Scott's RV-14 Build

Riveting skins on vertical stab

Was itching to get back in the shop after 11 days off working and being out of town for Christmas. It was finally time to rivet the vertical stab skins onto the internal structure. Clecoing it all together went pretty quickly. I had some anxiety about flush riveting the skins. I was going to have to reach into the structure to buck and rivet myself. After all my work to date I didn't want to dork up the skins or have a bad rivet to remove. To prep I quickly made up a dimpled practice piece using 2 pieces of scrap and 20 holes or so. I find that I like the rivet gun set on 70 psi for the smaller AN426-3 rivets to be used. After driving multiple practice rivets I set to work on the stab carefully and methodically. It went pretty smooth and I was happy with the results with no drama. I still need to figure out the best way to get the 2 front rivets in the tip rib. Now time to do the rear stab spar.

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