Matched Hole Tooling

[skyking902001]

What's wrong with this picture? ] Notice the Left skin opposite the trim cable hole? After driving about 25 very nice rivets in the left skin, I realized I had the left and right skin reversed. I quickly clecoed the right side to the skeleton and added the rear spar. Everything seems to line up perfectly--a tribute to matched hole tooling. Won't be much trouble to label the L & R skin-going to pull the vinyl off soon anyway. Question for the "experts" here--is this going to work or should I start drilling out rivets?

Skyking902001
RV8
Emp-sort of

[Greg Arehart]

Skyking,

Been a while since I was doing this, but I would look closely at the plans and make sure that there are no critical holes or cutouts etc. that demand drilling out and swapping the skins. If not, keep them where they are. In the pre-pre-punched days, it didn't really matter which sheet of material you picked up.

My two cents worth

greg

[sglynn]

Drilling out is no big deal. I've drilled out over 1000 by now and still working on the fuselage. Us a #41 bit and try hard to drill the center.

[Rick6a]

I did exactly the same thing only in my case did not realize the error until after the L/H hand skin was completely riveted to R/H side of the structure. After a few minutes of panic, I discovered the holes in the R/H skin lined up so perfectly with the holes in the L/H side of the structure that not a single hole needed to be wallowed out. The fact that NOT ONE hole had to be reamed is a tribute to the precision of matched hole technology. That advantage was a major reason why it took me less than three weeks to completely build the empennage kit and that included its epoxy primer and making all the empennage tips removable.

Before you start drilling out any rivets, I suggest you 100% cleco the remaining skin to the structure and confirm for yourself what I am telling you is true.

[skyking902001]

Just got an email from Van's. Said skins are symetrical, and the "cleco" test seems to verify that I have a good fit--so don't drill anything out, just rivet on! Rick, I belive this confirms what your post said as well. I did cleco about 95% of both skins (finally ran out of clecos) and not one hole is out of alignment. Thanks to all who replied. Looks like matched hole tooling has saved my bacon!

Skyking902001
RV8
Emp-much better now

[9GT]

Originally Posted by skyking902001

Just got an email from Van's. Said skins are symetrical, and the "cleco" test seems to verify that I have a good fit--so don't drill anything out, just rivet on! Rick, I belive this confirms what your post said as well. I did cleco about 95% of both skins (finally ran out of clecos) and not one hole is out of alignment. Thanks to all who replied. Looks like matched hole tooling has saved my bacon!

Skyking902001
RV8
Emp-much better now

Buy more cleco's,,,,,,You WILL need them!!

[skyking902001]

Quick follow up note. Matched hole tooling worked out well for me. Here is completed HS with the reversed skins riveted to the skeleton. Every hole lined up without issue. Thanks Van's!

Skyking 902001
RV8
Emp