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BRENDAN'S WEB SITE
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Date: 2-11-2015
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Number of Hours: 4.00
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Manual Reference: 6-04 to 6-05
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Brief Description: Vertical stab skeleton assembly
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At the completion of pages 6-04 and 6-05, we have something that really looks like an airplane part. However, Kevin and I have a problem that will prevent us from actually COMPLETING any of these parts. We live in the Salt Air Capital of America (Portsmouth and Rye, NH), also known as the Corrosion Capital of America, so we are concerned about corrosion.
Just about all the RV-12 parts are aluminum alloy, which can degrade with corrosion. However, they are covered in an outer layer of pure aluminum ("al-clad"), which will prevent the degradation. However (2), we've been inadvertently, but necessarily, removing some of the cladding by deburring pieces.
So what can we do to prevent degrading corrosion on parts that are no longer alclad? We can prime them - spray them with an etching primer that will provide corrosion. Of course this has to be done before we can permanently assemble any parts with rivets.
However. The primer is pretty toxic, so we don't want to apply it inside, and it's too cold to apply it outside. So, we're limited to preparing and temporarily assembling parts. The riveting will come in the spring.
In 6-04 and 6-05, we prepare and assemble the spars, ribs and associated parts to put together the vertical stab skeleton assembly. The big new skill developed in this step is countersinking - shaving off metal around drilled holes so a flush rivet can be completely inserted. There are two ways to do this. One is a machine countersinking tool that attaches to a drill or drill press. The other is a hand-held countersinking tool. We ran into a problem because the first tool seemed to make the drill holes wider (bad). However, the hanf-held tool worked fine.
The first picture shows the partially assembled skeleton (that's me). The second picture shows the fully assembled skeleton (that's Kevin).
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Upper and lower ribs attached to front spar
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Vertical stab skeleton assembled
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