Oct. 30, 2001 -  3.5 hours

Installed the skins to the HS tonight.  Linda helped me by putting the clecos in as I drilled the holes.  I'm sure the pre-punched skins make this process much easier.  All the holes drilled and clecoed in place.

I had only snugged up the bolts on the HS-412 until I bought a torque wrench that would measure in foot inches not foot pounds.  I bought the torque wrench today and decided it was time to tighten up the bolts.  Here's the results of a cheap torque wrench.  I twisted the bolt off but the torque wrench never "clicked" set at 20 foot inches.  I'll order all 4 and replace the torque wrench!

 

Oct 31, 2001  1.5 hours

After the trick-or-treaters quit ringing the doorbell, I decided to hit the basement and spend a little time working on the HS.  I needed to de-burr all the holes that I drilled the previous night.  I use a star deburring bit from Brown tools and a cordless screwdriver for this work.  This seems to work fairly well for me.  I stopped by the local hardware shop and picked up an extension to make it easier to get to the back side of the ribs.  I noticed that I had skipped 3 holes when drilling the skins so I mounted the skins back to the skeleton and drilled these holes as well.

I also de-burred the skins themselves and started dimpling the skins using the C-frame from Avery.  Again, the helpful better half came down and helped hold the skin open which made it much easier to dimple.  I dimpled on half of one of the skins.  I'll finish up these tomorrow and use the squeezer to dimple the ribs. 

LCJ_Peeping.jpg (80776 bytes)

I bought another torque wrench and checked the bolts that go through the HS-411 and the rear spar.  The ones that I had not twisted off (: were about 50 inch pounds when the specs call for between 20-25 inch pounds.  I've ordered new bolts and will replace all four when they arrive.

Nov. 1, 2001 - 4.5 hours

Tonight I dimpled the skins and the ribs of the HS.  The pneumatic squeezer made most of the dimpling easy.  

Dmple_rib.jpg (61411 bytes)Sqzr_dmple_rib.jpg (80877 bytes)

I did wrestle with the C-frame to get the center row of holes dimpled on the skins.C_frame_on_skin.jpg (86349 bytes)dmple_skin_brd.jpg (79535 bytes)

I used the 3/32 pop rivet dimpler to dimple the tips of the HS_606.

dmpl_pop_rivet.jpg (86590 bytes)dmple_pop_rivet_2.jpg (62979 bytes)

I didn't intend to prime the inside of the skins.  However, I had pulled the vinyl off one of the skins before dimpling and there were some scratches that needed sanding out.  After sanding with fine Scotch Brite emery cloth, it was evident that I had cut through the treated layer and decided to prime. 

primed_skin.jpg (56172 bytes)

Nov. 2nd & 3rd, 2001 - 9.5 hours

Today was spent finishing up the riveting of the HS.  Last night I started riveting the HS. I began by clecoing one side of the skins back to the HS skeleton. HS_ready_rivet.JPG (73840 bytes) I started out riveting by myself.  It was a little awkward using the gun and holding the bucking bar.  My daughter, Katie and wife, Linda agreed to help.  With their help I riveted the top side of one of the skins.  We called it a night after that.HS_riveted.JPG (77438 bytes)

Saturday morning, Linda helped me again by running the gun while I bucked.  Linda and Katie had shopping plans for the remainder of the day so I was on my own again.

I really intended to just squeeze the rivets on the skin that we had finished but decided to try riveting again on my own.    It wasn't difficult, you just had to become a contortionist. HS_DJ_Rveting.JPG (107657 bytes) I'd drive a few rivets and then rest the joints (my joints that is)!  It actually worked out very well.  You could feel whether the bucking bar was balanced on the rivet before riveting.  I was very pleased with the way the rivets turned out!  HS_inside_rvets.JPG (40421 bytes) HS_Inside_2.JPG (40619 bytes)

After getting all the internal rivets installed, I put the HS-??? tip in,hs_ins_tip.JPG (78228 bytes) riveted it in place and used the squeezer to squeeze all the outside rivets.  I'd take a deburring bit by hand and hit the dimpled holes before installing the rivet.  

It's done. HS_Finished.JPG (105126 bytes) Well almost. HS_finsihed_2.JPG (90672 bytes) Need the bolts for the HS_??? that I over- torqued and the fiberglass tips.  I did try the fit of the tips and they seem to be okay.  I didn't trim the HS-606 as called for in detail "B" of the plans.  I wasn't sure why I needed to and know that you can't put what you cut off back on.   Looks like I should have trimmed about 1/16th from the HS_606 for the tips to fit snuggly.  I'll probably take this off the fiberglass tip.