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Daniel S.

Well Known Member
Okay guys.
I could be being a tad critical here or being a bit of a perfectionist. I built my VS first and have been cruising through my build at a pretty good clip. May be I had an off evening building. I riveted my HS rear spar this last evening. Sorry for the lack of part numbers here but the plans call for 4-6 for the spar doubler which seemed a tiny bit short to me. I got all of the shop heads squeezed to a good diameter but the height is a little shy of the gauge (a little more than half the height)... Then comes the outter most hinge bracket which calls for a 4-5 rivet. These seemed a little too long. I thought, heck ill follow the plans which the directions say specifically that the plans call out the correct rivets. I had a few bend over which I'm going to drill out and reset. But these shop heads seem way long when set to the proper diameter... I'm I crazy or is this the norm in some areas? Up till now, I really haven't had an issue except for the bearing bracket, where the shop heads are a bit short but was reassured by the directions that the rivet call out is correct... what gives here? I'm using the Isham #4 gage... shall I get out the A&P book and a micrometer? To check the true tolerance.

Thanks
 
What is normal anyway?

Yep, it's normal. Some 14,000 rivets, Van's callout is correct 99% of the time. The others are sometimes short, sometimes long, either way won't cause you to fall from the sky. After a couple thousand you will get a feel for what is correct before you pull the trigger.
 
I started my tail a few weeks ago.

I saw a similar posting a while back where a builder decided to use -7 rivets for the rear HS spar to doubler. I tried this and while the -7 rivets looked right before squeezing, many fell over. So I went back to -6's and was much happier.

It might be that going through such a solid hunk of metal, they have less tendency to expand inside and end up leaving enough material outside for a shop head.

I don't recall an issue with the hinge bracket.
 
rivets

The rivet lengths called out in the plans may not be correct. When working large aircraft, engineering drawings usually call out a tolerance of + - one size in length. Use whatever length gives you a proper shop head.
 
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