November 28, 2015
Sounds impressive, but the project actually starts with Section 6, so I’ve completed one section so far – the vertical stabilizer. Would have been done a little quicker, but I messed up the first skin and had to order another. The rudder is right behind – I’m ready to start riveting that together as well.
November 24, 2015
Wow – I have so much to look forward to. I’m only 34 hours into the project and already I feel so freaking frustrated. I’ve heard from a lot of folks that things go wrong and when they do, its really discouraging. Well, that’s where I’m at. I spent two hours today working on putting the vertical stabilizer back together – this time for real. No more clecos – just rivets. There are a few hard to reach areas. I have two ways of driving rivets – the good old fashioned way using a rivet gun and bucking bar or by using a pneumatic squeezer. Neither seemed to do what I needed it to do and I wound up driving multiple rivets, screwing them up, removing them and then screwing them up again. This went on for 45 minutes. In the process, I mucked up the holes. One of them was a little too large for me to feel comfortable with it.
One of the things that I forgot came with my tool “kit” from the fine folks at Cleveland Tools is an offset rivet set. This gives me the ability to have the rivet gun slightly offset from center, giving me the clearance I need to get in there.
Anyway, I consulted with some of the folks on Vans Airforce as well as my friend Bob, who has an RV10 of his own and he suggested that I keep plugging away, put all the rivets where they are supposed to be and then add a 4th one, just to be on the safe side. Seems like a good compromise and it actually turned out well.
November 23, 2015
Well, today I made my first attempt at riveting some parts of the vertical stabilizer together. Maybe I’m a little too critical, but I’m not overly thrilled with the results. I wound up drilling about 4 or 5 rivets out. The rest of them seem to be OK, but I think I have a long way to go before I feel comfortable riveting.
I set two different types of rivets and used a few different methods trying to find a method that worked well. Some of the flush rivets were done using a back rivet set and some were done using a good old fashioned bucking bar. I think I even set a few using a squeezer.
Here are some pics. I wound up scratching some of the primer off in the process – guess I will have to go back and touch it up in a few places.
November 22, 2015
Today was the first time I’ve ever used an air sprayer to paint anything. I think it went OK. The primer is not even – but that’s OK. As long as the metal is coated, I think I’m in good shape. Many people don’t even prime the parts. I probably have a less-than-ideal setup as well. I did’t feel like getting out all the plastic drop cloths, etc. But this seemed to work ok. I used the EkoPrime product from Stewart Systems. I like it. Hardly any smell at all.
Now the fun stuff begins… I get to put everything back together again. This time, it won’t be coming back apart!
November 19, 2015
I received my new VS skin yesterday. My goal is to get back on track. The rudder is ready to be primed and my goal is to have the VS ready to be primed by this weekend so I can get both done at the same time. I spent an hour in the shop this morning before heading to work to get the skin cleco’d back onto the skeleton. I’m almost done match drilling the whole thing. Hopefully I can put in a few hours tonight to make my second attempt at dimpling the skin.
November 8, 2015
It appears that building a kit plane like this is a lot of repetition. It goes a little like this:
You need to take your time and go slow… otherwise, bad things happen. I was getting into the groove while dimpling and made my first boo-boo. I had the skin in the C-Frame Dimpler and whacked the hammer without ensuring that the dimple die was seated properly in the hole. I wound up making a second hole that I did not want.
I had the best intentions. I called Van’s Builder Assistance hotline and they told me not to worry – everyone makes this mistake, numerous times. I felt better and decided I was going to move on. Unfortunately, I made my second mistake. I accidentally dropped my hammer on top of the skin, denting the hell out of it. My second call to Van’s was to order a new skin. It will be here next week. In the meantime, I will start the rudder.
November 2, 2015
Let the fun begin. “Step 1: Trim flange material from opposite ends of the two VS-1014 rear spars…” Shit. I guess I need a band saw. I kind of figured I would need one eventually – but I didn’t realize that I needed it for the very first step of the project. Ok – luckily I read ahead in the instructions. And luckily, we have a machine shop in our office, and the guy who runs it is awesome. So I took the parts in with me, had them cut and we can get started.
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