Fixing My RIGID 14 inch Bandsaw

 these pics are year a year and half old, but the pics of the mods I performed may still help somebody else along the way, especially if  the quality of any substantial products starts to go way down due to COVID impacts, as I have already witnessed many times. The simple fact is that even for those companies that are still in operation, many of them are working with reduced staff or have experienced reductions in their labor force, and so the number and quality of those products may suffer as  result. Unfortunately, The RIGID 14 inch band saw suffered from many quality problems long before COVID. Thankfully there were some things you could do to help solve many of the problems and make it a almost first-rate tool.

First was replacing the stock black rubber  tires, which required removing both wheels from the saw. You have to completely disassemble the table, guides, and saw blade, but it wasn't too difficult to do: I found and ordered some orange colored neoprene replacement tires. removing the old tires was easy because they were horribly cracked and deteriorated. These needed to go away because they are hard rubber that develops uneven ridges over time, and this contributes to the vibration of the saw. The new tires are softer so they absorb vibration better, and the blade also tracks better. The hard part was getting them on  each wheel. When done, they looked like this:

In the last pic you can see that the width is slightly less than the entire width of the track. This was the result of my over-aggressive sanding of the edges of the tires. This was necessary because the width of the metal track of each wheel is about 7/8 inches, but the tires only come in a 1 inch width. I spent quite a bit of time reading others posts about this. Some tried fitting it "as is" but it does not sit properly in the tire track, and others tried cutting the width with a utility knife. Neither of these methods worked very well, if at all. 

Finally somebody came up with a way to fairly accurately reduce the width of the tires by sanding them down. However, this method still required some careful preparation. Basically you had to fashion a piece of wood long enough to support the tire, and with a 7/8 inch width. then you had to put the tire over the wood, clamp it down tight so that the remaining portion of the tire extended beyond the wood width, and then you carefully run it on your belt sander. Here are the pics and the number of tools involved:

the tricky part about this was not being too aggressive with the sanding and checking your progress often. The sander only reached so far, so you had to do 2/3 of it on one side and then turn it around to do the remaining portion. The idea was to keep sanding until the width of the tire was reduced to the correct depth, and stop sanding before you started to sand away the wood. The above pic does not show the tire all clamped up, which was the other difficulty. but when you hit the sander the tire is wrapped around the wood and clamped in numerous pace to keep it from moving. The hardest thing about the the clamping was being able to clamp it securely but leave enough clearance to allow the tire material to be removed by the sander without also removing material from your bar clamps. The assembly became quite heavy and unbalanced after all the clamps were applied, so this part was a bit challenging. As I stated previously, mine were a little over done, but they still seem to serve their purpose well and do not cause the saw blade or tire to move as long as proper tension is maintained on the blade.

The next big task was disassembling the saw from the stand so that a 3/4 inch piece of plywood could be fashioned that the motor and the saw would both rest on. One of the biggest causes of vibration of this saw was the hard rubber feet that the motor mounts sat on. The fix was to completely remove the rubber feet and mount the motor on the plywood. This fix also required some longer mounting bolts, and there were several vent holes in the metal stand that also had to be transferred and re-created in the plywood base. Cutting the board to size was easy. Cutting those vent slots mounting bolt slots - not so much.

Next was to reassemble the saw and motor with the new plywood stand, re-install the wheels and balance them. The wheels on this saw were notoriously unbalanced. I followed the procedures to determine the unbalanced areas, and used self sticking pinewood derby lead weights with epoxy glue to mount them to the correct locations on each wheel. 

Then came the replacement link belt from Harbor Freight, which replaces the hard rubber belt that came with the saw. This further reduces vibration because the rubber belt develops a memory as it wraps around the pullies of the motor and the bottom wheel. This causes a bump in certain locations in the belt that adds to the vibration.

The links are removeable to get the correct belt length, but it is quite the jigsaw puzzle to figure out how to do this. The other problem was not clearly understanding which way the links needed to be oriented on the pullies. After a while I found pics that clarified this. Operation of the saw confirmed that I had them positioned correctly.

The last mod was to replace the stock, metal saw blade guides with a composite product called Cool BLocks. These keep the temp of the blade down. which results in more efficient cutting and longer life of the saw blade.

And finally my math to figure out the width of the wheels and the new tires and how much I needed to remove, using a digital caliper:

And finally the packaging for the replacement tires I purchased. Once all these changes were completed I put the saw back together, did the nickel test, and the difference was like night and day. No this saw runs much more smoothly, and I can trust it with finer cuts for the airplane parts that it will be making. I also bought a rolling stand set from HF that I have not installed on it yet. Once I put my new shed together the saw will go in there, and I will be able to move it around easily on this new stand. 

This was the last thing I worked on that had anything to do with the plane over a year and half ago.

Next up, went back to HF to purchase the 1000 lb engine stand that many other RV 8 builders have used to fabricate a rotissorrie for the QB fuselage to aid in  numerous tasks with assembling parts, panting, and mounting the landing gear, etc. And yes, you have to fabricate more parts to complete this project, but it is not ear as difficult as fixing the bandsaw was. 

KPR

Restarting yet again - a year and half later

 Hard to figure out exactly where to start this Blog again. Recap - I screwed up the inner and outer skin of my left wing LE Mode in April of 2019. Tech Counselor came out and we discussed using a planishing hammer and dolly to reform the damage to the outer LE skin and inner subskin. I bought the hammer and the dolly, and was about to attempt the task of re-forming the skin, when I had yet another epiphany. 

1. I realized that positioning the dolly had to be done exactly right in a very tight spot inside the LE, and I determined that this would just be next to impossible for me.

2. After having a very honest conversation with myself, I also realized that even if I managed to reform the skins correctly, this mod went wrong almost from the start where I did not create the wood form blocks for the sub skin properly. This meant that curve of the LE of the subskin has NEVER been formed exactly as it should, and leaves a gap between the outer Le skin and the subskin that then causes issues with how the removeable plate would sit when screwed onto the subskin. It also puts additional stress on the rib flanges underneath. IOW, the removable plate will NEVER sit flush the outer skin because of the subskin deformity, and the added stress in the rib might lead to other structural problems later. I should have taken much more care and ensured that the wood form blocks I used to bend the subskin EXACTLY matched from the curvature of the LE Rib so that the radius would have mated with the LE skin correctly.

3. The final straw for me was the realization that, after seeing it all come together, there was a much easier way to approach this whole thing, without the need to use the massive subskin and all the forming, measuring, bending, cutting, laying up, and riveting that was involved. I also realized that I could still attempt this mod AFTER the plane was built per the plans that would take very little time, and could be done using much simpler techniques than my original design.

As a result of this, I decided to abandon the entire mod and order the necessary new parts, including a new left wing LE skin and some ribs to build a stock LE. The only thing I will still do differently is order a left wing LE skin from Vans WITHOUT the cutout for the stall warning vane service access plate. 

It is sad to have spent so much time and effort on this, only to reach the conclusion that I need to abandon it. It is even more sad to come to this decision only after assembling and almost completing it.  However, I am not sad about having made the attempt, as I learned tons about airplane design in the process, and I now have a very deep appreciation for those that undertake the challenge of designing airplanes from scratch. So my only regret is the time I have lost, but nothing else. Basically it was not until seeing entire mod coming together to figure out that there was a much easier, simpler, less invasive and less time-consuming way to do this. I'll keep the details of that to myself for now.

So what happened after all that?

Instead of working on the fuel tank as I previously stated in my last post, I spent the next couple of months working on some mods for my 14 inch RIGID bandsaw.  This saw became notorious for not being very well built to the point that it vibrated so badly that it was difficult to make fine, accurate cuts. With the forming of the forward Fuel tank mounting brackets looming in the distant future that would require the use of my bandsaw, I decided to spend the time to perform several well-documented mods to reduce the vibration and turn it into the tool that it should be. There are numerous You Tube videos on the subject and I watched all of them.  

I needed to purchase some new Neoprene tires for both wheels, some longer mounting bolts for the motor as well as the saw base itself, a custom cut piece of 3/4 inch plywood to fit over the top of the mounting stand, and some new composite saw guides. After much work on this, I ended up with a good saw that passes the "nickel" test, where you place a nickel on the saw table on its skinny edge, then turn the saw on. If the saw is balanced properly, the nickel will stay on its edge without falling over. I was able to achieve this to my satisfaction. 

The end result was that I could now cut the 1/4 inch thick Fuel Tank Angle Mounting brackets with reasonable accuracy on the bandsaw to reduce the amount of forming work to do after the initial cuts. One of the most challenging parts of the saw mod was the need to trim the 1 inch wide neoprene tires down to about 7/8 inches so that they fit in the wheel tracks properly. This required making a special wood frame and using my belt sander to trim the edges accordingly. That, balancing the wheels, and adding the 3/4 inch plywood base and a new composite "link" belt all contributed to solving the vibration problems with the saw. Unfortunately this was yet another delay in the build.

Then, my wife and I needed to take a much needed vacation together, so spent the next couple of months focusing on a multi-faceted trip the New York for the first time. We spent one week in New York City and did all the NYC things a newbie would want to do - Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island, 9-11 Memorial and Museum visit, which I highly recommend to any red-blooded American, went to a Broadway show, Times Square, Stood outside during a Today Show airing, had a real New York Pizza slice, learned how to ride the subway, went to Grand Central Station, Went to Battery Park, the Fashion district, visited the famous toy store FAO Schwartz, and much more.

Then we flew off to Buffalo and took a shuttle to Niagra Falls, Ontario to see the falls for the first time. We had so much fun there, and the falls were so beautiful, that we both want to go back someday. this all happened in early September of 2019. As the whole world now knows, only a few short months later all of New York and the rest of the world would be shut down and fighting for its life due to the COVID pandemic. I have not been back on the build ever since May of 2019 as the the wind just went out my sails after coming to decision about the mod, and too many other things got in the way. After  our vacation, winter and the cold set in yet again, and I still had no heat in my garage. 

Then COVID showed up in the spring of 2020, and the massive wild fires in Colorado soon followed, and it was a struggle to stay alive and to breathe through smoke and ash all at the same time. I almost lost relatives in the Troublesome Fire in Grand County - very scary. So airplane building was not on my list of things to do throughout that entire period.

I endured multiple furloughs and layoffs at work last year, only to find myself working 15 hours days, 7 days a week, for at least a couple of months. So you could say that yes, I kept my job, which was a good thing, but at great personal cost to my overall health and well-being.  Now we are in 2021, where winter is once again upon me, and still with no heat in my garage. What a wildly exhausting time it has been over the past year and a half. 

Is there a plus side to any this? Well, in the interest of counting my blessings, both kids have graduated college, have jobs, and are out of the house and successfully on their own. Several major financial burdens have ended, I have not contracted COVID nor have any of my family members, and COVID vaccinations have begun. Aside from politics and some extremely idiotic people in this world, it seems like the sun may be trying to shine on the world again. So I decided it is also time for me to re-engage with the plane project again. I need to order parts from Vans and finish the wings.

More to come..... Sorry for the long hiatus. Stay safe, respectful, and peaceful everyone. Life is too short. I'll have pics of the bandsaw mod, planishing hammer and dolly, and some other stuff in the next post.

Busy Preparing for the Fuel Tanks and Tech Counselor Checks out my LE

My Technical Counselor and former long time EAA Chapter 301 President Jim Elliot has been mentoring me through all this LE mod fiasco. I had to wait a couple of weeks for him to become available to come and visit the "almost" finished LE work, and he was finally able to come out last Saturday and take a look. He is a Mooney aircraft owner and has helped several people build different makes and models of experimental airplanes. He definitely knows his way around an airplane, and with evaluating potential affects of modifications such as mine. More on that in a bit.

Since I knew I had to wait for a bit for him to be able to come over, I started preparing (for about the third time now) to get back to work on the fuel tanks. So although I have not posted in while, I have still been very busy thinking, reviewing, and planning for re-engaging on the fuel tanks to get those behind me as soon as possible. his started with a review of many previous posts where I actually started on the left fuel tank because you needed to match it up with the LE to check alignment and drill some holes in the T-712 mounting brackets for the wing spar and the rear tank baffle. This little journey took me clear back to posts from the Fall of 2017. About the last thing I remember about the tanks was fabricating the tank stiffeners for the bottom of the fuel tank skin, and countersinking skin-to-rear baffle holes per the plans.

After reviewing the stuff from the past, I ended up coming up with a list of new additional questions that required answers from Vans. As a side note, to date I have order at least 2 proseal tubes, a small sized can of proseal, and a full sized quart of proseal - ALL of which have shelf lives that have long since expired, so they will not be used to seal any part of my fuel tanks, and I will need to put in an order for more proseal yet again. Sucks to be me I guess - that's about the only way I can sum that up.

Many of these additional questions are questions that you do not see either asked or answered by others, but I find it quite strange that others are not asking the same questions. Anyway, to make sure that I don't lose the content, I am posting them here for myself and anyone else following my blog that might also appreciate the info:

385b and c SW fuel senders - for left and right - is it correct that the potentiometer scale/meter on c version for the right tank will be reversed (facing forward instead of to the rear, when installed on the side of the tank, or should the scale for both still appear toward the rear of the tank when installed correctly.

Vans says this backwards orientation is normal - important thing is that they both point down when installed either on the end rib or the rear baffle plate.

Am I supposed to scuff the back side of the sender flange of each sender if I am going to proseal it directly to the tank rib (NOT use the rubber gasket or cork as recommended by many who have been there before.)

Vans says not needed.

The left sender seems to have a dead spot at the end of travel of the arm (empty indication) - either no ohms reading at all or much higher (300 ohms or more - much higher than expected 240 ohms per the plans.) The right sender seems to be indicating correctly per the palns info. Ordered both SW senders from Vans on 4-16-18 order # 74191. SW says has a 2 year limited warranty - how do I proceed with a replacement. Go through Vans or direct with SW?

vans - Contact SW directly to replace it

Left tank will be flop tubed, so sender will be in bay #2 in rear of baffle.
1. Did I do a lot of extra unnecessary work by cutting the big hole in the aft of the end rib, when I found out that the sender needed to be placed in the second bay via the baffle in the first place.

Vans   -still good to have access t that bay due to the trap door and the flop tube/anti hangup bracket attachments.

2. With the sender in the secnod bay of the rear baffle, that means that the only way I can service that sender if necessary is to pull the entire tank, correct?

Vans - correct - you will have to pull the tank to service the sender that is mounted this way

3. For tank baffle mounted sender, do I need to cut another big round hole in the second bay AND use a reinforcement ring (T-407) as well, or just the hole big enough for the sender to fit in?

Vans says nope - no reinforcement ring or big hole needed - just a hope big enough for the sender to be inserted/mounted directly onto the rear baffle plate web. No reinforcement ring needed because the baffle plate is thicker/stiffer than the rib web.

4. Do I need to use another reinforcement stiffener ring for the T-411 cover plate on rib T-703 if no sender is being mounted in that hole, or can I just mount the cover plate, with nut plates mounted on the rib web itself instead of the combo of the rib web and the reinforcement ring?

Vans - would still use the stiffener ring here as the rib is not very thick and alot of strngth is removed by cutting that big hole.

5. Depth of tank for SW sender specs to determine what size to cut the rod - what dimension should I use for that (tank depth so I cut the rod to the correct length?

Vans - just clamp the sender in place and measure to determine based on the area where the float will be traveling.

6. Since the left tank sender will go in the rear tank baffle, do the dimensions of the float wire change from original plans for mounting in the rib on the side? Any issues with clearance of the bottom stiffeners when mounting the sending in the rear tank baffle?

Vans - measure to be sure, but should not be a change or a problem as far as they are aware.

7. Do you know a part number for a more malleable proseal for access plates that is not as hard as normal proseal to remove??

Vans - they do not use it and did not know the part number of hand - said to check Spruce and others.

8. Grounding the sender - how is this grounded to the airframe if you have the tank baffle or rib web, proseal, and the flange of the sender on the thin later of proseal. Are we supposed to run an additional ground wire from one of the sender mounting screw holes to one of the tank attach bolts or something similar?

Vans - Use a lock nut with the cut flanges that bites into the metal on the underside of the screw head and on the sender flange as it gets mashed down during screw tightening to establish contact for a good ground - so additional wire should be needed, even if screws are prosealed. Do it on all screws or just one or something in between?

As far as the tech counselor visit is concerned, Jim took a look at my unfortunate demise on the LE. Said that it is a dent and not a crease, but that it did deform the outer skin and the subskin. Then we had a conversation about acquiring an autobody or planishing hammer and a dolly that may have to be customized to try to pound (actually TAPPED) out to try to reform the skin back to the shape that it was in before. Unfortunately I can see where my unbelieveably STUPID idea t just keep pounding on the skin with the rivet gun when the rivet was not setting properly has indeed flattened it out a bit. So as a result, if I want to continue with the LE mod using what I have done thus far, I now get to learn a new skill that involves removing dents and reshaping metal, and I probably have to custom-make yet another tool = more wasted time.

So I went to local NAPA store, found a planishing hammer with a rounded head (NOT the kit you find at Harbor Freight, that only has flat headed hammers), and a Toe dolly that, when I fitted it up against the curvature of one of my LE ribs that I took with me to the store, looks like it will almost perfectly conform to the curvature of the LE skin/subskin/rib as long as it is held in the correct position. This is probably going to require a helper to hold the dolly in position while I tap the outer skin and hope like hell that I don't just deform everything beyond reasonable repair.

The last part of our visit was spent having a heart to heart about the possible structural impacts of what I am trying to do, and if I should go ahead and contact a DER (Designated Engineering Representative) to come and look at my invention and provide some further experienced insight on what I am doing. I wanted to go ahead and finish this mod regardless of the ultimate decision about its feasibility, just to see what it would take. At the end of the day I am not certain that this is a safe thing to do, and may still decide to abandon it all together. But I'm not throwing in the towel on the mod just yet.

I've got some parts to order from a number o different vendors so I am also putting that list together. I'll have some pics on the next post that show the damage from the F'd up riveting job  more clearly, and the tools I am going to attempt to use to fix it.

Cutting to the Chase

Well, the next logical sequence of this long drawn out process would have been to go through the steps to rivet the top side of the LE ribs together after finishing up the ones on the bottom. However, right now I think its just best to cut to the chase and remind any readers following this blog that deviating from the plans always involves risk.

To cut to the chase, I did unclamp everything and flip over the cradle and reclamp everything back together and begin the process of riveting the top side rivets to the LE skin, subskin, and ribs. In fact, I thought that this had gone just as well as I had thought that the bottom side had gone - perhaps even a bit better, now that I knew what to expect. I felt that way -  right up to the point that I shined the flashlight on the bottom most forward rivets attaching the subskin, outer skin, and ribs. If you have read the last 2 posts or so you will note that at one point I commented that I did have some difficulty with one of those most forward rivets, but at the time I did not know why, and I thought that I had overcome the problem eventually without doing any damage to anything in the process.

Well, when I viewed the shop heads of the forward rivets in that area, it become very apparent what had happened, and it was exactly what I had said all along that I absolutely could NOT do if  were to successfully complete the mod. In short, I discovered a crease on the subskin where the edge of my bucking bar had been digging into the subskin just beyond one of the most forward rivets on one side, so all the energy from the rivet gun was being passed through the bucking bar and into the subskin, which is why that one rivet would not set properly. My continued pounding with the gun only served to tighten the skin and stretch it a bit, which caused the outer skin to stretch a bit as well.

You can almost see it in the very last pic from my previous post by double clicking on it to make it larger and clearer, and look at the forward area next to the cut out in the outerskin along the one side. You can just see that the outer skin des not sit the same way against the subskin that the rest of area is, and that means that the outer skin has been stressed.

Here is a pic that I took, that, without even realizing it, captured the issue.

Look at the left side, just past the most forward nut plate on the bottom, and you will see what appears to be a whitish line. This is the crease that was hammered into the subskin. Remember to double click on the pic to make it larger. If the sides of my bucking bar had not been covered by duct tape I most certainly would have plowed the obviously incorrectly placed bucking bar right through the subskin and continued to pound into the outer skin. 

Finding this just about made me sick to my stomach, because this was precisely the thing that I feared the most that I knew I absolutely could not do. I now fear that the only way to correct this issue would be to completely remove all rivets, and remove and refabricate a new custom subskin. This is something that I absolutely will NOT do. I hate the fricking forward rivets just about more than anything I have ever hated in my whole life, and I will absolutely NOT start over to remanufacture a new custom subskin.

Right now I am waiting for a tech counselor visit to thoroughly inspect this damage and determine what to do next. Even if I am told to remove the subskin to effect a repair I don't think I will even do this. Instead, I am now prepared to order a new LE skin and perhaps new ribs to go with it, and rebuild the stock LE and completely abandon this idea so that I can hopefully have a flying airplane sometime before I leave this earth.

For anyone out there following - and I have said this before - if you are thinking about building then I strongly urge you to get the quick build wings and then you can decide if you want to do the quickbuild or slow build fuselage. The quickbuild wings will already have the LEs and fuel tanks completed by the factory - so you wont have to mess with ANY of those fricking forward-facing rivets. 

So I am pretty disgusted right now - but I still have fuel tanks to finish, so until I get a chance to talk with the TC about my latest blunder I will shift my focus to the fuel tanks once again. I  have discovered through this process of building a metal airplane that I absolutely hate riveting - so this will most definitely be the first and last time that I endeavor to build one. There is just too much aggravation involved for me. YMMV.

Setting the Final LE rivets, Cont'd.

One of the other things I failed to mention in previous posts is how important good lighting is when riveting these enclosed structures together. This was yet another reason why I wanted to have a portable, moveable work surface that I could position various ways to take advantage of the lighting as necessary. The problem that I encountered, regardless of how positioned the table and LE, was that I have very poor lighting in my garage to begin with. Even after I thought about positioning the table so that my 4 high intensity 150 watt work lights could focus all of their available light on the inside of the LE, I still did not have enough light in there. So what to do.....

Solution was to grab my trusty Ryobi adjustable flash light with a LO battery pack, and one of the bath towels, and lay it on its side with the head of the light poking through the aft lightening hole of a rib on either side of the rib flange whose rivets I was about to set. I placed the towel underneath it s that the vibration from the rivet gun would not cause other damage to the skin or ribs via the flashlight bouncing around. This allowed me to directly focus enough light into the bay while still allowing enough room for me to insert my hand and bucking bar of choice into the bay.

Here are a few pics showing that setup:

As I began working on these forward rivets, I tended to position myself in such a way that the rivet gun was centered directly over the rivet to be set, and then I would bend down to see the positioning of the bucking bar over the rivet shaft underneath the skin. I mostly watched the bucking bar while riveting, relying on the gun to stay in position with the proper amount of force applied. As I have previously reported, sometimes this worked as expected, and other times the gun would slide out of position and I would have to stop and reset everything all over again. I do not like not seeing the bucking bar because that usually leads to improperly set, overdriven, or canted shop heads. For some of these rivets doing it blind by not being able to see the bucking bar was unavoidable. These were mostly the most forward rivets where I had to pay much more attention to the gun position due to the extreme curvature of the LE skin. my biggest concern about this is having the bucking bar slide off of the rivet shank, which leads to all sort of potential damage - damage to the rivet, damage t the skin, or damage to the rib, or sometimes all three. I have seen it all during my short riveting career. So when I can't see the bucking bar and verify its position over the rivet shank it really bothers me.

The pic above showing the light shining against the rib flange and the rivet shank also gives yo an idea of the curvature of these surfaces that you have to deal with. Each rivet is at a slightly different angle than the other rivets, so to set these properly the bucking bar has to be placed t the correct angle for each one. To figure this out, I tend to use the tips of my fingers against the rib flange to gage the angle that I am dealing with, and then use my fingers t adjust the angle of the bucking bar to match what I am feeling. its not very precise, but its the best you can do on these hard to reach rivets f working by yourself. Of course the best solution is to have a riveting buddy, so that each of you can focus on the gun or the bucking bar and not worry so much about it. However, this causes other problems when working with small confined areas where more than one body may also cause its own interference problems that have to be worked out.

Here is another pic showing the positioning exercise of my fat man bucking bar against one of the rivet stems. For the rivets along the rib flanges this was not too difficult, but where I had rivets, nutplates, and additional skin-to-subskin rivets all very close to each other, I had t choose between different bucking bars for different rivets to maintain clearance from and prevent possible damage to the other obstructions.

In fact in the same pic to the left through the lightening hole you can get an idea of all the rivets and nutplate proximity to each other.

As I proceeded with setting the bottom rivets, I had to stop and slide the LE into different positions to allow clearance for the rivet gun. This required removing the long bar clamps holding the 1x4 against the rear rib flanges, sliding the next bay of the LE into position in the cradle, and re-clamping the rear brace back on again. I should also mention that a very important part of this whole assembly is the 1/8th inch thick weather proofing vinyl tape on the cradle supports. This is an absolute MUST for tis assembly, because without that bit of shock absorption between the wood and the outer LE skin, you would be causing pretty severe damage to the LE when you attempt to set each rivet. So I check this stuff every time I reposition the LE in the cradle to make certain that it  is properly placed.

Here are some shots taken from both sides after finishing the initial rivet setting exercise for the bottom side rivets. Most of them seem to set pretty well, but I did have issues with the curved surface of the forward, just as I had expected I would.

Setting the Final Rivets of the Left Wing Leading Edge

With the vast majority of the leading edge rivets set while in the cradle in the upright position, I could note get the rivet gun in the correct position to set the remaining 4 rivets on the top, and the last 3 rivets on the bottom of the LE (the most-forward rivets for each rib).

Part of this issue was due to the design of my cradle, and the other reason was because I refused to try to set these rivets on the most extremely curved surface of the LE working solo, due to the extreme likelihood of completely screwing up the entire LE assembly. the LE is a little deeper than 1.5 feet tall. To successfully buck these remaining rivets, you have to have be able to reach from the back side of the LE all the way to the forward section where the remaining holes are located. This is next to insane as far as bucking rivets goes, since the main idea is to keep the rivet gun and the bucking bar as close to your body as possible. The other serious complication is the need to hold the bucking bar at the correct angle with one hand, while holding the rivet gun also at the correct angle for the same rivet.

I knew from past experience with all the other skin riveting episodes of the tail surfaces that taking what amounts to a small vibrating hunk of polished metal (the rivet set), and sticking it in a gun whose sole purpose is to deliver rapid and very precise vibrating pulses that transfer to the rivet set, and holding another piece of polished metal (the bucking bar) on the other end the rivet, and trying to do all of this on curved surface, is a recipe for disaster when trying to do this alone.

I also learned from that experience that what makes a huge difference in the ability to set rivets like these successfully if you are working solo is that at the very least you MUST ensure that the entire work piece to be riveted is positively secured at all times  and accounts for all possible directions and positions from which riveting will take place. Since the most forward rivets on the LE have to be bucked, and they are located on the most forward curvature, the tendency will be for the rivet gun to push the entire LE assembly backward. SO this has to be prevented at all costs.

the other decision was to ensure that I could bucker the rivets so that gravity is helping to force the rivet gun  as straight downward as possible. The gun is rather heavy, and trying to hold the gun upward against the skin would become very tiring very quickly. So the best method/setup for this IMHO is to set the work up so the gun works with gravity and as straight up and down as possible. The pros probably have rotisseries that can lock an entire work piece into the just the right position as described above, or, they also probably have other hands from other people to help them rivet things together.

SO without additional help and without a professional rotisserie two work with, I cam up with the best solution that I could. It starts with unclamping the cradle and table top from the saw horses. The next step was also very important, and it was only after seeing something on the saw horses that it dawned on me what I needed to do. I realized that my saw horse assemblies came with metal frames from HD aviation supply, and that these saw horse frames had adjustable metal legs. Normally my garage work benches are high enough to allow the work pieces to be at a comfortable working height, but my problem with these benches are that they located up against the rear wall of my garage, and so I have limited ability to move around the benches to get best position on the work piece. It was for this reason that I set up the mini table on the saw horses in the first place - so that I had the ability to move around in any direction and put the table in any location to take advantage of additional lighting etc.

With that, I removed the cradle and table top and then adjusted the legs on each saw horse to add about another 8 inches of height. They were fine in their default "lowest" setting while setting the rivets with the LE in the vertical position, but to set the forward rivets of the LE I would need to turn the cradle on its side. T put the LE at the proper working height, I needed to add about 8 inches to the saw horse height. Turns out that this was pretty optimal.

After raising the saw horse height, the next trick was to figure out how to secure the work with the cradle turned sideways. After a lot of thought, I finally came up with a solution that worked so well that I almost thought about patenting it. It ended up taking no less that 10 bar clamps, and some of the them had to be changed out for different sized ones when I flipped it over to rivet the bottom and top sides of the LE. More on that later.

Next decision which side to address first - the top or the bottom. Recalling a post from someone while building their fuel tanks, I decided to set the rivets on the bottom side first, because the bottom is flatter, and less curved at the front than the top of the LE, and once you have set the bottom rivets the LE can set down on a flat surface without rolling around too much. For my solution the le stayed horizontally mounted in the cradle at all times, but doing the bottom side rivets sounded easier than the top so I opted for that.

SO the cradle was turned sideways, and the clamping innovation began. Once the cradle was solidly clamped to the saw horses and the make-shift mini-table, I was able to insert the LE into the cradle, but then it became apparent that I would need to figure out a way to clamp down the back side of the LE along each of the rear rib flanges to keep it from flying or falling out of the cradle. A search of my scrap wood supply revealed the solution. Here are the pics showing the setup that I used. These pics show the LE in the cradle with the bottom of the LE on top:

I had a 1x4 piece of wood tat was long enough to lay across most of the rear rib flanges, and then I needed some additional 2x pieces of wood to extend beyond the rear-most outer LE skin edges so that the clamps would not destroy them. This setup allows me to get my arm and hand with the bucking bar inside the assembly while holding the rivet gun on the top side with the other. A couple of 36 or 48 inch bar clamps to squeeze everything up against the forward part of the cradle. This is how the LE is prevented from slipping out of the cradle during riveting. The extra pieces of 2x that I used were remnant from the form blocks that I created long ago after using one of the LE ribs as a template. The only thing that I needed to be careful about was applying too much pressure on these clamps that might cause the forward sections of the LE to crus or deform against the cradle supports.

Here is s shot from the other side, and more shots that show the rest of the clamping arrangement, sing various pieces of wood to make it all happen.

It took 10 clamps to make it all work, but it worked great once I figured it all out. I had to use some additional 2x4 pieces as blocks to allow me to secure the cradle to the table and the saw horses.

The next decision was to decide which part of the LE rivets to work on first. Since I had more rivets to set to finish securing the sections of the outer skin to the subskin on the inboard portion of the LE, I chose to work on those first. I started out by setting the skin-to subskin rivets that secure the outer skin where it is cut out to receive the removeable section. These were the easiest to set because they were also the most rearward rivets to be set, so reaching them was easy, and setting them was easy too because they were also still on a flatter part of the bottom of the LE. 

For some reason I only have a shot of the bottom side shop heads of these rivets after I bucked them. They are the span-wise rivets in between the nutplates at the top and center f this pic:

Then it was time to start setting those pesky forward facing rivets. I had to use combinations of the Fat Man and Little boy tungsten bucking bars to fit then in between the nutplates, rib webs, and other rivets. The process to set these 6 or 8 rivets along the strap portion of the outer LE skin took me well over an hour to complete. As expected, trying to hold the rivet gun on the most curved part of the LE at the front was NOT fun, and I had to contort my arms, hands and body in very unnatural ways to get everything to fit correctly before pulling the trigger on the rivet gun. None of this process was what I would call "fun," but when I was able to set all of these rivets, I felt pretty god about what I had done. I should also point out that even though I was using the mushroom rivet set with the rubber cup around it, on several occasions the rivet gun decided to have a mind of its own and would slide off the rivet head, causing me to reposition it and try again, and in some cases I had to replace a rivet because the head was so badly damaged from this that it was unusable. Fortunately the rivet gun air pressure must have been perfect because I never dinged up the outer skin at all. I was completely amazed by this after looking at the less that good job I did riveting the skins on my HS. 

This next pic shows that I also had to determine the sequence of which rivets to set first, seconds, etc. For the area around the modified skin of the LE, I decided to set all "outer" rivets first, followed by the corresponding inner rivet, working from the rear-most rivets to the most forward, which is in line with Vans instructions. SO all rib flange rivets were set first, followed by the inner skin to subskin rivets along side. Thise process seemed to work well, and the outer skin was riveted to the ribs and subskin quite well. Also amazing was that I was able to use the AN426AD3-3.5 rivets as called out in the plans for the majority f this remaining riveting, except in the area surrounding the mod, where the 4.5 rivets were the correct size to account for the extra thicknessof those ribs and the subskin.

I also had to remove both clecoes in order to be able to position the rivet set on the gun in the right place. trying to keep tha damn thing from sliding around on the outer skin was a real pain in the ass.Trying to reach in and hold the bucking bar in the correct position at the correct angle, and hold the rivet gun the right spot on those curved surfaces was even m ore of a pain in the ass. I had to take my time with every single one of these final rivets, and I also had to recognize when I was getting tired and when to take a break. This happened often as I did NOT want to have to reset any of these rivets or risk damaging the LE because I was too stupid and too tired to know when to quit. 

Much more to come on this later. The good news is that I think I got it all done. No more clecoes are holding this baby together. 

KPR

 

Slamming LE rivets, Cont'd.

Pounded a crap load of rivets on the LE over the past two days. Felt good after getting the hang of it again, but I get real sore from all the strange body positions required to accomplish that. I'm not quite done yet, but I only have a few forward-most holes on the top and bottom side of each rib, and the holes surrounding the area where the outer skin that surrounds the perimeter of the removeable section must be riveted to the subskin. Then I figure I need to drill out and replace about 20% of them, mostly due to over setting them (Shop heads bucked a little too far). Here is a shot at the end of yesterday's session with most of the rib flange rivets in place:

Unfortunately after finishing the rib flanges I decided to get "started" on the business end of the mod - the inboard section that I affectionately call the swiss cheese section, since it has so many rivet holes and cut outs in it. What I forgot t take into account was how much flex exists in that area between the two ribs. you don't realize how much stiffness is provided by each rib until you try to buck a couple of rivets in the middle of the skin between them. What follows is the result - yet another rivet that needs to be drilled out and replaced. So I hung it up for the day to regroup, rest, and attack it again today.

To address this, I came up with an idea. I needed to somehow add some stiffness to that area just as I have had to do at other times. I remembered that I still have several of the form blocks that I used to shape the subskin so many years ago. SO I took one of them and a bar clamp, set it down inside the LE where I thought it would provide sufficient stiffness, and clamped it down just enough to hold it in place. With all the nutplates and shop heads of other rivets it did not sit down inside the skin totally flush, but it was good enough to provide the required stiffness in the areas where I needed to rivet the outer skin to the subskin.

This worked out REALLY well. Even if the outer skin was pressed into the wood a bit awkward due to nutplates being in the way, it was good enough to hold it there temporarily without distorting or bending anything out of whack while I set the rivets. Yet another tip for future builders. 

Here is shot after I was able to use the form block by moving it as necessary to allow room to hold the bucking bar while I set the perimeter rivets around each access hole. These would be the rivets that would normally secure the mounting or backing plate that allows a flange to mount the cover plate onto it with screws. In my case the subskin serves as that mounting plate, but I used the same rivet pattern as called for in each actual mounting plate:

Once these perimeter rivets were set it was time to mount the original cover plate from Vans permanently to the subskin. Here it is clecoed into position for the final time:

And here it is after all the rivets were set:

It still fit just like a glove. I was really pleased with how that went together. I was concerned about some of the edges curling up, but that never happened. It fit just like it was supposed to - to cover up the old Vans hole so I could use the SafeAir access panel hole instead. 

And finally the back side with all the shop heads after this was all done:

Like I said - Swiss Cheese.

 But slowly all the holes are getting filled.  Next steps are to set the cradle on its side and secure the back side of the LE so I can push on the forward tip rivets to set them. The problem is that I still need to be able to reach deep inside with the bucking bar to set those most forward rivets - and these are the most critical to do correctly the first time. I can't afford to have to drill any of those out. So the next session will be spent doing a lot of prep and ensuring that everything is exactly right so that setting these last rivets is as easy s possible.

KPR