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Shooting the back rivet approach

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BACK RIVET TIME – BUT FIRST ANOTHER MOVE

Sadly, it has been three weeks since I have laid a finger on the RV. This time has been filled with a combination of vacation and work trips. One undeniably better than the other. I spent a good deal of time on forums and builder pages looking at how people addressed these bottom skins. One idea that had a lot of merit was simply transferring the tailcone to my work tables and back riveting the skins. I moved the tailcone and ran a few test rivets to see if I would get consistent, high quality results.

Moved the tailcone on to the work tables

The move went well. I had to reorganize some clecos so that I wasn’t interfering with the table tops, but overall that was minor bookkeeping.

TEST ROW OF BACK RIVETS

I propped up and balanced the skins on various cloth covered surfaces to prevent scratching. Then I placed the back rivet plate under the area that I was going to be riveting and went to work. I was extremely pleased with the result.

Results from the test section

This is certainly time consuming because I go to extremes to protect the skins as I’m turning and rotating the tailcone in order to place and then drive the rivets. Given the results though, I will continue this method for as many locations as I can in the remainder of the tailcone.

Lots of back rivets completed

Pretty successful day! I do like the back rivet methodology and will continue forward until it is no longer practical.

Total time today – 3.5 hours
Total time empennage – 183 hours
Total time aircraft – 183 hours

 

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