(page 6-06 revisited) Ah $&%#.......           

...as they say in the comics.  Somehow I missed step 9 on 6-06 which instructed me to flush rivet the previously dimpled nut plates to the skin prior to riveting the skin to the v-stab skeleton.  I was able to get all but the last two, but the rivet squeezer won't fit into the upper end where the space narrows.  I'm trying to locate a smaller squeezer which will fit.  If necessary, I'll buy the smallest I can find and grind it down.  Worst case, I believe I could make one from vice grips.

(page 6-07) Ain't it purty?...................              

Here's the obligatory picture entitled builder-with-completed-v-stab.  I had one issue with the riveting:  On the second-from-the-bottom rib, the forward-most hole is in a short tab.  Unknown to me, when I inserted the cleco, the tab bent down since the holes didn't line up perfectly.  I was able to insert a peice of wood through one of the holes in the lower-most rib and bend the tab back to a horizontal position.  I held the tab in this position while re-drilling the hole.  Worked great.

All the rivets are in.  All the fingerprints are wiped off.  It's a thing of beauty.  On one rib (second from the top) I managed to put a small dent in the skin with the cleco pliers.  Otherwise, all the riveting went well.  The pneumatic riveter is wonderful.

-ha

(page 6-07) No more unsightly bulges.....            

...on my tail.  After removing the clecos and skin and trimming the ribs two more times,  I finally got rid of the bumps caused by the skinny end of the fromt spar and top two ribs.  I had radiused these as called out in the plans, but simply doing as told wasn't enough.  The top two ribs were less a problem than the front spar.

These are the little buggers that caused the problem.  In addition to radiusing as called for, I removed a good bit if additional metal to cause it to quit poking the underside of the skin.

After all the filing, I re-applied primer in keeping with my decision to prime only the internal alclad which contacts another surface.

After installing and removing (three times!) that many clecos, my hands are a bit numb.  I'm guessing (hoping) the rudder, horizontal stab and stabilator will be easier to skin.

(page 6-07)  Tail is good......                                         

Finally, a part that even the casual observer would identify as something belonging on an airplane.  I was a bit apprehensive about getting all the rivet holes to line up, considering how many there are, but with a little coaxing, all the clecos went in.  To accomplish this, I used an awl and several small drifts (which start out smaller than a #30 drill bit, then increase in diameter).  If I could see any part of the hole in the rib through the hole in the skin, I'd insert the awl (or drift), thus bringing the holes in alignment.  Using this method, I could start at the trailing edge of the rib which was already riveted to the the rear stab spar) and work my way forward.

 Blue plastic hell.........

The worst part, however, is removing the protective plastic from the parts.  Small parts aren't so bad, but large expanses of aluminum are a pain.

Alas, I've made the decision to romove all the clecos and skin from the skeleton.  The instructions say to do so if any bulges show in the skin near the leading edge of the ribs.  I can see small distortions of the skin, in two places.  Wouldn't affect the flying qualities, but off it comes for some adjustment of the ribs.  This will also facilitate additional priming of the aft side of the rear stab spar, which I had intended to do, but forgot.

(page 6-06) Gimme some skin....                

Vertical stab skeleton is complete, and the skin has been drilled and dimpled. The dimple die worked like a charm. Isham's tool kit even included the small diameter die needed to dimple the nut plates (not done yet). I had assumed I'd have to take the normal die to the bench grinder in order to do this procedure.

I did learn that the #40 holes should be dimpled before the #8 (larger) holes.  I started doing it the other way round and quickly saw that dimpling small after large distorted the large hole.  I recovered by re-dimpling the large holes.  Looks OK.  Dimpling all the nut plates required a lot of muscle on the squeezer.  I wish pneumatic squeezers weren't so expensive.

(page 6-05) Taking a break.......                             

...Then some actual progress.  The Spousal Unit forced me, kicking and screaming, to spend a week in the Keys, which severely cut into my progress on the -12   Actually, the kicking and screaming happened when she made me return to the frozen North (Carolina).

I did, however, get to visit the southern-most EAA chapter in the US, chapter 1241 in Marathon, Florida, which is about half way between Key Largo and Key West.  Amazingly, they average about 200 people at each meeting, putting to shame the chapters I've been affiliated with.

For the first time, I used Isham's pneumatic rivet puller, which came with the Isham's RV-12 tool kit. This tool worked better than I could have hoped for. I riveted the spar caps to the rear vertical stab spar, which involved a few squeezed rivets and probably 100 pulled rivets. Piece if cake. About half the rivets required the use of the little wedges, which were made early on, for riveting in tight spaces. They worked as advertised.

I finally came to the realization that deburring all the edges and holes will consume a substantial amount of time.  As previously mentioned, there are approximately 12,500 rivets, but each rivet goes through at least two holes, sometimes three.  That's a lot of holes.

After reading way too many builder blogs, I finally settled on a procedure for preping the aluminum for priming:  For every surface which gets riveted to a mating surface, I'm scuffing with red ScotchBrite, wiping down with acetone, then spraying with rattle can self-etching primer.  I think this is sufficient.

Finally, a part has emerged which, with a bit of imagination, looks like an airplane part: the vertical stab skeleton.  The skin may get attached tomorrow.