Bad Rivets

I thought this would be a good topic.

After squeezing a multitude of rivets yesterday, I found a few rivets that I really didn't like. The shop heads were off-set to one side. Not very good. So, today I removed these rivets and replaced them.

All toll, there were four rivets to be removed and replaced.

Two rivets drilled out and two to go!

I marked the heads of the rivets to be removed with a Sharpie pen. Notice the deformation of the aluminum shear web. This was my first clue there might be a problem prior to flipping the part over.

The goal is to drill out the rivet to remove the factory head. Then punch the rest through the aluminum parts. You do not want to damage anything. That would mean more work.

Here are the remains of the rivets after removal.

Crap! Look at the off-set in these rivets. The stem of the rivet is even damaged. This is why each and every rivet needs to be inspected.

Using the rivet gauge and looking at each one insures a well built aircraft. One you would like to fly in.

Long story short. Practice riveting. Practicing does not guarantee good rivets every time. Inspect every rivet! Get good at removals. You'll be doing a few over the years of building.

A little touch up primer and it's good as new.

Later,

BWW

More on Fuse Formers

Over the weekend I didn't have a lot of free time due to various things. I did find time to start riveting the fuselage formers I started last month.

This is a shot of fuselage station former 162.00. The former is six pieces of aluminum. Four for the top, bottom, & sides with two shear webs riveted to the bottom corners for strength.

This is very similar to constructing a large RC plane. Only it would be constructed of plywood & epoxy resin.

I built and wrecked a lot of RC Planes in the 90s. Maybe some time I will up load the spiral of death my P-47 kind of survived.

Here's a shot of the rivet shop heads I made with the main squeeze. Nice and uniformed.

This former needs a little touch up primer and a few drilling guide holes for the skins and it will be all set.

Assembling the formers has been one of those busy tasks that has to be completed. When I can not progress on the main plane, because I lack the extra hand I need to complete that riveting, I look into the plans for subassemblies.

Keeping the idea of getting ahead by completing subassemblies I started laying out the fire wall.

The fire wall is made up of some very light gauge stainless steel. To beef it up some aluminum angles are riveted to the front and back side of it.

The front side of the fire wall gets a couple of aluminum angles attached to it looking like a "T".

The back side gets a couple of more aluminum angles. There are a few more parts that go on the fire wall (like an engine) that I have to locate in the many boxes of parts I got from Mustang Aero. (I hope it's in here some place.)

You can faintly see in the last picture the many layout lines I scribed, I mean drew with a Sharpie pen. I like lots of colors.

The Horizontal Reference Line (HRL) is in red & the Center Line (CL) is in blue.

I aligned the aluminum angles with #40 holes for now. I will drill them out to #30 at a later date. (Like when I have an engine...It's got to be in one of these boxes.....)

Well, I'm hoping to get more done this next weekend. Only time will tell. BWW