Aft Fuselage and Elevator Mistake fixing July 15

RV14 Build July 15

Aft Fuselage

I received the new tools that I was waiting on to try and fix my mistakes on the elevator and the aft fuselage. The title mistake fixing is a bit of a misnomer, attempted mistake fixing might be better.

I started right in with the middle tool the 1/8 close quarter dimple die from Cleveland tools. They didn't work for what i was trying to do. This Aft Fuselage skin in thick and the pul rivet style of the dimple broke the shaft before setting the dimple. Then I thought why don't I drill it to size and place the dies around the hole and shoot and buck them like a rivet. This worked really well to make dimples!! The problem was I didn't clean up the holes well enough and upon inspection they were cracked in the dimple. I decide to drill out the whole bottom aft skin and reorder it as well as the bulkhead because those dimples cracked too. Lesson here...DEBURR better.

Cracks in the bulkhead dimple

I thought about reusing the Horizontal Stab attaching bars, but they were only $11 so I ordered new ones to match drill and assemble the bulkhead together.  Ill save these as spare metal/Parts.

On the left side lower stiffener my rivet drilling, which caused this can of worms in the first place, bit me again. So I ordered that as well. I think Im going to trim the stiffener and make a double and rivet it onto of the other instead of risking more damage by drilling out the stiffener the rest of the length.

The end result....Moving backwards today.

Elevators

The dimple die for the holes in the elevator trim motor access panel worked great! Finally a victory today. All i need to do is put the pins on the wires and into the molex connector and the elevators will be done!

Just kidding, I didn't know how to use the crimper and messed up the pins, new ones on order.

All in today cost my 4.5 hours and $120 in new parts. So much learning, this is what Im calling mistakes now....I need a beer.

Aft Fuselage 4.0 Hours, Elevators 1.5 Hours