Rudder's almost done

Well, we're almost at the point of rudder completion- the only major task left is riveting the dreaded trailing edge!  I'll be looking for a length of steel for a bucking surface for this, as I've read elsewhere that one of these can be pretty helpful to have. Also, I think I'll be using the '2 pieces of aluminum channel method' to sandwich the trailing edge while the Proseal cures, as shown on Mike Nipp's website. Good tip!

My friend Tareque stopped by the shop on Saturday, and brought my new friends Jeff and Aswin along for a tour. They had a lot of good questions, and it was good to meet some new people. Come back anytime and help out, guys  :)


Here, we have the rudder skeleton parts laid our after all pre-finish work and priming. Let's get to riveting!

The first thing to do is bind the doublers and nut plates to the spar.

Here I am squeezing a rivet on the rudder horn using my longeron yoke. This was quite a metal sandwich; I think it was 4 pieces thick if you count the nut plate. That's a lot of dimpling and countersinking!

 

All finished here. This is a good shot of a nut plate- a piece of hardware that I'd never seen before starting this project. Eventually there will be swivel eye bolts installed here, which will form the hinge for the rudder.

Back at the top of the spar, I clecoed the counterweight rib to the spar, and then the counterweight skin to the rib. The rib got riveted to the spar, and the skin to the rib only (not the spar) for the moment. 

And, here's the lead counterweight bolted to the counterweight rib. I've read where other builders have had to trim this weight a bit in order to make it fit, but I had no difficulties. Hope I didn't use up all my good luck! I used my torque wrench here to get 25 in/lbs of torque on the bolts.

Now we start riveting on the skins. Let me say this right here: I am very grateful to all who have gone before me, and documented their RV projects so well. Without all the excellent information out there, I would doubtless have made many more mistakes on my own kit. Thanks to you all! Here's a closeup of where the counterweight skin interfaces with the main rudder skin, spar, and counterweight ribs. There are several different AN426 rivet lengths use here, so i borrowed Brad Oliver's idea and marked up the areas to be riveted. I used the 4" no-hole yoke on my squeezer for 99% of the skin rivets.

 

Here's a good shot of the top rib, secured to the skin. Note the Pop rivets used to attach the rib to the spar.

Almost done with the top rib/skin riveting.After two failed attempts at getting AN rivets in there, I ended up using blind rivets on the last 2 holes- oh, well.

Here's a nice view of the rudder bottom; control horn, horn brace, and bottom rib. All these were set with th e 4" no-hole, except for inside the horn brace- I used my longeron yoke there.

And here we are! In reality, all the clecoes are gone now, replaced with rivets. The only tasks left are riveting the trailing edge, rolling the leading edge, and a few other details which I'll document in the next installment. As always, any questions and constructive comments are encouraged. Hope you're enjoying this project as much as I am!

Due to business travel and a camping trip I'll be taking a break for a few weeks. Enjoy the summer weather, everyone! Seeya soon  :0)