Sunday, a day that should have seen at least 4 hours in the shop, just wan’t my day. The belt broke on the zero-turn mower we have, so it was off to Lowes to get a replacement. Getting the mowing deck off was easy, but getting the new belt on was a severe pain in the rear. As soon as I got it going, I had to make several other adjustments, and get some mowing done, so by the time I got to the plane I was tired.

I completed all the dimpling that required the c-frame on both skins. I did however discover that I had not done all of the stiffeners correctly. The three stiffeners labeled J, K, and L were slightly shorter than the D, E, and F they are made from. Using my digital calipers I made the corrections. In the process I realized that the guide notch used for the taper was supposed to be rounded off. Easy fix for the elevators, but what about the rudder?!?! I left them all that way on the rudder! I emailed the picture below to Van’s support and their response was short and sweet… leave it be.. it won’t be a problem. Thank heavens! I assumed the radius wasn’t sharp enough to be a problem, but when the directions tell you to do something, and you do not, its best to check with the experts.

I need to make a list of discrepancies and issues that may require attention before other steps are completed such as painting. 🙂

Despite having very little time to devote to the project today, I was able to dimple one elevator skin for the stiffeners.  I used the c-frame for all the dimples except the two closest to the trailing edge.  For those I used the close quarters rivet set that uses the pop rivet puller.

This time, unlike when I did the rudder skin, I didn’t make any mistakes nor did I allow either of the dies to make any small dents or impressions.  I’ve got my technique down fairly well now, but my setup still leaves a lot to be desired.  Since it doesn’t look like I will have the funds for the wings until later this summer, there is a high likelihood that I will have a break between the completion of the empennage and the wings.  I will use that time (if it occurs) to build a better table top for dimpling as well as a wing jig.  The wing jig really isn’t a jig, more of a stand that will allow access to both sides of both wings.

Tomorrow I have nothing planned, so hopefully I’ll get a good bit done in the shop.

Here is the skin before dimpling.

And after dimpling is complete.

I’m not sure why, but when I wrote the last post, I completely forgot that I still had all of the dimpling to do for the elevators prior to priming…

Anyways, tonight I finished the priming prep of the stiffeners with scotchbrite pads.  I also used the scotchbrite on all of the rudder skeleton parts.  After all that scrubbing, I dimpled all of the stiffeners and set the garage up for dimpling the elevator skins.

Here are the rudder parts after scotchbrite.

Here’s a blurry shot of the stiffeners after dimpling.  I’ve kept them organized in rows so that I won’t lose track of them even if the markings are striped off or primed over.

Finally, I moved the benches next to one another instead of forming one long bench.  This allows me to better support the skins and prevents dents, scratches, and mistakes while dimpling with the c-frame.