Now it was time to finish up with riveting on the inboard and outboard ends of the elevators. The first step was to rivet the inboard ribs to the rear spar. Although space was tight due to the angle of the inboard rib end flanges, these were easily set using the Main Squeeze and the 4" thin nose yoke.
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| Shop heads holding the inboard rib end flange to the rear spar |
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| Manufactured heads (sitting in the dimples) holding the rear spar to the inboard rib end flange |
Next I tackled riveting the inboard ribs to the elevator gussets. Although space was tight, I managed to buck the rivets to spec without issue. I did put duct tape over the manufactured head of the rivets while setting them and that helped to minimize scuffing of the rib and rivet head, which will be touched up with primer later.
I also found that my decision to. leave open the 4 holes along the bottom rear spar allowed me to push the bottom skin back just far enough to get my fingers under the bucking bar while setting the bottom rivet on the gusset. This made it much easier to hold the bucking bar steady and securely.
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| Gusset rivets are done |
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| Minimal scuffing of the inboard rib after riveting (will be touched up with primer) |
Once the gussets were fully riveted, I completed riveting of the bottom skin to the spars and inboard rib using the pneumatic squeezer for most of the rivets. I switched to the Main Squeeze to set the rivets around the elevator horns because I needed better control squeezing around the rivets holding the horn in place.
On the top skin I only riveted the remainder of the skin to the front spar. I'll rivet the top skin to the inboard rib after attaching the trim tab hinge to the skin and rear spar.
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| Bottom skin closed out at inboard end of elevator |
Next I clecoed the tip ribs to the elevators.
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| Time to attach the tip ribs |
After ensuring the ribs were square to the elevators, I proceeded to rivet the tip ribs to the shear clips at the ends of the rear spars. I initially imagined having to buck these, but the rivets were easily set using the Main Squeeze hand squeezer and the 4" thin nose yoke.
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| Perfectly set rivets holding the tip rib to the shear clip |
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| No scuffing on the exterior thanks to the Main Squeeze squeezer |
I then tackled riveting the tip rib flanges to the front spars. These rivets are harder to squeeze as you have to lift the corner of the skin to gain access to the shop head. They were, however, manageable using my short 1" x 1" x 2 1/4" tungsten bucking bar and the appropriate 1/8" cup set (double offset or straight) at the rivet gun. There was some minor scuffing of the primer on the inside of the spar flanges, but I may touch that up later with a q-tip through the lightening hole.
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| Rib flange to spar. Minimal scuffing of primer. |
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| Rib flange to spar. Again minimal scuffing which I will touch up with primer. |
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| Some scuffing on the inside of the tip rib/spar which can be touched up through the lightening hole |
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| Some more scuffing to touch up in the other elevator |
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| Manufactured heads on tip rib looking good... |
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| ...and also on the other tip rib |
The next steps in the plans call for completion of the riveting of skins to front spar and tip ribs. The tricky rivets are the two counterbalance skin to elevator skin rivets on the top skin that call for solid rivets to be used. After reviewing other builder logs and some thought on how best to hold the bucking bar to reach these rivets, I decided that it would be difficult to get a good rivet set this way and the risk of damaging the skin was too great. So I went ahead and completed setting the exterior skin to spar/rib rivets with the pneumatic squeezer.
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| Skins riveted to front spar and tip ribs. Only two inner rivets remaining on each side. |
Now I have two options to set the inner rivets
- Use MK319-BS blind rivets on both the top and bottom skins. This is the easier option, and once filled and painted will be barely noticeable, or
- Maneuver a bucking bar through the lightening hole on the front spar and set solid rivets. This is the harder option, but should allow me to set solid rivets on both the top and bottom skins.
I'll think it over some more, but in the meantime will continue on with the build and revisit these rivets later before I roll the elevator leading edges.
Build Hints
- Use duct tape over rivet manufactured heads when bucking to minimize scuffing of surrounding aluminum and/or damage to the heads. Duct tape will get torn up when bucking at higher PSI so may need to be replaced once or twice while setting the rivet.
- Leaving the bottom skin rear spar holes open inboard of the last interior rib made it much easier to hold the bucking bar securely while riveting the bottom gusset rivet.
- Use a hand squeezer to rivet the tip ribs to the shear clips.
- A shorter, fatter bucking bar works well to rivet the tip ribs to the front spars as it is easier to hold and align with the rivet in the tight space beneath the skins
Time Taken: 7.0 hours
Dates: December 24 - December 26 2022, January 1 - January 3 2023
Elevators Total Time: 77.9 hours
RV-10 Build Total Time: 241.6 hours
Priming Total Time: 26.4 hours (not included in build time totals)
