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.