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Hole-punched with the Dimpler- is it salvageable?

A

Alternate

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Hello! I begun by RV-14 empennage about a month ago now, and I'm on the rudder assembly, when I bump my rudder in the middle of a dimple operation. I've heard about the infamous 'figure-8', and now I've got this lovely pair of holes in the skin:

PXL_20260506_012340899.jpg

Close up:

PXL_20260506_012334560.jpg

Now I know that sometimes these can be 'scabbed over' with a doubler plate, but it looks like vans sells the rudder skin for 90$. I'm wondering what experienced builders would do in this case? Let me know how you'd go about resolving this.
 
Early in the build... I’d suggest you call Van’s support desk, get their perspective: you paid for the service…
You can flatten the offending dimple, then lay out, drill, deburr, dimple and set another rivet on each side of the offending hole, and fill offending holes afterward…

Whatever you decide to do, I’d recommend you annotate your "build log", so you can apply the reference, evaluation process, and treatment in the future.
 
esco said:
Early in the build... I’d suggest you call Van’s support desk, get their perspective: you paid for the service…
You can flatten the offending dimple, then lay out, drill, deburr, dimple and set another rivet on each side of the offending hole, and fill offending holes afterward…

Whatever you decide to do, I’d recommend you annotate your "build log", so you can apply the reference, evaluation process, and treatment in the future.
Click to expand...
Why flatten this one which probably makes it worse. Clean this one as best as you can by removing any burr and rivet it in place, but put two rivet on either side of it. The extra hole can be remedied during painting
 
Alternate said:
Hello! I begun by RV-14 empennage about a month ago now, and I'm on the rudder assembly, when I bump my rudder in the middle of a dimple operation. I've heard about the infamous 'figure-8', and now I've got this lovely pair of holes in the skin:


Now I know that sometimes these can be 'scabbed over' with a doubler plate, but it looks like vans sells the rudder skin for 90$. I'm wondering what experienced builders would do in this case? Let me know how you'd go about resolving this.
Click to expand...
To help prevent these going forward, put the male die on the bottom when dimpling.
 
esco said:
Early in the build... I’d suggest you call Van’s support desk, get their perspective: you paid for the service…
You can flatten the offending dimple, then lay out, drill, deburr, dimple and set another rivet on each side of the offending hole, and fill offending holes afterward…

Whatever you decide to do, I’d recommend you annotate your "build log", so you can apply the reference, evaluation process, and treatment in the future.
Click to expand...
What Ron ^ said.
 
You do have to flatten it because the new hole is in the wrong place. Do that, clean it up (shear cracks), dimple the original hole, rivet and carry on. That is what I would do.
 
JonJay said:
For what it’s worth, this kind of error rarely occurred when we all used manual C-frames and squeezers to do our dimpling.
Click to expand...
My rare event happened just two nights ago...literally the last 5 holes to dimple on the project for the forward top skin to go on. :rolleyes: I'd never had a figure 8 oops up to this point. It was slow motion - "ooooohhhhh noooooooo" as my brain realized the skin had raised up off of the die, but not before the hammer did the first whack.

It's funny how your response to mistakes changes over the course of the project. Had I done this at the beginning, I would have stewed about it for days, worrying about how I had messed up parts. Very different now. My initial reaction was an eye roll and a belly laugh over the idiocy of almost making it through the entire build without a double dimple, only to be bested by one second of inattention.

My fix is mostly as reported above. My extra dimpled hole was not a full dimple because I had almost stopped the hammer. I flattened and cleaned up the extra hole and put rivets on either side. I did go ahead and dimple the correct hole, just to give filler a little more to adhere to.
 
skelrad said:
My fix is mostly as reported above. My extra dimpled hole was not a full dimple because I had almost stopped the hammer. I flattened and cleaned up the extra hole and put rivets on either side. I did go ahead and dimple the correct hole, just to give filler a little more to adhere to.
Click to expand...
This is what I'm thinking if Vans doesn't advise otherwise. I'm wondering if you did any post-processing? i'm thinking I'll smooth out the hole into a singular oval, and depending on whether they recommend a doubler or not, I'll either finish it with a small chamfer to increase filler adhesion, or leave it without any chamfer.
 
For future readers-
Vans support got back to me, told me to use the hole as-is with a standard rivet, then in the direction of the hole, make an additional hole in the skin and stiffener between the two. They also said a single extra rivet on one side was just fine, and that it wouldn't be enough to throw off the balance. I'm going to take that advice.
 
Glad you got your direction. Welcome to the world of "oops." There will be plenty more, but you'll find that they become less stress inducing as you get more and more experience and learn how to work around them.
 
Alternate said:
They also said a single extra rivet on one side was just fine, and that it wouldn't be enough to throw off the balance.
Click to expand...

Oh, Vans, always the comedians! When I was just starting out with my build, I E-mailed Vans about a very small dent I made in the spar when my bucking bar slipped, and they replied me to say I needed to disassemble both wings, buy two new spars and completely start over, and then that they were just kidding--build on and don't worry about it :)
 
JonJay said:
Just said it was rare, not impossible. Perhaps it’s more common than I think.
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Hmmmm…I graduated from C-frames and hammers to pneumatic squeezers with 26” yokes, and from my statistical sample size of one person, I can state that I can screw either one up…. (And I know well that little internal voice that says “Nnooooo!!!” Just as the hammer is swinging or the trigger is being pulled……🤣)
 
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