Brief Description: Began Riveting the Horizontal Stabilizer
As I suspected, the chemical etching properties of the primer left much to be desired. The primer fell off of a few small areas that I did not adequately scuff with the Scotchbrite pad with not much more than a glance at them. First order of the day was to correct that issue. I next marked all of the rib attach holes in the rear spar so that I wouldn't accidently rivet them before their time. I set up the pneumatic squeezer with longeron yoke and attached the spar reinforcement bars to the channel and then the hinge brackets. Unfortunately, I am missing one AN3-5A bolt so I could not attach the HS-411PP center bearing to the spar. I pressed on to the front spar and attached HS-710 and HS-714. Almost immediately I put a "smiley" face in a rivet. This gave me an entirely new definition of the "RV grin." I have included a picture of it below so that those of you that completed your plane without having to drill out a bad rivet will know what one looks like! I wish that I could report that it was the only rivet to be drilled out today, but that would be less than truthful. Attaching the skin was not difficult but I did struggle with trying to blind rivet HS-702 to HS-707 and HS-708. I riveted the skin on using a steel bucking bar. The two bars that I currently have are not ideal in shape for this particular job. One was too large and the second had a work surface that was too narrow and I let it slip from the rivet several times. I hope to get my tungsten bucking bar and 4" no hole yoke from Avery in the next day or so. I need to place an order for some "oops" rivets (got a feeling I will need some soon), some more bolts and perhaps the Stewart System primer and etch. I'll use the tungsten bar on the right side of the HS and see if it lives up to the hype. SEE ADDED NOTES on 01-08-11 regarding the trimming of HS-603PP. This would have been better to do prior to riveting.
