I have to start by glowing once more about how well the priming turned out. Working with all these primed parts has been so easy and I am glad that I waited to dimple until after the priming. I can now see how everyone says it is more difficult to prime dimpled skins and ribs.
On to dimpling! Once I got it all set up, it was actually quite fun to get started doing this. I can imagine a time and place where dimpling will grow tedious and old, but so far it is one of those things that has been fairly quick and shown results pretty rapidly. I can’t say enough about the DRDT2 dimpler. It provides consistent, accurate dimples with every pull. I have really enjoyed using it even though I’ve only done the vertical stabilizer parts so far with it.
There are some limitations of course with any dimpling device. I couldn’t reach a handful of holes with the DRDT2 so I had to use the squeezer for some of the edges, which was just plain fun to get out and use, and I had to use the pop riveter with the dimple die attachments on it. This also went better than I expected. I had never used a pop riveter before (not that I can imagine a whole lot of people who would have prior to building their first aircraft) so I was a tad nervous about the mechanics as I did not intrinsically see how it worked. Once I loaded the dies on and gave it a pull on a test piece it all came together pretty quickly for me. Honestly it is an incredibly easy to understand and use piece of machinery. I got good results and moved on to dimpling the ribs.
The results of the normal dimples on top and the pop rivet ones on the bottom. Pretty consistent I’d say.
I will come right out and say it – I’m a fan of the DRDT2. I am also quite happy that I made the recommended carpet covered table addition to go along with it. I can’t imagine trying to pivot the skins around that opening while avoiding scratching them up badly. The squeezer, the DRDT2, and the pop riveter were all experimented with on this one skin and they all performed beautifully. I did end up changing the direction of the dies at times to make it easier to get to some areas but that was a good lesson learned in dimpling technique.
I also had another “whoops” on the plane today. Notice the rivet on the lower left side with the huge crease in it. Nice work Kyle. I got the cup set on my squeezer shifted off to the side and pulled the trigger on the squeezer and next thing you know – boom. Bogus rivet. The evidence is in pictures above. I’ll be drilling that guy out tomorrow night because it got late today and I wasn’t up for learning yet another new skill (drilling out rivets) after 11p.
I used a rivet gauge on each rivet to test out and make sure that they were all within specification for diameter and height and they all worked out great. I really enjoyed dialing in the squeezer for these. I will say that the sheet that came with the squeezer for recommended gaps between the sets is a bit conservative and I found that experience proves to be a better guide.
Tomorrow I drill out a rivet. Yay. Nothing like learning a new skill that is exclusively used to compensate for your inadequacies with another skill (I joke – I don’t think anyone has ever completed an aircraft without drilling out at least a handful of rivets along the way).
Total time today = 2.5 hours
Total time empennage = 27 hours
Total time aircraft = 27 hours