I built up the Right Aileron framework yesterday, but didn't get a chance to document it until tonight. As hoped, it went together about twice as fast as the Left. I'm getting back into the rhythm of building and it's really a good feeling. I've often appreciated the fact that my memories of building the RV-12 are positive, even accounting for the days of frustration and setbacks. I love flying, I love building, but I'm not real fond of maintaining. Oh, well. That's why I'm building again.
I'm still getting to know how to use the pneumatic squeezer. There were a few rivets that felt 'off' and the part twisted in my hand when the rivet set. On inspection, I found that there was a gap between the two pieces that were being joined and there was a bit of a bulge of rivet material in between them. I looked at it for a few minutes before realizing that it wasn't "close enough" and drilled out a few rivets, bent the ribs back towards their desired shape and squeezed again. Better.
Today I primed the steel balance tubes and proceeded to figure out how to countersink steel. The countersink tool that I have is an offset handle that you can rotate by hand. I gave that a try and realized very quickly that I was "Going nowhere mighty fast". (Scotty, Star Trek TOS). It took about 30 min of prowling around my converted garage (aka "the shop") before I stumbled upon a solution. The deburring tool had come with a 12" extension that I never used. I cut off the end that accepted the counter sink tool and stuck that in the chuck of my hand drill and solved the problem.
There are several comments in VAF regarding ensuring that the counterweight tubes are properly oriented. I can't find any difference between them and they appear perfectly symmetrical. Having said that, I was paranoid that I would mess something up so I decided to completely cleco the LE and TE skins to both ailerons before doing anything permanent. In the process I developed a migraine worth of confusion because the TE skins simply did not align. I double checked my part numbers (e.g., the suffixes -001 and -002) but everything was correct, except that they didn't fit. I eventually concluded that I had swapped the identity of the R and L parts in my mind and was actually assembling the wrong parts. I swapped and everything fit together in typical Van's fashion.
Screwing in the bolts that hold the counterweights on was a challenge. I truly wish that Mr Phillips had not made such an impression on the manufacturing industry. Should I ever be asked to select fasteners, I will NEVER select a Phillips head screw. They require significant axial loading in order to prevent the screw from stripping. Hex, Robertson (square), Torx -- you name it -- any other screw design (well, not slotted) is better.
OK. Enough bitching. Next session will be a lot of preparation of the leading & trailing edges, then clecoeing everything together, then riveting. That'll be a nice bit of progress!
