13/10/2007 - Vertical Stabiliser Rear Spar & Skeleton

Its quite refreshing moving back onto another part and as I was held up on the other parts of the empennage it was time to do some more work on the vertical stabiliser.

It starts with the rear spar and doubler; and not forgetting the brackets.  You have to look at the plans carefully as there lots of different types and sizes of rivets for this part.

The bottom section of the rear spar get flush rivets so that the spar fits flush against the fuselage.

I really enjoy putting the rear spar together and maybe that's why I got carried away and did not stare and state again at the plans.  In the second picture below you can see three rivets with crosses on them.  Yes you guessed it I should not have riveted these holes yet, because a rib attaches here...sigh.  They are huge rivets to drill out as well; but anyway the next two pictures show a successful recovery and three rivets wasted !! good job there are plenty :-) 

After that I riveted the skeleton together I must of been tired as well because I belted the top of one rivet and put not just a smiley but a gash in the top of the rivet.

I normally just use a centre punch and a drill; which is how I was taught to do it, but with a gash in it, I could not tell where the centre of the rivet was.  It took ten minutes of agony before I remembered I had a rivet removal tool.  I had given myself a hard time for buying it as I never used it juts following the use of centre punch and drill.  Its now worth its weight in gold, as I could have easily trashed parts of the skeleton meaning being set back some time.  It drilled out the mangled rivet a treat; no damage to the other parts.  I rest a new rivet being a little more careful and called it a night.   Tomorrow I will cleco the skin onto the skeleton.