10 days has gone by since I posted something to the blog.  Thats all that has stopped though.  The build has continued VERY strong.  I'm afraid though that the empennage will be totally complete (including fiberglass) before the wings arrive.  I'll be on the look out for unbuilt wings in the classifieds.  If you know of anyone with RV-10 untouched wing kit, let me know.  I'm looking for a bargain to start wings sooner, otherwise, I'll just continue to save up for the kit from Vans Aircraft. 

Since the last post, The longerons, aft deck, top skins and seat belt brackets were clecod, and match drilled.  With that, came the dissasembly, and deburring of all parts.  The dissasembly is so depressing, lol.  Its exciting to see a huge part being built but then it all comes apart, ugh!  The kids came in one night and asked where the tail cone went.  My daughter thought I stuck it up in the attic.  "No honey, I took it apart."  "Why?"  "The instructions says to take it apart to prepart for final assembly."  "Oh ok."  

Took me 3 days to fully deburr all parts, sand and countersink a few parts.  Those were VERY long days.  A minmum of 10 hours a day, MINIMUM.  Deburring and sanding was extremely tedius.  Only when I got to the last part, a skin, did I need a break.  The though of deburring what seemed like a million holes instantly drained my energy tank.  After a 1hr break doing other things around the house, I was instantly reenergized and finishd the deburring and sanding. 

Next was to dimple and countersink some parts.  I opted to not dimple until after priming.  The dimples make priming (and sanding) a bit more difficult for an even coat.  Ended the night at 2230 after priming all parts.  After bringing all the parts inside at night, I noticed the 8 footish longerons standing up nice and tall by the garage side door, unprimed, ugh!  The next day I was sent home from work early.  I mixed up a small batch of AKZO and sprayed the longerons and touched up a few other parts.  Carmella and Benico wanted to help do some riveting today so after riveting the bellcrank bearing assembly, they helped find rivets, nutplates, and asembly parts by part number.  This is the first time they see parts being riveted together.  They helped place rivtes in holes where needed.  We have another riveting session planned for tonight.  Yesterday we riveted the battery tray.  Tonight we will start with the tiedown bulkhead assembly (had to skip to battery tray since one of the angles were not primed ether, primed it with the longerons). 

Check out the time lapse videos of the last 10 days.  Also don't forget to check out the rest of the videos on my you tube channel and post your questions, suggestions, or comments.  Your input would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

Tail Cone 3

 

 

Tail Cone 4

 

 

Tail Cone 5



Another day full of match drilling.  Finished match drilling the right side. Flipped the cone right side up.  Clecod the aft bottom skin along with the two rear most bulkheads.   This last two bulkheads were really a tight fit. Next the left stiffners and fling went in. This skin was easier than the right. It might have been easier because I had a game plane after doing the right side. Straight forward, no different than the right side. Baggage stiffner went in too.

A lot of today was wasted on trying to cool the garage.  Todays heat index was at least 100 degrees F. Bought a 14000 btu portable AC a couple nights ago because the central ac took a dump.  After getting the central ac fixed. ( I replaced the capacitor 50 bucks )  I decided to give the portable ac in the garage a try. It dropped the temp in the garage by 2 degrees and 2% humidity after 4 hours!!   Needless to say, it was useless.  I returned it and replace it with a 12000 BTU window unit.   Big difference!! It dropped the humidity from 66% to 49% and temp from 88 to 82 in a couple hours.  A couple more hours and the temp was down to 79.   Temp was set for 79. With the humidity at 49%, this was very comfortable.  This is the biggist unit that would fit the window.  If I find this to still not be sufficient then a split unit will replace the window unit.  Plan on adding attic foil to the attic first though.

It is difficult to work on the build or anything for that matter in the garage when your sweaty and hot as early as 9am.

Any how,  stay tuned for more building!!!!

Today officially starts the start of the tail cone.  Up to this point, I worked on bits and pieces for the tail cone section.  Mainly the fabrication of parts from raw materials.  Because of all those parts had already been fabricated prior today on downtime from the elevators, the tail cone got a big head start.  Started off by pulling out the SUV from the garage (hopefully temporarily until the elevator trailing edges are cured, riveted, off the workbench, and stored).

Vans sent me new 8' J channels a few days ago so today I cut them to the dimensions called out in the plans and deburred.  Next I cut the Cleaveland Tool tie down to size on the band saw and deburred it smooth.  Then I had to come up with a way to lay the bottom skin on to start the assembly process.  Didn't have any saw horses so used a narrow folding table spaced away enough to lay the bottom skin between it and the work bench.   Bulkheads clecoed.  The bottom 3 stiffeners were slid into place, match drilled and clecoed into place.  Next the right side 3 stiffeners were slid into place followed by the right skin.  The right skin was a royal pain in the rear to get the first cleco into each bulkhead.  Really sweated some nuts doing those in the garage.  Glad that was over with.  After the first cleco on each bulk heads were in, then the rest was easy to cleco.  Next was match drilling the right side stiffeners to the skin.  I'm about 95% done with match drilling the stiffeners to the side skin.  My central AC took a dump.  House had not cooled in several hours so I had to stop at about 8pm to investigate.  Turns out the a/c compressor fan capacitor is seems to be toast.  The fan spins only when I kick start the fan.  Back to the RV...I only had maybe 10 more holes to match drill!  errrrr. 

 Here is the time lapse video of today's progress.

Elevator rear spar riveted using RV-10 empennage bucking bar (nice!).  Pop riveted the rib halves. Front spar riveted.  The skins were riveted to the spars.  Trailing edge and foam ribs were bonded and weighted down.  Counter weights attached.  Left trim tab foam ribs were bonded, skin clecoed,  Trim tab placed into the wedge blocks.  Waiting for the bonding to cure before messing with the elevator and trim tab.  Need to order a a new right trim tab skin and spar.  

Here is  a quick time lapse of todays events.

After work today, I finished riveting the the rib halves, and attached the rear spars to the ribs and skins.  Used the RV-10 elevator bucking bar from Cleveland Tools.  When used as instructed in the plans, it works very nicely.  I found clamping the skin to the work bench at the front of the elevator using the wood to protect the skin was even better.  Otherwise, the elevator would move around and rivets weren't as nice.  Here is a quick time lapse of todays work.

It wasn't raining after work today.  After getting home and the sun gone below the horizon, I setup for a quick priming session to touch up spots on some parts needed to assemble the elevators.  Waited about 10 minutes after mixing the 2 part epoxy primer.  PSI set for 20 PSI with HF paint gun trigger pulled, respirator, and eye protection on.  Sprayed the parts, cleaned up the spray gun and took a shower.  Watched a movie (Captain Phillips) with my wife and older son.  After the movie, I brought the parts in and called it a night at midnight.  Tomorrow is another day...  The replacement drill should arrive tomorrow too.

I really need to start taking pictures...

Quick night today.  I promised the wife and kids we would watch Jurassic Park 2 today on Netflix after work today.  So after a quick dinner and a shower I slipped into the garage while the kidos were getting the pop corn and movie ready.  I rechecked the rivets on the rear spar that required bucking with the rivet gauge. A few shop heads were not big enough.  Gave those a few more raps with the 3X rivet gun and bucking bar and all is good now.  Thats it for tonight.

Received an 8 foot PVC pipe today via FedEX from Vans Aircraft.  What a great way to ship the replacement J-channels for the empennage cone.

Also, contacted Cleaveland Tools and they already had a replacement drill in the mail via 2 day priority mail!  Now that is what I call TOP NOTCH service.  They also included a shipping label to return the defective drill!!  Oh yes, I'll be ordering from them again for sure!  Thank you Cleaveland Tools!!  If your on the fence of who to chose for your tools,  go with Cleaveland Tools.  You wont regret it!

I need to post some updated pictures.  I have also been messing around with time lapse videos that will be included in these blogs.

Stay tuned....

Sanded all elevator parts this morning.  Masked off the trailing edge foam rib locations with blue painters tape on the elevators and trim tabs.  Hung the left elevator skins on paracord strung across my side yard just outside of the garage.  Used left over 16 gauge copper wire to thread through the rivet holes to hook onto the paracord.  Perfect for non windy days.  Grabbed two 55 gallon barrels and laid some left over rabbit cage wire with a 1" by 1" mesh on top of them.  This was perfect for the smaller parts.  Used 80cc (combined equal parts) of AKZO to spray the parts.  20 min later, the parts that needed flipping got flipped and sprayed.  20 min later, the parts were bone dry and moved inside for assembly.

Next, I back riveted the rib halves to the skin and noticed a few didn't get a nice coat of prime.  Those remained off to get re primed. Riveted the right rear spar to the rib halves using the squeezer.  I riveted the rib halves to the left top skin backwards.  While drilling out those rivets, the 2 week old Sioux drill took a dump.  Bummer.  That threw me off my game.  I was kind of stuck and couldn't go forward at this point.  I setup for re prime on a few parts and then the sky opened up for the rest of the day.  Went ahead and riveted the right bottom skin to the rear spar.  Some of those rivets required to be drilled out.  Only a few so the Sioux drill worked for those but very very very slowly.   

Can't go further until the last few parts get re primed and get a new drill.  Sent an email to Cleveland Tool to see if they would warranty it and what the process was.  For the most part a productive day that had a few bumps.  The bumps are the learning pains of a newbie builder.  I have to slow down and read the plans multiple time, and double triple check the parts are laid out correctly before doing anything permanent to the airplane.  Sent an email to Vans Aircraft to see if it would be acceptable to up size the drilled out rivets to -4 instead of filling them all up with oops rivets on the rib/skin error.  That is it for today.   Another day of building is in the near future.  Stay tuned...

After work today, I disassembled the elevators to prep for AKZO priming.  Took the skins off followed by the ribs halves, shear clips, gusset and finally the forward spar.  It was a short night since I had already showered.  I didn't want to get covered in aluminum dust.  Tomorrow I'll sand and clean all parts and hopefully AKZO prime all parts.

Practice Kit 2 - Control Surface

Yesterday I completed the tool box practice kit which was a HUGE confidence builder with using all the new tools. Today after some house chores, I went off to the aircraft factory (aka garage), and started on the second practice kit.  On this kit I back riveted for the first time and experienced some tight space bucking.  The instructions were understandable.  No mistakes, or smiles anywhere.  The leading edge was rolled using a 1" PVC pipe at first.   The 1" pipe roll was too big leaving a very big gap between the two skins and not round enough for me.  re-rolled with a 3/4" PVC pipe and the roll was tighter and rounder closing the gap.  the skins still need to be pushed together some to match drill the bottom skin.  After some pop rivets all was done.  The aft top and bottom rivets were too tight to squeeze or buck normally.  It requires the specially made tool before starting this control surface kit that I skipped.  Yeah.  No more skipping steps.  There is a reason for vans madness.  Here are a few pictures of the process.

The kit as sent from Vans.

Clecod and ready for match drill

Spar and ribs clamps ready to match drill.

Bucked forward spar to skin.

The tight aft rib rivet (not riveted here yet) requiring the special tool to be made prior to starting this kit.

Leading edge rolled and popped.

Finished product.

Vans Tool Box Practice Kit


Work was a bit slow today, so I was sent home 4 hours early.  Since the practice kits had arrived today with the last of the tools, I decided to set my first rivets on the practice kits to get a feel for it before doing it on the real thing.

The tools box was straight forward.  Nothing difficult about the the build really.  I think the instructions aren't 100% clear in this practice kit.  The Big Gotcha for me on the tool box was the hinge.  The instructions were not clear enough for ME to understand. I had to take the hing apart, flip on side of the hinge THEN cut to size.  Instructions said the lid hing eyelets would be facing down.  Ok, not sure how else the hinge would work if it was vertically flipped with the eyelets facing up.  What they wanted was to flip the eyelets so the hinge sits flush to the INSIDE of the lid and the lower hing sits flush with the outside of the box.  Anyhow.  I cut it without flipping the hing and then realized what they really wanted after fitting the hinge.  Had to cut it again making the hinge 1 rivet hole shy.

Setting the rivets with the squeezer was a no brainer.  Easy peasy.  The adjustable set holder is an EXCELLENT upgrade.  HUGE time saver!  Its was really nice to make adjustments on the fly.  The rivets on the toolbox sides were set using the pneumatic squeezer.   To try something different, remember this is where I want to make my mistakes, I bucked the hing rivets.   Not bad either. First 2 or 3 rivets was a trial and error type thing just getting used to the pounding vibration and POWER of the gun.  Having an adjustable valve a the air hose connection on the gun was great!  First rivet was nearly flattened out but acceptable for the toolbox.   After that, they only got better except for the last 2 rivets for the build, the hinge rivets.  Had a hard time balancing the lid vertical while attempting to apply pressure on both ends of the rivets to set it.  YUP...got a whopping smile.   All in all, quite impressed with my first rivets.  Oh, for got to mention, all dimples were set using the DRDT-2.  That thing makes making dimples so mindless I won't bother describing how easy that piece is to use.

Pictures for memories really.  my first riveted piece.



The Tool box how it arrives from Vans Aircraft.

The parts...

After deburring all parts, my first rivets set with the pneumatic squeezer.

All rivets nice and flush.

The completed tool box.  Now it just needs and airplane to ride in the luggage compartment with tools at the ready.

Oh yea, the first smiles.  Happened on the last 2 rivets!!! Jeez....

And the stupid hinge.  If this was an actual airplane part, you better believe I would have ordered a new hinge before riveting.

Next up...the practice control surface...

More tools....



The pneumatic squeezer, 3" yoke, flange yoke, and 4" thin nose yoke arrived today.  Also in the box was the fly cutter, and CT tiedown kit, torque seal and a variety of "sets".

The squeezer is....AWSOME!  Love it.  Started using tonight.   Perfect rivet EVERY TIME!

So today marks another mistake on my part.  Having got the tools yesterday, I went back to working on the trim tabs.  Figured if something went wrong, it would be a cheap part to replace.  Well, sure enough, I was drilling away.....First I drilled some #30 holes on the trim tab tabs.  Then it was time to match drill the skins.  Yeah, I didn't change the drill bit to #40.  Luckily, only the left side got #30 to the skins.  (this is a late entry the blog and have since fingered out a way to prevent that in the future).  Its a crappy feeling when mistakes happen.  I'll send out an email to Vans tech support to see if it's an issue.  I don't think it will be an issue.  I plan to put in the AD4 rivets in for now unless Vans says I need new parts.  For now, moving forward. Will setup for AKZO priming next week depending on weather (tropical storm headed to northern Florida with rain foretasted for all for Florida.  Waiting on proseal to bond the foam ribs to skin.

Spent the day organizing all the new tools.  Using scrap 2X4 and a french cleat system, all the tools found a home on the wall.  I like my tools visible on the wall, organized of coarse.  All the wood was scrap laying around.  Having all the tools readily available and visible has made my workflow faster and easier than when all the tools were thrown in draws.   

Here are a few pictures....