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April 17, 2005: (3.0 hrs.) Today I really wanted to get the leading edge riveted to the main spar. I still had Max around to give me a hand, and that would be crucial for this operation. Some of the rivets are down right difficult to reach for both the person operating the rivet gun and the person bucking. |
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Attaching the outboard leading edge rib to the main spar is pretty straight forward. The rivets can be reached with a hand squeezer through the large lightening hole in the spar. (the two bolts you see sticking our through the rib are the attachment points to the wing jig) |
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The third inboard leading edge rib is very
difficult to reach with a bucking bar. Access is severely limited,
so I opted to blind rivet this rib using LP3's.
In order to get my blind riveter (a cheap one I picked up at Harbor Freight) to sit square and flush to the spar, I had to grind the top of it down. |
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Here is the row of blind rivets I used on the the third inboard leading edge rib. |
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Next, it was time to shoot and buck the
remaining ribs. I have been dreading this job.
I had to grind a flat edge on my off-set rivet set in order to get it to sit square on the rivets. |
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Here I am getting my off-set rivet set in place to shoot a rivet. I have wrapped the set in duct tape to protect the ribs. I also use blue painters tape over the tip to prevent smileys in my rivets. |
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Worked like a charm. I did not have to drill out a single rivet. |
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Having the leading edge ribs secured, I could now rivet the leading edge skin to the main spar. This is a simple task using the hand squeezer. |
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Next I cleco'ed into place (hopefully for the last time) the top skins. I also spent time checking everything for square and adjusting the jig. |