Elevator Work, Productive!

We got a lot done today, you just gotta love Thursdays. No work so it's all RV time! Today we started on over to the storage garage and got to work on the elevator skins. They were already primed and ready to go so Dad and I started back dimpling them and getting them ready for back riveting the stiffeners on. We're getting pretty fast at this, we just fill up the holes with some "back dimpling rivets" we have set aside and tape them all in. Then we flip the skin over and use our back dimpling set to set the dimple. Much faster, and less crude than a C-Frame tool.

Once we had the stiffeners back riveted to the skins we packed up our tools and the skins and brought them all back home. We continued working and dimpled the E-615 servo plate and plate nuts. We riveted the platenuts to the plate and dimpled the skin for the E-615 servo plate. We squeezed the rivets that hold the servo plate to the skin and they turned out beautiful, there was one rivet that required us to 'bend' the skin in order to be able to reach it with the squeezer, but the skin went back in shape once we took off the bending pressure. I must say, I prefer using the Tatco hand squeezer over bucking and back riveting, it's rewarding to see what your own grip strength can do for an airplane. Also, it allows you time to think!

We were able to final bend the elevator skins using the hinged bender that we built, and we also began priming the under structure for the right elevator and are getting ready to begin riveting it together.

And what better way to finish the day than with New York strip steaks and bratwurst? I thought I'd cook dinner tonight for an early Father's Day.. O'Brien style!