Brief Description: Hard to Get to Rudder Horn Rivets
Spent a lot of time in the shop tonight trying to figure out how to buck the rivets inside the rudder horn but I decided to only log the 2 hours that I actually spent working on the rudder. I figured that the time trying to get smoke to stop coming out of my ears shouldn't count.
When I first started today I riveted the counterweight skin (upper center of 1st picture) to the rudder skin and the rudder spar. Those rivets were easy to get to and I had relatively little problem with them. Next I riveted the rudder tip rib (bottom center of 1st picture) with blind rivets.
Next I tried to rivet the rudder skin to the lower rib and rudder horn (2nd picture). The only way to access the shop head side of those rivets is through the hole in the rudder horn. The problem is that none of my bucking bars fit in that hole. Pop and I spent a long time taking a piece of steel and grinding angles on it so that a side would fit flush against the rivet. One of us would hold the bucking bat and the other would operate the rivet gun. Because the edge of the bucking bar was narrow, it was easy to let it slip off center while riveting and it would split the shop head. I don't remember how many rivets I had to drill out but we finally got them all to set. Not sure if the pictures show it but there are several places where the bucking bar scratched the primer off the aluminum inside the rudder horn. I plan to clean those scratches up and prime them the next time I mix up a batch of primer.
That was about it for today. Tomorrow I'll set the rest of the rudder skin-to-structure rivets and work on the rudder trailing edge.
Almost forgot - I also went to Lowes and bought two pieces of aluminum angle to use to keep the rudder trailing edge straight when I glue the trailing edge wedge between both skins. I clamped the angle to the trailing edge and drilled matching holes in the angles. That will make more sense when I do that and post the pictures.
Riveted Counterbalance Skin to Rudder Skin and Spar & Installed Tip Rib
