes on (i.e. I can afford it).

Any other thoughts, anybody?

[airguy]

I'm with you on your train of thought. Time sitting in a hangar waiting for first flight will be harder on an engine than on avionics. I'll do my panel and all else first, with the engine going on last to minimize the non-flying time available for me to worry about corrosion setting in.

[AZChandler]

I'm finding I throw everything away twice! I keep getting bigger garbage cans, but I still keep picking it off the floor and throwing it away again.

The blue vinyl just doesn't want to make me two points!

[AZChandler]

how did you get those 470-4's set inside the rudder horn??

Originally Posted by tim.randles

Well I've had one of those weekends where it doesn't matter what I do, I just can NOT set rivets worth a darn. On the bright side I'm getting really good at drilling out bad ones.

In the spirit of commiseration, what other building tasks have given you fits?

[tim.randles]

Originally Posted by AZChandler

how did you get those 470-4's set inside the rudder horn??

I'm trying to remember the part numbers off the top of my head...

My strategy went like this:

1) set 3 rivets at the top of the reinforcing plate(606)/spar(902)
2) set 3 rivets holding rudder control horn(405)/shim(917)/spar(902)/reinforcement plate(606)
3) set 4 rivets holding control horn(405)/spar brace(710)
4) set 4 rivets holding rudder rib(904)/control horn(405)/nutplate/reinforcement plate(606)
5) set 3 rivets holding rudder rib(904) and brace(710)

I had to make wise use of my bucking bars to reach all of the rivets and did most of the bucking through the hole in 710.

When it got time to rivet the 2 rivets holding the nutplate/spar/rib/reinforcement I had to get creative. I drilled a 3/16 hole in one of my bucking bars and put my AD4 squeezer die into it. This I placed under the spar to buck the head of the rivet. Then I took my back rivet set and placed it on the shop end of the rivet next to the nutplate. I used a mushroom set in my rivet gun and hit the tail end of my back rivet set to form the shop head on the rivets. It wasn't a pretty operation but it produced the nicest shop heads of the day. There just wasn't enough room to get any of my bucking bars in there and the back rivet set's collar did a good job of keeping the set over the rivet tail.

EDIT: One thing I just remembered. I clecoed the horn/shim/spar/reinforcement plate with the bottom rib in place and then riveted them. I then slid the bottom rib (904) from behind the rudder horn to keep it out of the way while riveting 405 and 710 together. Once those 4 rivets were in place I slid the bottom rib back in between the horn and spar for riveting.

[Jconard]

As I get the fuse close to final assembly sans wings...it is the myriad of little things and details...this looked good before, but now I want to re-do a little bit here and there...will it ever be good enough?

My friends constantly tease me about my inability to balance "gettin 'er done" with a rampant anal retentive sense of detail...

But every now and then you look at the project and think....every rivet was a raw fastener just 3 years before.