455 hours - finished riveting the LEs - Rod end Bearings, and Torque counterbalance hardware

Had to drill out a few rivets and re-do them. Obviously I fixed the pop rivet gun problem. That is honestly only the second time since I started this project that I experienced some sort of tool failure. Both of them were temporary and were caused by aluminum chips or fragments getting into small places - a good reminder to keep the shop as clean as possible at all times, which is something that I have not been doing lately.

Here is the left elevator all buttoned up

I used the torque wrench to tighten down the screws and lock nut to 25 inch pounds per the plans and torque specs for the hardware. This was also my very first time for applying torque seal to the nut and bolt. Got kind of messed up on one of them, but the rest came out OK.

NExt is a pic that shows the differences in the pop rivets I was using to close up the LEs. Still not sure if the one without the mandrel on the end is a defective rivet or not, but will call Vans tomorrow to discuss. The other mandrel in the pick that still hS the head attaached to it is the one that pulled completely out of the hole without breaking. The remaining "debris" is some of the rivet heads and shafts that I had to drill out and replace. Thies rivets are pretty easy to drill out, unlike the one that had to do on the trim tab a while back.

Next are the rod end bearings - two for each elevator. Plans say to screw these in so that there is 13/16 " from the spar web to the center of the bearing hole. Some have devised very elaborate methods for doing this, but I found that an eyeball technique seemed to get me close enough. The real test will come after the elevators are installed on the HS. I took one of the bolts tat goes in the hole in the center of the bearing, inserted it in the hole, adn was able to hold it pretty stright by applying vcointer pressure against the back side of my finger on the edge of the elevator skin of the cutout, while pushing the bolt in firmly against the bearing, and checking the alignment ofd the bearing and bolt to see if it was parallel to the spar web. WIth the bolt held in position, I took my small ruler, butted it up against the spar web, and layed it over the top of the bolt shaft on the other side of the bearing. Then I read the measurement at the preceived center point of the bolt.

Not horribly exact, but good enough to get within a half turn of a rod end if the need arises, when I trial fit the elevators to the HS.

At this point I don't really want to call the elevators done yet, since some touch up primer is needed in a few places and some debris and shavings need to be cleaned out in certain areas. I will do this tomorrow, and then attempt to get the HS off of the wall. There is still some trimming and fitting and drilling to be done with the HS, but that should go relaitvely quickly.

I am a little leary about rushing this, however, especially after reading a recent post from a builder who wrote about problems with his RV 10 elevators rubbing on the inside edges of the rear spar rivets of the HS. This was possibly due to not setting the rod end bearings to the correct distance. Problem is he had also already drilled the holes in the control horns which pretty much sets the distance of the rod end bearings in stone. If you try to adjust them the center bearing will bind up. Another builder wrote that he checked everything thoroughly after the elevators were done, just as I am about to do, and everything seemed fine with the HS and elevators off of the  fuselage. But when he mounted everything to the fuselage he encountered the same rubbing problem.

I really want to make sure I do this correctly, so I will once again take my time and make sure that the rod end bearings are exactly where they need to be. I am not very convinced that my LEs are symmetrical or that each separate section is evenly shaped, especially since the process to form them is anything BUT precise. In the end I may decide to move them to the outer limit in the plans which is 7/8 of an inch, or about 1/16 inch more than the suggested measurement of 13/16 for the rod end bearings. Once you drill the center bearing bolt holes into the control horns you are committed. If you screw up the rod end bearing placement, you may very well end up building new elevators, or you will have to figure out how to repair, redrill, or replace the control horns - none of which I wish to encounter later on down the road.