Aft Fuselage Rear Deck

I prepped quite a few pieces this round saving on setup time.

This is the F-01414 - Aft Deck, primed and dimpled. Only the 8 holes shown here are AN426 type rivets, all the others are AN470 round head rivets.

...plus these four on the rear flange...

F-01409 Frame

I only noticed after I'd primed, that I hadn't rounded the faceted edges. Hence the next few shots here showing where I ran the edges over the Scotchbrite wheel.

I'm still amazed at how accurate the pre-punched parts are. Every now and then I need to run the drill through a hole to clear out some paint and maybe a tiny bit of aluminium, but for the most part all these parts fit together perfectly - Nice job Vans!!

This is page 10-27 - Aft Deck Installation

It's always satisfying finally putting these parts on to test fit, knowing how much work has gone into preparing the parts.

Yeah I know, the bench is really messy.

Had to find the longer 12" drill bit to ensure it was perpendicular to the face...

Even with the 12" bit, the drill was very close to rear flange.

This shows the angle I had to be on for the hole to be perpendicular to the face...

Drilling holes in the F-01411D Horizontal Stab Attach Bar Support Angle. This is one of the chunkiest pieces of angle in this part of the kit.

When you understand what it's attaching, I'm ok with that.

Now this one little rivet in the corner was trying to be difficult. I needed to contort the bucking bar into that small space to set that one.

Finally got to use my double offset cup rivet set - I knew there was a reason I bought it.

You can't have enough tools!!

Unfortunately, not everyone is competent in using them. Oh well, it's a learning experience. This one obviously came out...

Almost there.

Deburing Aft Fuselage bulkheads

It's getting closer to completing the Empennage kit. Section 10 is the rear fuselage and below are the rear bulkheads that attach to the Vertical stabiliser.

Deburring first. Only the left hole in the photo below has been deburred and it shows the sharp edges created when punching the holes in the Philippines.

All these are done...

Ahhhhhh....

This is one of the double-edged deburring tools which is very handy when access is restricted and you can only get to one side of the sheet metal.

This shows a close-up of the sprung-loaded cutting edge that depresses when you put a measured amount of pressure through the hole. The spring force can be adjusted to control the amount of deburring.

This is normally only a 5-piece kit, but I ended up buying a separate 3/16" deburring tool for some reason so I thought I'd make a place for it in the box with the others. 

Time for a back-riveting plate

Over the previous couple of years I've randomly dropped into metal fab factories in the hope they'd have some small piece of steel I could use as a back-riveting plate. For whatever reason, that approach hasn't been very successful. I therefore decided to visit a steel fab/engineering workshop to request a piece be cut to size.

It cost me $60, but I've got what I want...

Again, I only realised after the fact that I didn't take any progress photos.

I've supported the backing plate underneath by four steel straps (one across each corner) which made the underside flush and the top-side not. You can sort of just see in the below image that the plate sits proud of the workbench by about 5mm. Flush would've been better but it was easier to do it the way I'll show...

I found some left-over carpet squares from some place you'll never guess. They turned out to be approx 7mm which then made the back-riveting plate sit lower by 2mm. This was a great result as I can now slide aluminium sheets around and not have them be scratched by the steel plate.

One final finishing touch I haven't yet completed is to draw lines on the carpet squares highlighting the boundaries of the plate. I learnt an expensive lesson when back-riveting one of the rudder skins so I would highly advise adding these lines when installing a back-riveting plate.

Dimpler Bench

When dimpling the Vertical Stabilizer skin, I realized fairly quickly that I'm going to either need someone with me to assist dimpling the larger pieces of aluminium or build a support I can put around the Dimpler so I don't need to 
1) hold the piece,
2) line it up with the dimple set, and then 
3) operate the press.

There will be many of these out there, this is mine.....

I started to sketch it on paper but decided I'd prefer to get the measurements more accurate. Designing it using Sketchup Pro is very easy and allows for minor mods on the go to make sure it works.

(If anyone would like the sketchup model to use/modify, let me know and I'll email it through)

The skeleton:

With 3mm ply:

With approx 7mm carpet layer:

Some photos of different stages of construction:

I'm lucky to have a mate who loves these sorts of projects. 
Introducing... Rocket! Here's the frame almost complete:

(Yep, I sort of didn't tell him I was taking the photo. Thanks for your help mate)

Depending in the dimple set being used, I may need some adjustment. These coach bolts were donated by Rocket - thanks again.

Complete frame with ply cover screwed in place:

And finally with the carpet stuck on:

Perfect!!

Empennage - rivetting info

This may or may not assist builders in their early stages. Some may have already received the memo, but I must have been watching Redbull Rampage when it was issued. If and when you purchase your pneumatic squeezer/dimpler, make sure you also purchase a longeron yolk...

and more importantly, ensure the set holder is adjustable(below).

As I understand it, Cleveland Aircraft Tools sell their pneumatic squeezer/dimpler with the adjustable set holder just like this....

If it's not installed in the squeezer, the threaded section gives it away as being adjustable. If it happens to be installed and you want to know if it's adjustable, it should have two flat sections either side of the shaft to assist rotating the shaft if it happens to be a little stuck.

What follows is a short description of how I realized this, and why the sequence of events assisted me in screwing up four rivets and ultimately having to drill them out.

1. Incorrect yolk for the job

I obviously got away with not requiring the extra squeezing force on the thinner diameter rivets (AD3). However, when I progressed to Step 6 on page 06-04, I was forced to take a lesson in the correct setup of the gap when either dimpling or squeezing. As I didn't have the longeron yolk or the adjustable set holder, I reverted to the manual squeezer which becomes very difficult to squeeze AD4 rivets unless you spend at least 3-4hrs per day pumping iron in the gym.

This was the result:

and this one:

Both have been drilled out and awaiting the correct tools.

2. Absence of Adjustable Set Holder

For those like myself who haven't been given a detailed instruction on how the pneumatic squeezer/dimpler works, it's important to note that it's the final 1/4"(approx) that imparts the highest compression force on whatever is being squeezed. This being the case, set up the gap correctly. The easiest way to do that is to make sure you either purchase a pneumatic squeezer/dimpler fitted with an adjustable set holder or fit one yourself like the one above.