C

cmdro

Member
While I am waiting on a replacement HS part to arrive (I'm sure it would have been a "build on", but for ~$10 and a little time I can have peace of mind) I started on the rudder since the first steps are much like the airfoil practice kit only in large scale. I got to the point of dimpling the skin, made a few with my c-frame and noticed the holes looked too large and too deep. Seems like I have always read you can't "over-dimple" but I'm afraid this is what happen. I put a dimpled stiffener up to the skin and it would not lay flush(skin dimples were too deep) and a 3/32 cleco won't even stay in the skin holes. Any ideas as to what I did wrong or if this is fixable (only 4 total dimples in the skin so far)? I didn't think I was hitting THAT hard, and I have the correct dimple set in.

Thanks for any help.
 
Dimple Dilemma

An RV-6 builder/friend told me at the outset to use #'s 41,31 & 21 drills respectively, because the dimpler widens the holes. Reading your post scared me, as my HS skins are all dimpled and ready to prime for install and I wanted to make sure mine worked and they do. I will say that the holes are still a little big and the clecos barely work. I might even try #'s 42,32 & 22 drills where the plans call for 40,30 & 20.

Also, I decided early on that since I would be doing a lot of drilling, dimpling and riveting to buy really good tools for these operations. I went with the DRDT-2 C-frame dimpler and I LOVE it. You may want to think about it. I bought the front end kit and welded up the frame myself to save $$$. It cost $155 or $165 for the kit and I had the steel to weld. The whole thing is about $350 I think. Good luck!

~Bob
 
Mine worked fine

I just used the 30 and 40 bits. Hit the c-arm with a "normal" force... My emp came out just fine..
 
The rivets will expand when squeezed or bucked, and they will fill those holes just fine. I wouldn't worry if you used the correct tools. Thousands of RV's have been built using these methods.
 
Just a thought...... because I have done it -

Did you mix your dimple dies up ?

I have done a couple of 1/8th instead of 3/32nd and thought... hang on !!!
 
Mike,

I'm sure I have the correct ones in, trust me, that was my first thought, checked it three times and even checked to see if a -4 rivet would fit, which it doesn't.

All,

Thanks for the replies, maybe I am just over-thinking this, I'll finish one row and set a few rivets to see how things look.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.