Thursday December 28, 2006
Right Elevator Stiffener Prep (Right Elevator)
3.0 Hours

I got a few new goodies from my folks for my shop over the holidays.

A new, more efficient space heater for the garage. I had it running on a moderate setting last night and the garage was soon pushing 70.

A stool to sit on while I do my work.

Also, a dead tree version of the AC43-13 manuals, an inspection mirror, and a nut plate drill jig.

I think I might get a few more nice things in January for my birthday, as well.

I got to work tonight finishing up the right elevator stiffeners. I used some Emery cloth to finish their edges and deburred their rivet wholes with the usual tools.

I also deburred all of the stiffener holes in the skin and dimpled them with the Avery deep throat hand dimpling tool. The holes in the trailing edge area of the skin were impossible to dimple that way, and I had to use the nifty pop-rivet puller dimpling method. It consists of two dimple dies with holes through the center, a nail, and your blind rivet puller. You put one die on either side of the skin with the nail running through, pull with the rivet puller, and there's your dimple. It doesn't come out as crisp as using the squeezer or hand dimpling tool, but it's pretty good.

Next up: dimple the stiffeners, clean and prime, and backrivet the stiffeners to the right eleveator. At some point, I may also rivet the trailing edge of my rudder.

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