Left Elevator:Rivet the Counter Balance Assembly to Spar

[JVolkober]

OK, so now I have to rivet the counter balance assembly, which is all riveted together, to the spar. It seems like it would have been easier to rivet the E-903/904 subassembly to the spar and then rivet the counter balance skin on. But the instructions say rivet the whole assemply together and then, after riveting the top skin to the spar, rivet the whole counter balance subassembly to the spar. I need helpful hints. There is little clearance between the leading edge of the elevator and the rib flange to get either a bucking bar or rivet gun on the rivets. How did you do it?

 

[SmittysRV]

There are 4 rivets to put in to attached this assembly to the elevator spar. The green arrow is pointing to the outer 2 rivets that were real easy to put in. But there was a whole lot of head scratchin' going on, trying to figure the best way to get the inner 2 rivets in. I finally decided to use a long shank rivet set that I got from Averys, along with a bucking bar.

After getting the ribs of the counterbalance riveted to the elevator spar, the next problem arises, how to get the two problem rivets in the skin as shown by the photo below. I put these 2 rivets (one on top, one on bottom) in by spreading the counterbalance arm away from the elevator, just far enough to get my hand squeezer in to squeeze these 2 rivets. Then I pulled the counterbalance back into alignment to do the rest of the skin rivets.

Have a goodun!

 

[smithhb]

Creative Bucking Bar

John,

I bought a cheap crowbar at Home Depot and ground down the "business end". This has enough mass for bucking the rivets. You will need another person to help you with the gun though.

http://img426.imageshack.us/img426/352/060318hsmall1ld4.jpg

 

[captainron]

Riveting elevator skins

There is a very easy way to do this, which is the way I learned at Alexander Tech. Simply rivet the two counterbalance ribs together, and then rivet them to the the E-702 spar. Then rivet the E-713 counterbalance skin to the elevator skin at just the rivet points (aft inboard-most two holes of counterbalance skin to elevator skin, top and bottom) where Vans calls for the blind rivets (squeeze regular AN426 rivets here instead). Now you have kind of a hoop comprised of the elevator skin and the counterbalance skin. Simply slide this over the riveted spar assembly and continue assembly as usual. You have easily eliminated those four blind rivets (top and bottom) and it looks much better!

 

[JVolkober]

Thank fo the help

For the next eleveator, I am going to try out Captainron's technique. I do have a long, offset rivet set that I will use to set the difficult "inside" rivets. As suggested, I will use some help with the operation.

 

[csrvniner]

I had my brother weld 2 9 inch sections of 1/2 in steel bar together, then I cut one end at about a 30? angle and polished it up with a scotchbright wheel. I used this bar for the rivet on the front side of the spar for both elevators. Worked great!

 

[captainron]

Elevator riveting

For the next eleveator, I am going to try out Captainron's technique. I do have a long, offset rivet set that I will use to set the difficult "inside" rivets. As suggested, I will use some help with the operation.

There are no diffilcult rivets in the elevator spar assembly. It's all wide open. Everything can be squeezed. Simply rivet the whole thing together except for the counterbalance skin and procede as I described. Like putting on a shoe!

 

[IowaRV9Dreamer]

Ron - I may be slow but I can't figure out your method. I understand about riveting the man skin and counterbalance skin together first at 4 places (2 top, 2 bottom). Then you slide the skeleton inside.

At that point, wouldn't I need to open the trailing edge way up (like in the picture in my post) to rivet the spar to the skin? If I have the counterbalance skin riveted to the main skin, will it still be able to "open wide"??

A picture here would be worth 1k words....