After a long week of not being able to put too much time into the plane, I was able to really hunker down this weekend and set my hands to the elevators. I was pretty much able to get them completely assembled and match drilled (but not the skins – that’s another 6 hour epic I am imagining). Lots of interesting parts here, but I get the sense that this will be similar in a few ways to the rudder in that I see the ribs inside of the skins are separated and can be back riveted to the skins on either side. I’m looking forward to that if it is indeed true. Some of my best rivets were back rivets.
Nothing terribly exciting and no new exotic procedures here, but I did get to use my step drill bit on my drill press to create some 5/8″ holes, which was pretty nice. It took a minute to set up, but it’s always nice to have the right tool for the job and not be fumbling about trying to see how you can do it with what you have on hand.
Here they are! I just realized that as a side note, I have to compliment the EAA Chapter 1000 table design. These tables have been fantastic to work on and store items on. I honestly believe that for as simple of a tool as a table is, these two tables quite possibly are my favorite “tool” of this build so far.
Just a zoomed in version of one of the elevators. I’m happy with how bending turned out on the four tabs that had to be created from the flat top and bottom skins for the elevators.
All totaled up, this was quite a marathon day and I was pleased to have all of it done. I’m looking forward to getting the skins match drilled and moving on to the next priming day again.
I get a sense that I’m falling in to a good rhythm at this point. I know that at each stage I will likely end up:
- Deburring all of the parts
- Assemble the parts
- Match drill all necessary holes
- Disassemble
- Countersink any necessary flanges
- Deburr all holes and any missed parts
- Prime
- Dimple
- Reassemble
- Rivet together
- Store somewhere in garage and stare longingly at it for another year or two
Easy right?
Total time today = 6.5 hours
Total time empennage = 82 hours
Total time aircraft = 82 hours