To cleco or not to cleco

[wirejock]

Question.
When you preassemble for match drilling and fitting, do you cleco every hole, every other or some other number?

When you final assemble before rivets go in, same question?

Personally I cleco every other hole for preassembly then every hole to final rivet, but I'm wondering what others do.

[bret]

For me, if there was a bend or curve, like the tail cone, every hole, long strait panels like the side skins, I did every third.

[David Paule]

For smaller assemblies, every hole. For larger ones, too, every hole, at least until I'm absolutely certain that the fit is correct and that the parts are fitting well together. Then pull a cleco out, drive a rivet, repeat.

Dave

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

For the wings -- and I don't know what the process is now, but back then they hung from a vertical jig -- I clecoed every hole in the belief anything that could eliminate possibility of building in a twist was a good thing. In fact, when I was fitting skins of any kind, I also put one in every hole.

It was probably overkill and I have a heck of a lot of clecoes now with nothing to do.

[tkatc]

When working on more complex assemblies, such as those with more parts, I think the more clecos the better. There is a term called "progressive tolerances" or something to that affect indicating the when you keep adding parts, and thus a sum of tolerances, you can find those parts difficult to fit. More parts equals a greater sum of tolerances so you want more clecos to keep those progressive tolerances at bay.

[airguy]

For matchdrilling I did every other hole just so I knew I could hit them all without missing one. Drill all the open holes, move the clecoes over one space, drill all the open holes - done.

[flion]

Originally Posted by LettersFromFlyoverCountry

For the wings -- and I don't know what the process is now, but back then they hung from a vertical jig -- I clecoed every hole in the belief anything that could eliminate possibility of building in a twist was a good thing. In fact, when I was fitting skins of any kind, I also put one in every hole.

It was probably overkill and I have a heck of a lot of clecoes now with nothing to do.

When I built my -6A fuselage, I unclamped everything from the jig except the firewall after clecoing on the bottom skins (cleco in every hole). I could twist the tail about 10 degrees either direction. "The clecos, they do nothing!" This is why I was against jigless construction for a while; I have since discovered that it is not hard to rivet carefully and end up with true surfaces. However, do not rely on clecos to hold things in place for you or help eliminate oil-canning in your skins or anything like that. They are an aid but not a guarantee.

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

The plane flies fine and hasn't fallen out of the sky yet. For this I credit clecoes in every hole and nothing but clecoes in every hole!

[ChiefPilot]

Originally Posted by LettersFromFlyoverCountry

The plane flies fine and hasn't fallen out of the sky yet. For this I credit clecoes in every hole and nothing but clecoes in every hole!

Since you don't have a pink cowl, I suppose that's only reason left.

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

Pink cowling? I'd be a dead man. Please note: I said dead MAN.