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From the ground up ... question about riveting
I was watching "From the Ground Up" on Discovery Wings, specifically I paid
attention to the episode where the rivet the skin on one of the wings of the aircraft. in order to rivet the skin to the aircraft they use solid rivets, a rivet gun and a "bucking bar" (did I get that right?). The rivet is pounded by the gun on the outside while on the inside the bucking bar bounces against the other end of the rivet flattening it against the inside hole. Cool. It took 3 people to do that: 1 to handle the gun, 1 to keep the skin "bent up" while the other was keeping the bucking bar against the rivet. You could reduce that to 2 people if you have the person handling the bucking bar also bending the skin up. My question is this (to you more experienced metal-airplane-builder folks): is it possible to do this "solo"? From the looks of it the answer is a big resounding NO. I can't imagine anyone other than a contortionist with 4 arms handling the gun, the bucking bar and keeping the wing skin out of the way and doing a good job at it at the same time. Right? -- Marco Rispoli - NJ, USA / PP-ASEL My on-line aviation community - http://www.thepilotlounge.com |
#2
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In article ,
"Marco Rispoli" wrote: I was watching "From the Ground Up" on Discovery Wings, specifically I paid attention to the episode where the rivet the skin on one of the wings of the aircraft. in order to rivet the skin to the aircraft they use solid rivets, a rivet gun and a "bucking bar" (did I get that right?). The rivet is pounded by the gun on the outside while on the inside the bucking bar bounces against the other end of the rivet flattening it against the inside hole. Cool. It took 3 people to do that: 1 to handle the gun, 1 to keep the skin "bent up" while the other was keeping the bucking bar against the rivet. You could reduce that to 2 people if you have the person handling the bucking bar also bending the skin up. My question is this (to you more experienced metal-airplane-builder folks): is it possible to do this "solo"? From the looks of it the answer is a big resounding NO. I can't imagine anyone other than a contortionist with 4 arms handling the gun, the bucking bar and keeping the wing skin out of the way and doing a good job at it at the same time. Right? Wrong! It IS quite possible (and easy) for one person to do this operation. We use Cleco fasteners to hold the skins in place for the riveting -- usually we drill and cleco 3/32" rivets and then, if we want to go with larger rivets, drill out to the desired size, holding the skins in place with clecos. On homebuilts, we can usually reach both sides of the skin, one hand operating the rivet gun and the other hand holding the bucking bar. If we had to use larger rivets than #3 or #4, I suppose that the job would be more difficult. Incidentally, we do NOT flatten the shop head, but we buck it to a desired length & diameter and have go/no-go guages for the less experienced riveters. The real secret here is to take it easy and not try to rush the job or to work while tired -- those actions usually result in mistakes. |
#3
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You can rivet 90% of the rivets on an RV solo. The wing skins and some of
the fuselage skins are the primary exceptions. You need two people for those. It amounts to about 1% or less (honest!) of the total build time. KB "Marco Rispoli" wrote in message et... I was watching "From the Ground Up" on Discovery Wings, specifically I paid attention to the episode where the rivet the skin on one of the wings of the aircraft. in order to rivet the skin to the aircraft they use solid rivets, a rivet gun and a "bucking bar" (did I get that right?). The rivet is pounded by the gun on the outside while on the inside the bucking bar bounces against the other end of the rivet flattening it against the inside hole. Cool. It took 3 people to do that: 1 to handle the gun, 1 to keep the skin "bent up" while the other was keeping the bucking bar against the rivet. You could reduce that to 2 people if you have the person handling the bucking bar also bending the skin up. My question is this (to you more experienced metal-airplane-builder folks): is it possible to do this "solo"? From the looks of it the answer is a big resounding NO. I can't imagine anyone other than a contortionist with 4 arms handling the gun, the bucking bar and keeping the wing skin out of the way and doing a good job at it at the same time. Right? -- Marco Rispoli - NJ, USA / PP-ASEL My on-line aviation community - http://www.thepilotlounge.com |
#4
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"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
... You can rivet 90% of the rivets on an RV solo. The wing skins and some of the fuselage skins are the primary exceptions. You need two people for those. It amounts to about 1% or less (honest!) of the total build time. And. . . pick someone who won't drop the bucking bar inside the wing! Rich "Oops!" S. |
#5
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"Rich S." wrote in message ... "Kyle Boatright" wrote in message ... You can rivet 90% of the rivets on an RV solo. The wing skins and some of the fuselage skins are the primary exceptions. You need two people for those. It amounts to about 1% or less (honest!) of the total build time. And. . . pick someone who won't drop the bucking bar inside the wing! Rich "Oops!" S. Better to leave a dent in the wing than to leave a bucking bar in the wing. ;-) KB |
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