Elevator and Trim Tab Construction
During this period, my web page updating became got kind of...well, cancelled. Too many things going onto even work on the elevator consistently, let alone do a web page for each step.
Current time spent after finishing the elevators is around 155 hours of my own time, and
12 hours of other people's time.
- 4/22/04 1.5 hours Started cutting and deburring E-1008 Elevator ribs
- 5/15/04 7.0 hours Finished deburring E-1008 ribs, began assy. of Elevator. Assembled ribs and other parts incl. skins. Assembled tip ribs with counterbalance. Final-Drilled skins. Missing one E-616...Van's is sending it.
- 5/16/04 1.0 hour Disassembled Elevators and deburred holes. Finish most of the parts. Deburred a couple of spar edges.
- 5/20/04 2.8 hours Continued deburring all holes in elevator components.
- 5/22/04 1.0 hour Deburred skins and other parts
- 5/23/04 3.0 hours More deburring, dimpled skins and counterbalance trim, countersunk rear spar, dimpled forward spar.
- 5/27/04 2.0 hours Deburring elevator parts. Prepared areas and masked off spots for foam ribs. Countersunk holes in AEX wedge. Put trailing edge bend on Elevator skins.
- 5/28/04 4.0 hours Final deburring of elevator parts. Alodined all parts except for skins.
- 5/30/04 6.0 hours Scuffed inside of skins for priming. Primed all Elevator parts. Cut Trailing edge foam ribs, and Trim Tab foam ribs. Did final-bend of Trim tab. Cut out Trim Tab pinch blocks. Masked area inside Trim Tab for foam ribs, and primed inside of Trim Tab.
- 5/31/04 5.0 hours Began riveting Elevator. Back riveted ribs to skins. Riveted reinforcement plates for access panel for trim. Dimpled and riveted nutplates for cover plate. Riveted doublers for hinge points to spar, along with large nutplates. Riveted spar to end ribs and control horns. Began riveting skins to rear spar.
- 6/1/04 4.0 hours Riveted rear spar using special bucking bar. Riveted most of elevator skins, including skins to forward spar. Riveted with LP4-3's the rib halves together. Short about 48 LP4-3 rivets to rivet forward spar to ribs, even though I had purchased 50 extras. 50 free coming from Van's along with 100 purchased.
- 6/2/04 7.0 hours Got 60 LP4-3 rivets from by buddy Rick. Riveted forward spar to ribs. Riveted counterbalance ribs, and remaining skins, including hammered rivets from ends of elevator to spars. Bent tabs on Trim Tabs and completed final drilling and assembly of Trim Tabs. Primed trim tab parts. Cleaned spots for foam ribs. ProSealed foam ribs and trailing edge on Elevator and Trim Tabs.
- 6/5/04 5.5 hours Finished Elevators. Riveted elevator trailing edges using same method as rudder….full length backrivet plate. Rolled leading edges. Riveted trailing edges of bottom by trim tab. Trimmed counterbalabce weights, and bolted to elevator horns. Cut and drilled trim tab hinges. Riveted hinges to elevators and trim tabs. Finished all misc. riveting.
The elevator wasn't too bad to work on, it just had a bunch of parts. The disappointing thing is seeing the dings you can make
for each mistake made. Hopefully with a little filler and work during painting time everything will look real good. To prevent
problems during building, I think the best advice is to go slow and thoroughly think about the physics behind each pound when you grab the rivet gun. If you don't have that gun centered over the spar, or matierial underneath and it starts to hammer a little off-center, it's gonna leave a ding. Things like that can really get to you when it starts out looking so good, but then you ding it. All in all though, it's looking pretty nice, and there is a good collection of finished parts growing in my basement. Tailcone starts next, and I think I've changed my mind and decided to assemble the tailcone and other parts when done. It'll be cool to have a big huge piece done.
Here are some photos in chronological order of the Elevator construction.
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