Tailcone Assembly Continues

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

Tailcone Aft Bulkhead is Complete

Spent the day completing the aft bulkhead. My hands are sore, there are a whole lot of rivets that one has to squeeze. Now know why some buy the pneumatic riveter. Also, had to use the Mil-Spec for riveting, there a number of the rivets that appear short per the Avery gauge but are OK PER the mil-spec.

No real problems with the plans, except, Step 6 on Page 10-04 tells you to final drill the eight 3/16" holes. As F-1211A and F-1211B are disassembled at this time, I think the plans should tell one to final drill the 3/16" holes in both F-1211A and F-1211B.

Pay attention to the rivet call-out on Figure 2, Page 10-04. Lot is going on here.

Recalled a post on VAF, after replacing the die on the Avery pneumatic squeezer with the 3/32" head, the CCR-264SS-3-2 sure sounds different when they are pulled!!!

Did not have a problem reaching the rivets with the normal and the 3" yoke. There was one rivet on the tail skid bracket where I had to remove the die, insert the squeezer, re-insert the die, then squeeze it. To remove I removed the yoke from the squeezer by pulling the pins.

Completed the day by enlarging the hole for the SB437-4 bushing with a Uni-Bit to 7/16", then inserted the bushing. Another VAF post plans issue!

Will fit this aft bulkhead to the HS on Thursday, then can store the HS in the spare bedroom.

Time - 6 hours

Tailcone Bushing Problem - Page 10-04

Wanted to post the following information received from Van's. The SB437-4 bushing will not fit in the hole in the F-1211-A bulkhead. My bulkhead has the same problem that a friend's had. Page 10-04, Step 14, Figure 3.

From Joe Blank at Van's.......
"The SB437-4 will need to be drilled out to 7/16"

Preparing for Tailcone Assembly

Did not work on the project on Saturday or Sunday, but, got my fill of the NFL.

Update: I did NOT break the edges of the skins at this time. Waited until just prior to installation. See my subsequent posts on how I broke the edges using the Cleaveland tool. It works very well. Other posts complain of waviness....This tool produces a perfectly flat edge.

Spent the last 2 days preparing all of the parts for tailcone assembly. Spent quite a bit of time deburring and removing all machining marks from the fuselage/tailcone frames. I did not have a problem with the fuselage frame cracks referenced in the Van's service bulletin, but, wanted to ensure all of the metal was contoured and every machining mark in the area of the inner frame radii was removed. Fluted the frame angle and riveted the fuselage frames together, attaching the wear plate.

On Page 10-02, Step 10, had a bear of a time squeezing the AN470 rivets that attach the F-1210 frame, angle and plate together. The yoke on the squeezer just plain interfered with the pieces, no matter the dies chosen. Finally got it done BUT there must be an easier way. The next day, I again looked at the parts. I am wondering why I tried to rivet the parts by placing the squeezer over the outside flange of the frame then over the two angles. If I had placed the squeezer over the inner flange of the frame there would not have been any problem. The 3" yoke would have worked just fine.

JUST was NOT thinking!!!!! I feel so stupid...... Must be the primer fumes.

Machined the tail skid bracket using the supplied template. The template worked like a charm. Cut the threads using the drill press as I did during wing assembly. See the earlier wing assembly post in my blog for an explanation of this process.

Countersunk the holes in the bulkhead doubler. Then separated most of the parts required for tailcone assembly and deburred all of the edges removing all of the machining marks.

Completed the day by priming all of mating surfaces. Primed the F-1210 fuselage frame in the areas where I scratched the alclad surface due to my riveting issue.

I have Revision 0 of the plans. F-1284-L and F-1284-R do appear to be reversed, as I read forward in the plans. Thanks to the post on VAF for the heads up.

Six hours on Monday and 6 hours today, Tuesday. Time to start tailcone assembly!!

Time - 12 hours

Horizontal Stabilator is Complete

Completed the horizontal stabilator. Riveting the two skins to the skeleton went very well. All holes aligned just about perfectly. Attached the hinges and splice plate at the aft end of the HS which will be used to attach the trim tabs. The #52 holes in the splice plate will be used to safety the hinge pins. Then riveted the aft ribs and aft skins for the HS. Attached the counterbalance weights to the counterbalance arm and torqued the bolts to specification. I elected not to bolt on the upper and lower horns. Also elected not to bolt the counterbalance arm. Will make storage of the HS a bit easier. Also, trial fitted the trim tabs to the HS. They fit rather well. The tailcone is next.

Time - 6.5 hours

HS Hinge Bracket Install, Hinge Fabrication and Priming

Spent 5 hours working on the project. Installed the 2 hinge brackets on the forward HS spar. Learned that the drag torque of the nutplates was appreciable. With the beam style torque wrench, I measured a drag torque of 8-10 in/lbs. This added to the torque specification of 20-25 in/lbs gave me a window of 30-35 in/lbs for the AN3 bolt. Also ensure the bracket bolts are torqued to specification before installing the spacers. If the spacers are installed, there is no room for the socket.

Spacer installation went well, no trimming of the spacer was necessary. I cut the spacer exactly to the specification of 21/32". If is was a 1/32" over (still within the plan spec.), I would have had to do some trimming. It is amazing how these parts fit!!!!! Drag torque of the nut was about 2-3 in/lbs.

Then fabricated the HS hinges using the supplied template via the drill press. Match drilled the hinge to the skin per the plans. Seems like a strange way to match drill, but, it must work. Will see!

Prepped the HS skins, deburring the edges, removing all of the machining marks and rounding over all sharp corners. I do hate removing the blue film.

Last task of the day was to prime mating surfaces on the HS skeleton. Used SW P60-G2 this time. Skinning on Friday!

Time - 5 hours Total Empennage - 58 hours Wings (Complete) - 175 hours

Horizontal Stabilator Skeleton is Complete

Finally back into the the swing of things. Completed the horizontal stabilator skeleton today.

Today, I fitted and riveted the counterbalance brackets to the forward and then the aft HS spar. I could not reach the rivets in the bracket that are in the middle of the web with my normal yoke. Luckily, I had another yoke for the squeezer with a deeper throat. With the new yoke installed, I was able to squeeze the remaining rivets.

Cut the tubing to make the four hinge stops, and then reassembled and riveted the HS spar box assembly to the HS forward and aft spar.

Attached the rib clips or angles to the aft HS spar that allow for attachment of the HS aft ribs. Then rounded the tips of the ribs as called out in the plans. What worked very well was using the Ryobi combination disc/1" belt sander as opposed to using a file. The 1" belt made fast work of the task. It is shown in the background of the picture of the HS skeleton sitting on the same bench with my scotchbrite wheel. Rounding the edge should ensure one does not see a bump/hump in the skin at the tip location.

Riveted all of the ribs to the forward and aft HS spars. Riveting took a bit of time because all of the rivets require the use of the close quarters wedge. All in all, a very good day.

Time - 6 hours