Horizontal Stabilizer Completed

Over the weekend and into the week nights I made it a point to go out in the garage and work on the build even if I only had a few minutes.  The mundane actions of deburring, match drilling and dimpling really beat you down after some time.  Breaking it up into 30 mins here or there is almost like sprinting... force yourself to go a little bit more and then stop... recover and go again. I didn't take pictures of the match drilling part because it's really not that exciting, but it has to be done so that's what I did.  After that disassembled the HS and laid all the parts out ensuring they were properly labeled and clear of any sharp edges.

Dimpling the substructure pieces is easy.  My youngest daughter even made a comment about how fast I was at it now.  I just use the pneumatic squeezer, place it on my thigh and just run the part through it.  I have to at times make myself slow down, so I don't end up accidentally putting unneeded holes into the pieces.   Same with the skins, just use the squeezer on all the edges you can get to and the Cframe and table for the rest.   I got bored extremely fast on the Cframe, it may have taken 2 hours to dimple the skins but that was broken out into an entire day... I would go hit it for 20 mins and then go do something else.  I did feel I improved my technique... I used to double tap with a mallet but now I just do a single strike.  That seems to work as well and in the off chance it pops out of the hole I don't end up hitting it again and making a dimple or hole where it doesn't need to be.

For where the nose ribs go you can't bend the skin enough to use the Cframe, nor can you use the squeezer.  Instead you use a cherry 'pop' rivet gun and a close quarters dimple set.  I've read someone used this on their entire RV build... that would add hundreds of hours to an RV-10 build.

Dimple die set

Ensure dimple side is where you want it.

Apply enough pressure to squeeze set together, too much you're break it.

Finished dimple

After all dimples were complete I was ready to get to priming.  Given the amount of substructure pieces and the importance of position I labeled all pieces to include the spars to increase my chances of getting it put back together correctly.  During the process of cleaning with PreKote all the ink goes away so my method was to line the pieces up in order and flip them once clean so when they were dry I could relabel.

Another note is you have to countersink about 300 holes on the spars after they've already been primed once.  I decided to reprime the flanges after countersinking and cleaning the holes.

After 24 hours I was ready to start putting the stringer assembly together with rivets and then start cleco'ing up the Horizontal Stabilizer together.  A little time saver tip is you don't need to cleco every single hole.  Space them out by about 3 or 4 and then all cross-section pieces and if there are some holes that don't line up then you can put them in every hole in that area.

Surprisingly I was able to knock out all the skin riveting and finally assembly in one long evening.  It takes a lot of time to rivet.  Things that slow you down are when you mess up a rivet and have to drill it out.  Or just taking the time to get the bucking bar in place and then focusing on using the gun.  I'm not sure how I feel about some of my riveting.  For example, some of the nose ribs seems to have a bit of an indention to it.  From videos I've seen and people I've talked to this is normal... not every rivet you drive is going to be 'perfect'.  All the scuffs, scratches, dents and dings as long as they're not major can get fixed prior to paint.  I assume it's akin to using Bondo as a filler on a car, not really sure how that will work with rivets though...  Guess I'll figure that out later.

As a perfectionist this bothers me....

Another possible time saver is I watched a video of a guy doing the HS skin and it looked like he did every rivet one at a time.  Place the rivet in, get the bar set and rivet... rinse repeat.  I did this for about 5 rivets and figured the tape method would work better.  So that's what I did, laid the HS... well horizontal and placed the row of rivets in where I wanted to lay them.  Using clecos in specific places helped keep everything together.  The rest was a matter of starting on the inner section and moving outward.  That kept everything in place, similar to placing a cleco right next to the hole you're riveting. Took a bit of set up time to do this but once I was ready to drive the rivets I put the HS back up vertically and just moved down the line, bucking bar in one hand, rivet gun in the other.  Even with having to drill out about 5 rivets it still took me maybe 3 hours max for the inside rivets.

Taped rivets over forward spar

With the end in sight I pushed on to do the rest of the riveting.  The last set of 200 or so rivets can be done with the squeezer.  Was able to just lay them all out and just roll through them along with the web cherry rivets and thus completing the HS stabilizer.

I look rough after hours of riveting!

Speaking of cleaning my garage/workshop was bothering me the last couple days with partially completed pieces, drying pieces and in general a mess to look at and work in.  So, I took a few minutes to get everything organized and ready to jump back to the elevator.

Horizontal Stabilizer continued

Feels good to be back on track with the HS.  In other news I did receive my replacement elevator spar so will prep that at some point to prime in my next batch.  That said, pushing on with the HS assembly I was able to rivet the spar, inspar caps, doubler and fabricated brackets together.  This took a little while mainly because of the variety of rivets used and each set requires some dialing in of the squeezer to get a 'perfect' rivet.  Getting to a point where I can eyeball some of these and I'll know how it will line up with the rivet gauge when I check them.

Next step involves preparing all the ribs used on the sub-assembly.  There's some trimming involved which was pretty straight forward and easy to do with some sheers. You trim two flanges off two and four flanges off another set.

Typically, I deburr each piece as I remove the blue coating.  Wasn't sure how much of that I did on all the various rib pieces, so I went through and double checked everything, running over the Scotch Brite pad as well as some manual cleaning with a file.

The plans also called for some fluting... now I've had to watch several videos, such as this and this to grasp the concept of what I'm doing.  In action though it takes a little bit to really get a feel for it.  I didn't want to over flute these pieces so I just put some gentle flutes so the piece lays flat.

Some ribs also required a bit of bending given where they are at in the substructure.  Following the plans, I guestimated the 9 degree angle asked for.  Since the skins are prepunched I can line them up in a more precise manner when I cleco'd to the skins.

There seemed to be a discrepancy in the plan's vs the parts.  It appears Vans changed their nose ribs at some point and now they have some large lightening holes prepunched into the piece.  This step called to drill a large oval hole in the rib to run trim cables through later.  A bit confused I searched around, and it seems others noticed this and now this step isn't needed.  Rather than take their word for it I measured where the hole would have been and its smack dab in the center of the prepunched hole so I moved on.

Got to the point where I can use my homemade cradles and start assembly of the substructure to the skins.  Ensuring everything was numbered (ribs and spar) so I can ensure I get it reassembled correctly (since I match drilled) I started piecing it all in place and attaching with clecos.

Instead of calling it a night I decided to keep going and button this baby up.  Worked on the stringer, attaching those together and then placing in their respected spots on the subassembly.  Then comes putting the other spar on with clecos.  Got to a step that requires me to put a stringer web in between the stringers and attached to the inner spar ribs.  Problem is I don't have a drill small enough to allow me to match drill these #30 holes... so decided that's a good time to call it a night.

Horizontal Stabilizer ready for match drilling.

Horizontal Stabilizer Part Duex

Replacement Spar

With my "dimple vs countersink" mistake on one of the elevator spars that leaves me at a standstill for that section.  I suppose I could go ahead with the trim tab but having three separate pieces in progress might be a bit confusing.  With that in mind and my replacement HS spar arriving I decided to jump back to that section for my 'do over'.

The part had to arrive by freight and was nicely shipped complete with wood that will be utilized in the future for other things. It didn't take me long to re-fabricate the parts required and get to the long process of clamp, match drill, cleco, decleco, deburr, recleco, repeat...  I spend maybe just under a few hours doing all this.  To ensure I had no mistakes this time I wrote all over the parts, triple and in some cases, quadruple checked things.

After that it was back to priming which continues to take a bit but I assume will be worth it in the end.

Elevators continued....

Continued to make progress on the elevators.  After allowing the primer to dry for 24 hours I was able to start attaching parts.  I really enjoy this aspect of seeing it all come together.

Access Plate

Set if rib halves

Essentially what it will look like completed.

A future step requires some foam ribs you made to be attacked inside the training edge.  I went around this process a bit different than the plans, but the result is the same.  I waited until after priming to sand the areas where the ribs will attach.  The reasoning was because I wasn't sure if I could use the 3M tape or if I had to use the tank sealant material. The wise people at Vans said this is a bit different than just holding the trailing edge and the ribs require the stronger adhesive.  Since there was a delay on emailing and getting the response I had to do the roughing up of the areas post primer.

Was a non-issue and was able to rough it up with a Dremel and sanding wheel.  Then removed the tape and cleaned with some Acetone. Now it's ready for the tank sealant and ribs... whenever I get to that part.

Taped it out and sanded

One last note is I seem to make some mistakes on some very basic steps.  I had to reorder another elevator rear spar because I made two right hand one's vs a left and a right.  I should have caught this since I specifically remember thinking the marks I made on the spar were incorrect, but then I was second guessing my second guessing so went ahead with the countersinking on the wrong flange locking it into a right side piece forever.  Education is never free and seems in structural aviation construction the cost is time and replacement parts.

Elevators

Made steady progress on the elevators up to the first batch of priming.  Labeling the parts is very important on the elevators.  There are 16 ribs each with 2 pieces that have to match each other as well as their corresponding places on the skins.  Careful attention had to be made when cleaning the parts to ensure I relabeled them appropriately.

Matching parts to pictures

Dimpling parts

Elevators disassembled

I also changed the way I deburr the skins.  I was concerned my method was removing material and do more harm than good on these thin pieces.  On a suggestion I used a soft cloth on the outside of the skins, running it over each hole and then used a Scotch Brite pad on the inside to do the same.  This in conjunction with using a reamer bit to match drill seemed to do the trick.  I visually inspected each hole just to be sure.

No burrs inside

No burrs outside.

Just for reference you dimple all the holes in these.

Minor mistake with squeezer, can fix it with filler later.

All parts ready to prime

6 hours later all parts primed

Process Change & Elevators

Process Change

Pictures

Since I can't continue with the horizontal stabilizer I've moved onto the elevators which are similar to the rudder.  Always searching for continuous improvements and mitigating execution risks (work speak) I've made some changes to my process and work space use.

The picture shows a typical illustration found in the plans. My first process change is I now orientate the pieces to match the picture instead of using spatial awareness to assume I'm connecting the pieces correctly.  Seems easy enough, not sure why I wasn't do it that way in the first place. If I would have done this on the HS I wouldn't of had that 'accident'.

Next is the use of the worktables.  As these pieces get larger I will use the EAA tables I built as the main work space.  I'll use both as well as move them around as needed.  I will use my mobile workstation for tools and messing with small pieces.

On the previous parts you could get away with labeling and marking on a piece or two.  These larger pieces have a lot of parts that are exactly the same and once you match drill them they need to go in that exact place.  So, I'm very methodically writing on each part and how it connects.  That challenge will be when prepping for primer and relabeling ensuring I keep it accurate.

This is where additional pictures come in.  Moving forward, I'll have a lot more random pictures of random parts.  I'll put a number of them out here for people to look at, maybe it will be beneficial to another builder. I know when I have a question I typically look at other people's build logs.  Onto the build....

Elevators

I don't know if I was just in the 'zone' last night or if I was enjoying the build process just that much, but for whatever reason I worked a long night last night on getting these pieces (mirrored parts) together.  I could have been over compensating for my failure as an amateur plane builder the previous day but in reality I didn't feel pushed but before I knew it I was up way past my bedtime.

Okay so less commentary and more pictures is my plan moving forward.

First time 'fluting'

Tips cleco'd, proper use of workstation

Trimmed and deburred

Process to bend the tab on the skins

Worked well, finished with hand seamer

Kids love to Cleco!

Proper use of EAA tables

Fun game of where to put the Clecos

Completed for the evening