wings finished / reuse of bolts

[KayS]

Hi Gang,

herbeby i would like to inform the world outside that i finished my rv7 SB-wings yesterday (except tips). they are so beautiful that for one hour i wasn't able to get my eyes from them and i got the grin already. . i needed five months for the wings and two months for the tail; ca. 500 hours wings / 200 hours tail)

what i learned so far:
- i shouldn't complicate things more than necessary, it's all confusing enough
- in general: replace watching TV by RV-Building
- when i'm getting tired in the shop it's better to watch TV
- do progess in the shop every day when you are around
- if i had to do the wings again i would definitively give evans a call to build the tanks for me. some guys say tanks are not a drama but for me they were. TANKS SUCK!
- during building i got a small metal chip in my eyehole, felt pain, was scared and went to the hospital-ER sunday evening. paid 1088 US$ for removing the metal chip within three minutes; for the future i will tape or rivet my saftey googles onto my head as soon i enter the shop.
- to build a RV was the most cool, stupid and fun idea i ever had. it's a big task but it was nothing superhuman so far.

btw: can i re-use AN-Bolts? i wasn't able to get any info about that.

Kay
Huntsville-Alabam / Munich-Germany

[Birkelbach]

It depends on where you are going to reuse them. I wouldn't reuse them in any 'critical' place but I routinely reuse them in places where they are not put under a lot of stress. I would replace any wing attach bolt, engine mount bolt, bolts that are used to attach major airframe sections (VS, HS, tailwheel, landing gear, etc) or a control surface.

Use your own judgement but a properly torqued bolt will stretch a little bit each time that it is installed. Think about the cost/risk ratio for each bolt. In reality the risk is pretty low for most bolts in these planes but so is the cost.

I won't use a Nylock nut twice though. I throw those in my 'take to the barn' jar after I use them in the airplane.

[KayS]

thank you... ok i will go the safe way and will replace all already used bolts later on. the cost was not an issue but sometimes i had just no additional bolts available.

Kay

[Mel]

It is perfectly acceptable to re-use AN bolts and nuts. Even NyLok nuts may be reused if you cannot install the nut with the bare hand. Many people are overly cautious.
If an aircraft has been involve in a crash or you think that critical bolts may have been "over-stressed" then I would replace them. Otherwise they will be fine.

I've been inspecting aircraft since the early '70s and have never seen a bolt fail because of being re-used.

[jthocker]

Thanks Mel!
I have a friend who is just starting to build his RV8, whenever he has a question, and begins it with, "I was reading on the internet", I will now stop him and say, what did Mel do? WWMD

[Mel]

Thanks for the "flowers" Jon, but I'm still learning too!