Alex's Vans RV-10 Build Log

While waiting for suitable weather to finish priming elevator parts I decided to prepare the trailing edge and trim tab foam ribs from the provided foam blocks and templates. I checked the printed dimensions of the templates and they all checked out, so I went ahead and photocopied the templates so that I could retain the originals. Rib templates cut and ready to apply The templates were cut out and glued to the foam using a regular spray adhesive. Foam ribs ready to be cut I cut the foam ribs to rough size using the band saw, and finished them on the belt/disc sander. Everything went smoothly, and I just had to make sure I didn't take off too much material especially where cutting space was tight between the template tracings. All ten foam ribs turned out nicely I also peeled off the paper after forming the ribs, as I was worried it would degrade over time and cause issues if I just left it on there and proceeded with rib attachment. I found it easiest to loosen the paper at the v...

The elevators were now ready for priming, so I set aside time at the weekend and decided to prime the parts in the following order Left elevator small parts All skins and spars Right elevator small parts This would make it easier to keep track of left vs. right elevator parts, and make better use of the space I had available. Left elevator parts labeled and masked on exterior surfaces that I didn't want to prime Skins and spars were cleaned with EkoEtch outdoors with easy access to a hose for rinsing EkoEtched parts are ready for priming Trailing edge and foam rib locations taped off. I found that 3/4" Scotch gift wrap tape was the perfect width for taping off the foam rib locations I decided to prime in the garage due to the colder temperatures outdoors. My garage was at around 70 degrees which was perfect for priming with EkoPrime. Using my priming table to prime the parts Primed spars and skins curing on the work bench I was very happy with how the primer went on in this pr...

It was time to start dimpling and countersinking the holes in the rest of the elevator parts. I began by dimpling the skins using the DRDT-2. This was easy as the skins are flat. I used the Main Squeeze to dimple the holes in the closeout tabs with  1/8" 120 degree dies that conform to the CS4-4 rivets to be used there. Skins dimpled, except for trailing edges to be dimpled later I then worked on dimpling the front and rear spars. The front spar is easy to dimple using the pneumatic squeezer. The rear spar took a little more effort as there are 29 holes that need to be countersunk, while the rest are dimpled. While countersinking the rear spar I ran into an issue with chatter as I was working on the second hole. My initial countersinking setup was as follows. 1st attempt at countersinking the rear spar. I had a strip of wood with holes drilled into it onto which I rested the rear spar flange. I used a sheet of aluminum from the empennage trim kit to help support the countersink c...

Continuing on with assembling the elevators, I deburred the edges of the trim access reinforcement plates and clecoed them into the elevators. There was no need to final size the holes. I also deburred and attached the elevator gussets and clecoed them to the root ribs and the rear spar. There was no need to adjust the angles of the gussets to fit, but I did have to final drill the 4 holes in the gussets and matching holes in the spar and rib from #40 to #30. Reinforcement plates and gussets attached prior to final drilling Next, I attached the two remaining shear clips to the rear spars, and the assembled tip ribs to the elevators. The E-904 rib rests inside the front spar, with the counterbalance skin resting over the front spar, and the elevator skin over the counterbalance skin. Tip rib attached to the elevator prior to attaching the top skin With the elevator skeleton fully assembled, I proceeded to cleco the top skins in place. No issues here and the skin close out tabs fit toget...

Continuing on with elevator parts prep, I deburred the edges of the 4 elevator skins, the two fronts spars, and doubler plates. With the completed horizontal stabilizer stored safely away on a shelf, I had lots of room to spread parts around on my workbenches making deburring significantly easier. I then deburred the matching holes in the doubler plates and spars as they were already final drilled. After a few hours of deburring, it was time to start doing something different. The next steps had me bending the tabs on the elevator skins. I had to ensure that the tabs were bent in the correct directions because that then designated the skins as left and right, but I had previously already marked the skins so figuring out the orientation of the tabs was easy. I used two blocks of wood in which to sandwich the skin, with the top edge of the bottom wood block radiused to 1/16" so that the skin bend would not be too sharp (and risk cracking later). After marking the bend line, I carefu...