This morning I fitted the aft bulkhead to the HS. This took a bit of time to figure the best washer configuration. I used some very thin shim stock (0.008") with a bit of double stick tape to hold the washers until I could get the bolt thru. Ended up with a 416 inboard on the right bearing and a 416-Light outboard on the right bearing. And with a 416-Light inboard of the left bearing and a 416 outboard of the left bearing. ah!! I did not superglue the washers. Will wait until assembly.
Then started tailcone assembly. All went well. Follow the instructions, use the saw horses. The J-channel fits are tight!! Make double sure all of the tabs are in contact with the skins. I did flip the assembly to ensure all of the tabs were captured by the clecos and there was good contact. With it flipped upright, what seemed to help seat the tabs was to grab now the top of the skin at each rib location and pull the furthest skin and push on the closer skin a bit at the same time. This sort of rounds the skin contour to the rib.
The Cleaveland tool to break the edges of the skins worked very well. I waited until I got to this point before breaking the edges. Because this was a new tool to me I posed a question on the VAF forums and received the following answer from Jim Cone.
"To use this tool, open up the set screw and close the jaws. Then put the tool on the edge of the piece to be broken with the rollers just barely on the edge. Then tighten the set screw just enough to get the rollers to touch the metal. Then open the jaws and close them with the tool set with the edge guide against the edge of the material. Then just pull the tool along the edge without twisting it down. The tool does the work and only bends about 3/16ths inch of the edge down. If the tool does not pull along easily, you have it too tight. Remember, you are not putting a large bend in the edge, but just a 2 degree tilt on the very edge. The tool does that without twisting the tool at all. If you twist the tool down, you will put a crease about 5/8ths inch in from the edge where the inner edge of the tool is. That is not where the break is supposed to be."
And I add...... Playing with the tool if you make three passes with the tool on each edge, tightening it ever so slightly between passes, there seems to be a lot more control of the tool doing it this way!!!
Riveting on Friday.
Time - 7 hours
