I got back to work on the practice kit tonight after a few nights off. Tonight I back-riveted the stiffeners to the skins. Back-riveting is basically using a chunk of steel that sits on the table as the bucking bar. Normally, the rivet gun would be placed on the "manufactured head" and I would created the "shop head" on the back side. In the case of back-riveting, it's the opposite. The flush head of the rivet is placed on the back-rivet plate and I create the shop head with the rivet gun. It's pretty easy to create some good-looking rivets with this method.
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| Stiffeners riveted to the skins |
After getting the stiffeners riveted in place, I riveted the skeleton together. This just consists of the two ribs and the stiffener plates I prepared a few nights ago. I did these rivets with my pneumatic squeezer and they turned pretty well. I then clecoed the skins to the skeleton and match drilled them. That's about as far as I got tonight.
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| Shot of the rivets holding the skeleton together |
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| The skins clecoed to the skeleton |
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| Another shot of the skins clecoed to the skeleton |
This is where I stopped for the night, but it looks awesome! It's starting to come together and look like an airplane part. The two pieces of aluminum skin extending past the front side of the skeleton will be rolled to create the round leading edge. Tomorrow, I'll try to debur the holes I drilled tonight and get the skins riveted on the skeleton. After that, I'll roll the leading edges and finish up this project. I'm getting excited (and a bit nervous) about starting on the actual airplane!
