I had an excellent time away over a super long Labor Day weekend getaway with some wonderful people. It certainly made it easier to be away from the RV (as easy as that can be of course). I took an overnight red eye to get home and was pretty jet lagged, but wanted to get out to the shop and at least survey the scene and get reacquainted with where I was at in the process. First, while I was away, my new narrow body female 3/32 dimple die arrived.
On this peg board, the top left die is the standard female 3/32, the next one down is the male 3/32, then the third one down on the left column is my new narrow body female 3/32. Without question, I was excited to put this to use. I was not getting deep enough dimples using any of the other procedures I had read about on Van’s Airforce or any message board so I just sucked it up and bought the right tool. As always, half the battle is just having the right tool for the job from the beginning.
On the top you can see the reason I really wanted this new die. I had to dimple these smaller pieces to receive the flush rivets and the dimples from the pieces attached. The bottom piece in the picture above is what the other side looks like once riveted. The flush rivets look great and I am incredibly happy I got the new dimple die (I’ve said that already haven’t I??). One final side note – this picture looks like garbage. The spots where it looks like I haven’t deburred or the metal looks bent or pressed wrong simply aren’t there. It is some weird combination of glare of pixelation or something but hard as I try these imperfections just do not appear in real life.
Finally – I have just hit 100 total hours of work on the plane. In many ways it feels like less than that as I have not tired of it one bit. Well, maybe the deburring, but I’m happy to do it so that I can keep moving on the fun parts. No real reflections at this point or anything profoundly introspective I suppose, but that could change at a moment’s notice.
More to come in a little bit including some thoughts about the wing kit…
Total time today = 1 hour
Total time empennage = 100 hours
Total time aircraft = 100 hours