Back To Work And Real Progress

Back in the shop today after 2 weeks off. Spent 9 days with family on a fun Caribbean cruise and then a 2-day AZ motorcycle ride with a buddy upon our return home. Fortunately I've still got 5 more days off. Keenly aware the plane isn't going to build itself, I resolved to spend max time in the shop in the days ahead. The rudder has dragged out far longer then I thought it would in terms of hours spent so far. I really want to finish it and move on to the horz. stab. The first task was heading to the store for stuff I was going to need. Harbor Freight yielded additional clamps of various sizes and a digital caliper. I been making due with a cheap plastic one, which I use often, and really wanted something easier to use and more accurate. Home Depot provided a 4'x2'x5/16" sheet of plywood that I used to hold my back riveting plate. I cut out the center in the shape of the plate then clamped the whole thing to my workbench. I wanted the metal plate flush with my work surface and didn't want to recess the top of my workbench to do that. The setup worked well while back riveting my skins tonight. I also bought a 90 deg aluminum angle section to set up a jig to hold the trailing edge wedge secure, flat and level while I countersunk all 98 holes in it. It took some head scratching to figure out the best way to get that countersinking done and I wasted a lot of time on that task. Once I get the jig set up and adjusted the countersinking process, while lengthy due to the sheer number of holes, went smoothly. That done I then moved on to priming the internal skin rivet lines and fay surfaces using a 1" foam brush. The scuffed trailing edge was left unprimed IAW the plans. Any scratches in the Alclad between rivet lines were also scuffed with a Scotchbrite pad and primed. The results aren't cosmetically pretty and I have to remind myself that its all hidden internally, is a good compromise on additional weight vs priming the entire skin, and I'll have additional piece of mind regarding corrosion. With that done I was then able to move forward with back riveting all the internal stiffeners to the right rudder skin. That process went smoothly and I'm pleased with the results on both sides of the skin.