I got up before work this morning and started on putting together the short steel pushrods that go from the bellcrank to the aileron itself. I sanded the inside of the chromoloy steel tubing to allow the fitting that need to drilled and riveted into place to slide in. I then laid out the hole locations with masking tape and applied them to the ends of one of the rods to drill the holes as accurately as possible. I then deburred the holes and with :15 left I thought I would go ahead and rivet the fittings into place when disaster struck. The AN470-4-12 rivets are alittle long for the application and smashing rivets into round tubing is a little different. I managed to mangle all 4 rivets pretty good. I will have to drill at least 2 of the 4 out tomorrow morning - ugh. 4 steps forward 1 step back. The FAA regulation that allows kitbuilders to fabricate airplanes at home, says "for education and recreation", this is certainly an education.
I laid out the dimensions on tape and applied them to the round tube to orient the holes.
Drilling the holes with the drillpress made it pretty easy. I wouldn't try this with a hand drill.
Mangled rivets! I am hoping I don't have to replace the whole assembly.
