13/11/2007 - Onwards with the rudder skeleton

Today I moved onto rivetting the horn brace area at the base of the rudder.  A little tricky to get everything just right in here and the vice was used to keep everything straight and in position.  A mixture of bucking and squeezing was used put the majority of rivets in.

Then came the horn brace; now you can use pop rivets here but as I had a longeron yolk for the squeezer I did not need the pop rivets and continue with solids.  I was pleased with the result as well.

Once I had sorted the horn area I moved onto fitting the counterbalance rib; counterbalance and the counterbalance skin.  Having a 4" no hole yolk came in handy as I could squeeze the rivets for the counterbalance skin rather than buck.  The counterweight is a tight fit once the rivets are in place for the skin so some shaving is required to get the right fit.

The screw bolts basically have a torque value of an AN3 bolt which is 20-25 in lbs.  Heard that a number of builders over torque these so I was careful to get it right.  Through in a smidgen of Duralac as well between the screw bolts and the counterweight....well it cant hurt can it!