Bad Break on skins

[lewy]

Hello, Tonite I was putting the slight break on the skin f-1280 left and got carried away and now about 12 inches of the skin is wavy looking, I clecoed the 2 skins together and there was a couple of small gaps between the skins. Can this skin be saved, is there a way to roll the waviness out of the skin on the tailcone. The waviness is just along the edge of the skin, extending just pass the rivet holes, Thanks Don

 

[Mich48041]

Post a picture?

Don,
Can you post a picture?
Joe

 

[JBPILOT]

Hey Don

Have you tried reworking it with your fingers ? Cleco them in place and see how it looks. I'm guessing you can save it. You'll likely have other waves at some point on the tailcone.

John Bender

 

[vernhendershott]

Hello, Tonite I was putting the slight break on the skin f-1280 left and got carried away and now about 12 inches of the skin is wavy looking, I clecoed the 2 skins together and there was a couple of small gaps between the skins. Can this skin be saved, is there a way to roll the waviness out of the skin on the tailcone. The waviness is just along the edge of the skin, extending just pass the rivet holes, Thanks Don

It would be easy to save if you can find someone locally that has a shrinker/stretcher that would shrink the effected edge for you it is very simple to do and is the only way to get a smooth edge after it has been stretched out of shape.

Good luck with it.

Best regards,
Vern

 

[lewy]

bad skin break

I will try to post a picture, it didn t look to bad with it clecoed together, but the rivet doesn t take up as much area as a cleco does. I am afraid it will look bad when I rivet it together. Kinda reminds me of the elastic band in your underwear when it looses its elacticity. All the holes went together O.K when I clecoed them together. Just thought there might be a way to roll the waviness out of the 12 inch strip I got carried away on. Thanks Don

 

[jimgreen]

If you try Vern's method on your underwear be very careful with the shrinker.

 

[lewy]

stretched skin

l'll try the stretch method first, i can use it

 

[Dgamble]

the rivet doesn t take up as much area as a cleco does.

No, but my experience was that the rivet pulls a whole lot tighter than the cleco. Mine was kind of gappy too, but I decided to go ahead and rivet it anyway figuring I could always drill them out if I needed to. It snugged the skin up just fine. Your could be different, of course; I don't know how different your breaks are from mine. I do know that many of mine looked pretty horrible until the riveting, though.

 

[KALEWIS]

There is a photo on the site www.unicom12.blogspot.com toward the bottom of the latest post.

dave had a look at the pic and regarded the skin as "pretty bad" haha. A new skin is on the way.

Spoke with an expert machinist here in town and by "stretching" or "smooshing" it may cause the aluminum to actually stretch/mis-aligning the holes..which would not be good.

 

[vernhendershott]

Spoke with an expert machinist here in town and by "stretching" or "smooshing" it may cause the aluminum to actually stretch/mis-aligning the holes..which would not be good.[/QUOTE]

To fix a skin that has its edge "Stretched" by excessive working while it was having its edge "broke" is to return it to its original dimension by "Shrinking" the already stretched metal back to its original size, if this is done correctly (it is a very light or small move process) you are not going to move the holes at all in fact you will assure that they are where they belong.

I have fixed several skins for RV-12's and other RV's saving the need to buy new skins (the skins are priced very reasonably by Van's but the shipping on larger skins can be expensive).

Best regards,
Vern

 

[KALEWIS]

vern..

I should clarify : The local machinist said his equipment was not able to do the job right. he usually works with much thicker aluminum. He was just afraid to put the skin in his machine and try it. better off safe than sorry.