Brief Description: Continued riveting the left wing
Continued assembling and riveting the left wing. A few of the solid rivets split when I set them using the 1/2" bolt, so they had to be replaced. Got must better at removing rivets without enlarging the holes.
A couple of things that I've done different than what I've seen on other builders sites:
To use the bucking bar, some guys either use in directly on the cement floor (to keep it from bouncing) or they give up all together and use a rivet gun. What I did instead, was to drill and tap into the bottom of the buckling bar, and attach a scrap piece of 1/4" steel I had laying around. When I screw this steel to my bench, right over a 4X4 leg, it's as solid as a rock. Plus the screws are easy to remove so I can turn the bucking bar 180 easy, and the bucking bar doesn't move when I move the spar over the top of it.
Another thing I did that really worked well was to take a small piece of hardwood and drill a hole in it just big enough to fit over the rivet. When the rivet is in place over the backing bar just before I whack the rivet, I put the hardwood piece over the top of the rivet and give it a good whack. It really makes sure the rivet is fully inserted and takes up any space between the aluminum sheets being riveted together. Plus, it doesn't scratch up the aluminum.
