Vertical stab heads up

[steve wyman]

I found another possible gotcha on page06-04. Before you rivet the nut plates to the VS-1202 front spar (step 6.), be sure and final drill #12, the four holes in the VS-1202 front spar and the two corresponding holes in the front of the VS-1208 lower main rib that are for the AN3 bolts. The plans don't tell you to do this, but it is obvious that it should be done. I'm going to call VANS and bring it to their attention. Steve

 

[JBPILOT]

THANKS STEVE !

I did not trial-fit mine, and I will have to re-do those holes. Better now when I have lots of time before the next kit is released.

Thanks again,

John Bender

 

[Peterk]

Yeah...if they don't mention it, I usually trial-fit mine first too...in this case all was well and worked fine with only deburring.

Pete

 

[Tony_T]

Steve, Did you talk to Van's?
The omission to final drill the holes needs to be corrected. The bolts are a very tight fit in the holes without the final drill to #12, and the nutplate will have to be exactly lined up with the hole or you would not be able to start the bolt, at least not without possiblity of damaging the threads in the nutplates. The bottom MS21051-L3 nutplates are even more problematical, because the rivet holes are so close together you can not use a cleco in one of them when you set a rivet. At least I couldn't. I started an AN-3 bolt about 3 threads into the nutplate to align it exactly with the hole, used a cleco clamp clear of the rivet to be set, and got it done. I think it would be a good idea to check the fit of the F-1210B plate to these four nutplates by putting the plate in place and screwing in four AN-3 bolts fingertight 3 threads though the plate just to be sure you will be able to bolt the vertical stab to the fuselage without a problem later. The two bottom nutplates can be easily replaced but the two upper ones in VS-1202 can't be replaced later without taking out a bunch of skin rivets. Reference: P. 06-05, Fig. 2 and for the F-1210B look at P. 10-02. And the plans do say to final drill the F-1210B holes to #12.

Tony

 

[steve wyman]

Tony- I did talk to the folks at VANS, and they said they would look in to it. I hope this means that they will post a revision for that page. Steve

 

[Gandalf]

The bolts are a very tight fit in the holes without the final drill to #12, and the nutplate will have to be exactly lined up with the hole or you would not be able to start the bolt, at least not without possiblity of damaging the threads in the nutplates.

Hi Tony... I am still working on my wing, but I also am fearful about damaging any nut plates. I still use the old reverse to click method when inserting machine screws/ bolts into nuts and it seems to work well with these nut plates. For those not familiar with this technique, one simply turns the screw or bolt in the reverse direction with light pressure until one hears or feels a click as the threads line up. Stop at this point and drive the screw or bolt in the proper direction. This technique decreases the chance of cross threading.

Jeff

 

[Flyer68]

Reamers

This is the perfect place for a reamer. Instead of using a drill bit to size a hole, use a reamer. A friend of mine brought this to my attention and they really work slick. You can ream a hole to size w/the nut plate in place,if you can get to the hole from the other side. There is no burr w/a reamer and they are easier than a drill bit to use. I have a couple #30'sm 40's and 12's.

 

[sam richards]

Reaming holes

Just a mention on the use of reamers, be sure to test the intended reamer/fastener combination on a similar piece of scrap material. Some nominal reamer sizes will create fits that are larger than expected. I used a .250" reamer for an AN4 tailwheel spring bolt and found the fit too loose and had to use an oversized NAS bolt to get a closer fit. SR

 

[jrs14855]

REAMERS

AN bolts typically measure .0025-.003 under the nominal size. I just measured three AN6 bolts at .3722,.3725/.3725. MSC Supply has reamers available in .372, .373, .374 and .3745. Similar variety for use with other AN bolt sizes. I keep a variety of reamers for AN5 and larger so I can ream to a light drive fit. For AN 4 and larger I normally use the fractional size reamer.