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Had a bad day at the AHYUP.Com aircraft factory. While paying careful attention to the forming of the shop head of the wing rib to spar rivet I neglected to pay attention to the factory formed head. Here is a view of one of the poorer examples of my craftsmanship.
I used a 2X rivet gun and an offset rivet set. After my first few rivets I made some smileys because the rivet set rotated and caused an increased angle and the dreaded smiley. I then wrapped the rivet set and spring with tape to prevent the rivet set from rotating. A view of the wrapped spring and tools used to set the rivet are pictured below.
I met a fellow named Don at the local American Legion, he had worked at Sikorsky for 32 years. He was in the prototype department. When I asked him how many rivets he had set he would just laugh. I had him come over to my humble aircraft factory to look at my handiwork. Of the following rivets he identified the good ones from the bad. Now I know which ones to drill out.
So what do I do now? Don says to drive the remaining rivets before drilling out the bad rivets. What is the best way to drill out these rivets? Should I be concerned about the smileys on the ribs? Should I add a washer or doubler to cover the smiley? Was air flow to the gun set to high? Should I use a 3X gun? Or a long straight rivet set? Help! Rivet Update Many thanks to all those who have written about my rib to spar rivet problem. I had over two dozen personal responses and over 350 hits to the web page in four days. Things that will be changed when I try again are. 1, A 3X rebuilt rivet gun just ordered from The Yard 2, A long straight rivet set. 3, I will also try to find some hockey shin tape to put on the rivet head. This may or may not help, but it will be wort a try. 4, Turn the spars upside down so that I will be looking at the factory head during the riveting process. 5, Remove some the wooden spar supports so the spar will flex slightly during riveting. 6, Try a starting pressure of about 40 psi. 7, Smooth out some of the smileys on the ribs. The spar was undamaged. 8, For some reason I had thought that the flow valve hat comes with a gun kit was ball valve. So in the future I will turn it more than 180 degrees. I had thought the valve was rather ineffectual. 9, Make a small gauge to locate the center of the rivet, and remove the bad rivet heads. 10, Then drive out the bad rivets with a punch. I also liked the exhaust pipe anti rotate tool, which I will probably try at some time. Thanks for the many words of encouragement. My confidence has been restored. |
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