Elevator match drilling, disassembly, deburring

With the rudder buttoned up, we switched back to match-drilling the elevators.

I fitted the elevator control horns to the respective spars and match drilled the holes to #30.

Next up was match-drilling the skins to the understructure. These 1" and 1/2" jaw cleco clamps made matching up and drilling the non-factory punched holes a breeze.

I had some help disassembling the right elevator...

But the left was on me.

We finished the day with 2 piles of parts ready for deburring, edge finishing and dimpling!

Brian Judge came over for a couple of hours Saturday to help me puzzle through fabricating the support brackets for the wing stand. No pictures, but we carved up a lot of aluminum angle preparing for it.

Sunday we were back at it with Erin deburring & stripping rivet lines while I machine countersunk holes in the main spars, end ribs and E-606 top flange.

Many builders modify a microstop countersink cage to access holes close to the rib flanges, but I found that careful use of a manual hole deburring tool with a countersink bit gave me a clean result - in come cases better than my drill press with the cage installed!

Another good couple of sessions, more parts ready for priming, and a daughter who said she had a fun weekend and wished we had another day. Can't ask for more than that.

 

 

Empennage: 7 hrs

Rudder complete!

I put off back-riveting the trailing edge as long as I could, and finally ran out of excuses. I decided to follow several other builders' paths and alternate shop head/manufactured head to try to limit any distortion (Van's limits deviation from a line stretched from top to bottom of the rudder along the trailing edge to 0.10").

 First I taped in half of the rivets, then followed Van's instructions, partially setting every 10th rivet, then every 6th.

 The 3x rivet gun with a back-rivet set at about 40 PSI made this easy, and I was glad to have practiced this in the EAA Sportair Workshop.

 The rivet set starts vertical relative to the rivet, and after a few taps swings perpendicular to the surface of the skin.

 After partially setting all rivets on one side, I flipped the rudder over, finish-set the rivets with the mushroom head rivet set on a swivel at 50 PSI. Once this was done, I repeated the above steps on the opposite side.

I did manage to slightly mar the skin in 2 spots, but all rivets were set clean with good shop heads, and our deviation measured at 0.0470", so we're within tolerance. Whew!

 The last step (for forming metal, anyway) involves rolling the leading edge. Some people buy new dowels for this...

 It took some finesse & re-rolling, but all 3 sections came together.

 I squeezed some pop rivets, and voila - another finished part!!

I still need to install rod-end bearings (which allow the rudder to connect to the vertical stabilizer), and install the fiberglass top and bottom, but I'm calling this one complete.

 

 

Empennage: 2 hrs

Right elevator stiffeners backriveted

I snuck out to the garage for an hour to back-rivet the stiffeners onto the right elevator and bend the skin. No pics, but we're back on track!

Empennage: 1 hr