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ROBERT'S WEB SITE
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Date: 8-11-2012
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Number of Hours: 6.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Left wing skeleton riveting
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At last, some rivets were set in these ribs.
Before riveting each rib to the front spar, I took care of one item not mentioned in the plans. Each main rib shares four holes with the front spar flanges. I did not drill these holes out when I was drilling the ribs back on 7/21 & 7/22. These holes are for attaching the upper and lower main skins and I suspect you probably machine countersink the spar flanges. Even though I am not drilling the skins yet, I thought it best to drill out and debur these holes. I did this drill and debur step for each rib as I went – working outboard to inboard.
Starting with the left wing, I used a semi-back riveting technique I saw on another builder’s log. Here is the process - clamp one end of the spar to the work table at about the height of your favorite bucking bar and then support the rest of the spar with a similar intermediate support. The far end of the spar is then cantilevered out past your intermediate support and will bend up and down with a little pressure allowing you to use your work table to back up the bucking bar. With the spar is cantilevered over your bucking bar, and with a little pressure from your rivet gun hand you can bend the spar enough to cause the end of the rivet to meet the bucking bar and off you go. With the inertia of the work table it works pretty well. No bouncing of the bucking bar off the rivet. As you move down the spar, you need to adjust you intermediate support location to get the right amount of flex for each rib location. Shims can help. Eventually you need to reverse the clamped spar end from the inboard end to the outboard end to get the rest of the ribs.
I got 10 of the 14 ribs done today. Had to drill out and replace quite a few. Smiley’s, stepped shop heads, smeared factory heads, you name it, and I produced it.
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Stiff side of the spar clamped to the table
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Just high enough to fit the bucking bar underneath
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Drilling an deburing each rib as I went
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