RV7Factory
Chief Obfuscation Officer
I am having one of *those* days... I think I would have been better off mowing the lawn than touching the airplane today.
Anyway, the other night I riveted the F712 bulkhead to the F779 Tail Bottom Skin. I didn't like the way some of the rivets looked so today I decided to "fix" them. Can you see where this is going? The problem I had is that the rivets didn't set correctly on the dimple. While the shop head was uniform, it was offset to one side or another and a bit of the edge of the dimple was showing on many of the rivets. The picture below points to examples of what I am talking about, but it may be hard to see the exposed edge of the dimple(s).
Earlier today I set out to remove and replace those rivets that exhibited this issue, and things quickly went from bad to worse. The rivets drilled out fine, but the replacement rivets came out worse than the first, and they needed to be drilled out as well. So now I have a 3 holes that are enlarged (stretched) but not ragged or egg-shaped. I will not try to replace them a third time, as the holes being slightly enlarged, are causing the rivets to tip. Sigh.
Sooo... what to do? I was ready to throw the assembly into the street earlier, but I've calmed myself down somewhat. I would prefer not to use Oops rivets here as this is where the VS and Tailwheel will mount and a collection of Oops rivets in one location gives me some concern. I've thought about just enlarging all the holes to 1/8" and using some -4s, but the spot kind of has me mentally beat right now, and I don't want to see any of those rivets go south on me (sad, but true). That leaves me with the option of drilling out the remaining rivets (3) and enlarging all the holes to 1/8" and using some 3212-4-2 CherryMax rivets here (edge-distance is fine). That is, unless anyone has a better suggestion or reason I shouldn't do that. Anyone?
Thanks for listening -- I feel better now.
Anyway, the other night I riveted the F712 bulkhead to the F779 Tail Bottom Skin. I didn't like the way some of the rivets looked so today I decided to "fix" them. Can you see where this is going? The problem I had is that the rivets didn't set correctly on the dimple. While the shop head was uniform, it was offset to one side or another and a bit of the edge of the dimple was showing on many of the rivets. The picture below points to examples of what I am talking about, but it may be hard to see the exposed edge of the dimple(s).
Earlier today I set out to remove and replace those rivets that exhibited this issue, and things quickly went from bad to worse. The rivets drilled out fine, but the replacement rivets came out worse than the first, and they needed to be drilled out as well. So now I have a 3 holes that are enlarged (stretched) but not ragged or egg-shaped. I will not try to replace them a third time, as the holes being slightly enlarged, are causing the rivets to tip. Sigh.
Sooo... what to do? I was ready to throw the assembly into the street earlier, but I've calmed myself down somewhat. I would prefer not to use Oops rivets here as this is where the VS and Tailwheel will mount and a collection of Oops rivets in one location gives me some concern. I've thought about just enlarging all the holes to 1/8" and using some -4s, but the spot kind of has me mentally beat right now, and I don't want to see any of those rivets go south on me (sad, but true). That leaves me with the option of drilling out the remaining rivets (3) and enlarging all the holes to 1/8" and using some 3212-4-2 CherryMax rivets here (edge-distance is fine). That is, unless anyone has a better suggestion or reason I shouldn't do that. Anyone?
Thanks for listening -- I feel better now.
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