Not much to report.  I started to prep the remaining parts for priming.  I wanted to be able to prime this evening, but I’ve eaten way too many crabs and drank way too much beer for that to be feasible.

This morning I finished all of the dimpling on the skin and the trim attachment plate. I’ve got a family get together for lunch (MD blue crab… My favorite!) and this evening I’m hoping to prime.

Ok, the trim plate.  There is an order that should be followed on this trim plate, and it should be readily apparent, but if you’re me, that’s not always the case.

1. Match drill the plate to the skin.
2. Match drill the plate to the nut plates
3. Deburr all holes and all edges to include the inside edge
4. Use dimple die #6 for the larger screw holes.
5. Dimple the remaining holes (3/32′)
6. Dimple the nut plates

Do all of this before attaching anything.  On my last elevator I was completely not paying attention and I riveted this plate to skin prior to doing anything with the nut plates.  It was still salvageable, but not pretty nor the best method.  If you dimple the 3/32″ holes for the nut plates before the #6, you’ll find that the #6 die touches the 3/32″ dimples

This was my first time using my new dimpling setup.  The little table with adjustable height works perfectly and has definitely increased my dimpling speed.

This was also the first time I’ve used my new pop rivet squeezer.  It works way better than the old second hand pair I had before; that is to say this pair actually works. 

A close up of the end product.