ShortSnorter
Well Known Member
I finished work yesterday feeling somewhat accomplished after riveting the trailing edge of the rudder successfully after I had been putting off the task for nearly a week.
I walked into the "airplane factory" this morning with two seemingly simple tasks: 1) Roll the leading edges of the rudder and 2) Pop rivet the edges together.
I got an early start this morning and drilled a few holes in my bench and installed three u bolts to hold the 3/4" conduit I planned on using to roll the skin.
The first skin rolled perfectly as planned, so I moved on to the next skin. Low and behold it rolled just as easy and I was making good time! As I starting untaping the skin from the conduit my heart stopped when I got to the top of the rudder and saw this:
I apparently I rolled the conduit too far and the u bolt was driven in to the side of the spar. I literally sat and stared breathless and speechless for at least a minute, not believing what i was seeing. Adding salt the the wound the rolled edges went together absolutely perfectly!!
I know that I'll probably have to redo the rudder but I figured I'd share and make a deposit to the "be careful of this" repository.
Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but the bend did not seem to move/affect the rivet orientation. In other words, the depth of the dent in the spar flange doesn't seem to be deep enough to affect the rivet.
I walked into the "airplane factory" this morning with two seemingly simple tasks: 1) Roll the leading edges of the rudder and 2) Pop rivet the edges together.
I got an early start this morning and drilled a few holes in my bench and installed three u bolts to hold the 3/4" conduit I planned on using to roll the skin.
The first skin rolled perfectly as planned, so I moved on to the next skin. Low and behold it rolled just as easy and I was making good time! As I starting untaping the skin from the conduit my heart stopped when I got to the top of the rudder and saw this:
I apparently I rolled the conduit too far and the u bolt was driven in to the side of the spar. I literally sat and stared breathless and speechless for at least a minute, not believing what i was seeing. Adding salt the the wound the rolled edges went together absolutely perfectly!!
I know that I'll probably have to redo the rudder but I figured I'd share and make a deposit to the "be careful of this" repository.
Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but the bend did not seem to move/affect the rivet orientation. In other words, the depth of the dent in the spar flange doesn't seem to be deep enough to affect the rivet.