Riveting Right Elevator Stiffeners August 1st, 2006
I started to rivet the right elevator stiffeners while I wait for the chip chaser for the rudder. The only thing to note there is that the last rivets closer to the trailing edge are a major pain to set. You basically have to hold the skin open at near 90 degrees while riveting. I was wearing latex gloves mainly to keep sweat/grease/etc away from the nice white primer. As you can see in the picture below, I was holding the gun in such a way that my knuckles rested on the open skin, to prevent the gun from rubbing against it. This worked out pretty good as there were absolutely no marks on the skin when I finished. The knuckle on my middle finger, however, didn’t fare as well. The vibration against first against the skin, and then against the stiffener, basically rubbed the skin off it 🙁 . While this technique definitely works, I would use my thick rawhide gloves instead of latex gloves next time around.
Also, notice how the skin gets badly distorted as I’m riveting in the picture below. I didn’t really notice this until I saw the picture.
As you can see in the next picture, the skin turned out just fine. I think I’ll do the stiffeners for the left elevator next.
