It's rivetting time !
After many weeks of preparation, we finally got back to my favorite work,... rivetting.
Maybe it's because it is the conclusion of many weeks of work and that everything finally falls together and can permanently be connected.
The right elevator rivetting start by rivetting the E703 and E 704 counterweight ribs using AN470-4-4's. A bit of a disappointment because I hoped I could do all of the rivets with the squeezer. But, the flanges on both sides do not allow the yoke to pass.
So I had to do this with the rivet gun and bucket bar. I don't like to do this alone and I asked my wife to give me a hand.
She shot, I bucked and it went quite well and I could even glimpse some enthusiasm..
So on the scale from “no help at all” to “girlfriend built the plane all by herself,” we made a few steps today. 
We had to drill out 2 because she slipped the cup while shooting and dented the rivets. Well all beginning is difficult. They went out easily without enlarging the hole.
Nice shop heads.
I have the feeling I got to the point where I can actually 'see' the quality of the rivet without the rivet gauge. People told me this would come with experience. For new builders: I'm now at 230 hours, so don't panic if you have difficulties and measure every single rive. It will come...
Don't mind the darker imprints below, they are from the clamps that held the pieces together as I rivetted them together.
Here, I clecoed the nutplate reinforcement plates in place and installed the K1000-6 nutplate. I am really satisfied this time with the quality of the primer job. No too thick at all and not shot too dry. A smooth and thin layer.
I used a wider cup to squeeze the AN470 rivets on the reinforcement plate. At first sight, all seemed ok as I was only checking for dents. When they were all set, I noticed that the new cup actually suppresses the head of the rivet a little.
I find this not ok as the height of the manufactured head is now thinner. It was quite bad on the nutplates as you can see in the picture below.
I drilled those 2 out and replaced them and squeezed with my regular cup set and they came up nicer. The small ring created by this narrower set is less bad then the thickness loss. I kept the others on as they were only little suppressed and there are plenty of rivets to hold this plate together (6 + the 2 from the nutplate).
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Update 9/5/2011 : The picture below was taken after repositioning the nutplates. I accidentally inversed the nutplate on the wrong side of the spar. I'll drill them out again and inverse them later. So the next 4 pictures, should have the nutplate on the other side.
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Shop heads perfect and consistent. I love my pneumatic squeezer. If you doubt, GET ONE!
Here is the other reinforcement plate on the outboard.
I continued using my narrower cup set for these AN470-4-4's and 5's.4
You can actually see in this picture the small dent line on the outer side of each rivet. The rivet cup delivered in the avery kit is not so good. I'll have to try to find an alternative from Cleveland.
Shop heads, brilliant.... Did I say I love my squeezer ? I adore my squeezer !
Then it's time to connect the E705 side rib to the E702 spar. These are AN426-3-3.5 countersunk rivets. The reason why these are countersunk is because the elevator attach horn will lay over this corner. So they need to be really nice and flush.
I had to drill out the second one from the top 3 times because I just couldn't get it to lay flush. The hole did not get enlarged and I managed to finally make it work. On the top rivet, I had to manually make the countersink a bit deeper.
I noticed that during drilling out of the rivet, I scratched the material on the other side. Stupid if you know I actually have some drill stops in the cabinet.
Being lazy gave me some extra work over noon to prepare some zinc chromate primer in small quantity and touch up the exposed material. Using a brush is really not that good as spraying but it does the job.
Then connect the E703/E704 counterweight ribs to the E702 rear spar.
Good shop heads.
To complete the skeleton, attach the elevator horn and rivet it in place.
Look at that... For such a great work, my squeezer can sleep in my room tonight in between me and the lady...
And this is how the skeleton of the right elevator looks when it's finished.
To avoid having to use pop rivets, I first rivetted the 2 difficult to reach rivets first from the counterweight skin to the E701-R skin
Then slide the skeleton in while the counterweight lead (E714) is already inserted. Start at the counterweigt rib side.
Then cleco all in place.
From there on, you can start rivetting from the center of the E702 spar outwards using the tiny AN426AD3-3.5 rivets.
And this concludes side 1 of the right elevator. The other side has to remain unrivetted until the inspector of the DLGV has dropped by to approve the interior.
Close up of the counterweight skin. Nice joint from skin to counterweight skin (Don't forget to use the rollo tool or flat squeezer before joining)
There's a lot of rivet along the rear spar.
Inner shop head on the counterweight skin to rib.
Remember some articles ago I punched and misaligned a dimple in my right elevator skin ? Well, at that moment I enlarged the hole to solve the problem and decided to use an oops-rivet. It's the 4th one from the top on the right side. Looks very good and no reason to pay extra attention to it.
I enjoyed work a lot today. With the right tools, a good preparation and no stress, it is really fun to build an airplane !
Jihaa, up to rivetting the left elevator next week !