Scott's RV-14 Build

Rudder Stiffeners, Trailing Edge, Internal Structure

Big day in the shop and continuing progress on the rudder. Got back to work initially back riveting stiffeners on the second skin. Was frustrated by a single stiffener rivet that would not rivet flush with the skin. It fit in the dimple nice and flush pre-drive and looked no different then the dozens of rivets in dimpled holes. But when back riveted it would be proud of the skin. Could find nothing obviously wrong. The structures and dimples mated well and everything was deburred. I was forced to drill it out 3 times. Of course the hole slightly enlarged doing that but fortunately I'd recently purchased some oversized NAS1241AD3-4 "oops" rivets that have a thicker shank but the same size head. I knew they'd come in handy one day. I cut one down to -3 size and was finally able to get an acceptable rivet. Spent an hour dealing with that and it was frustrating because I don't know what caused it so I can avoid a repeat. The remaining stiffener rivets went in fine. From there it was time to use pulled rivets on the clips attached to the stiffeners. IAW the plans I fabricated a wedge tool from a piece of scrap trailing edge wedge. I pulled multiple test rivets using it before moving on the rudder clips. All were attached using my manual rivet puller and wedge tool with no drama. After reading and re-reading multiple times Section 5 on the trailing edge I utilized the 3M double sided tape to secure the wedge to the right skin and then started pull riveting the internal structure. The upper skin needs to be rolled back to allow access to rivet. Working alone I was able to prop it clear using soft, light, appropriately sized objects I found around the house. As usual progress is never as fast as I'd like but things are getting done and I'm continuing to move forward.

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