Tag Archives: bolts

Elevator structure

Hours: 5.25

Time to finish off the Empennage and get the Elevator structure going. I received the replacement ribs that are bent just that little bit more in order to properly align with the reinforcement plates and skins and went to work to drill out the bad ribs and put in the replacements.

New ribs in place and a final picture of a few rivets that people that visited helped pull

After that, I went to work and torqued the bolts that connect the control rod and counterweight to the Elevator. There’s also a small support bracket that reinforces the center rib to spar attachment, which is a pretty tight fit, so I had to get out the manual hand riveter.
Torquing the AN bolts Bolts torqued and support plate riveted

My brother is currently visiting and is enjoying the riveting experience.
My brother enjoying the riveting experience

Once the center ribs were finished, we moved on to put the rest of the rib structure in place.Elevator rib structure finished Clecoing the ribs in place

After that I realized there’s a mistake in the plans as they instruct to rivet the edges that hold some of the side counterweights on, but there’s another small end rib that actually has to go on there as I found out after I checked the overall plan for the Elevator. Quickly drilled out the rivets and riveted on the part. A nice trick I learned from another builder for drilling out the rivets without damaging the holes they go through, is to only drill out the top of the rivet (the donut ring) and then use the center punch to push out the back of the rivet. This way you have less chance of enlarging the hole.
Error in the plan says to just rivet the endcap, but actually this part needs to be riveted onto the side End rib where it should go Holes drilled out and end rib ready to rivet

With the rib structure in place, time to work on fitting the skin.