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Skin Ding - A Bucking Bar Christmas Present

skelrad

Well Known Member
Friend
I started my riveting session tonight by letting my bucking bar go off kilter on a J-stringer/side skin rivet and leave a lovely 3/8" ding in the skin just below the stringer. Ding may be the wrong description. It's a nice, sharp imprint from the square edge of the tungsten bucking bar. I can massage it from an outie to an innie so that prior to paint I can make it disappear with a little filler, but I'm not sure if such a sharp indention needs more than that, like stop drilling the ends and either dropping rivets in or just filling the holes prior to paint. Will sharp dings like this in a side skin (not a control surface scenario) eventually crack, or do I just fill it later and call it a day?

I immediately moved to back riveting the stringers using the big Cleaveland back rivet bar. Much better.
 
Got a pic? Sorry to hear about it. I’ve got a few dings on my aft fuse as well.

So much for my Lendy award.
 
wing ding

I've got a ding in my upper wing skin. Only I know where it is but every time I do a walk around I can see it.
 
Got a pic? Sorry to hear about it. I’ve got a few dings on my aft fuse as well.

So much for my Lendy award.

I tried to get a photo, but it doesn't really show much. I've got plenty of "normal" dings from riveting, most of which are non-issues and will be filled prior to paint. My main concern with this one is it's a sharp dent, matching the 90 degree edge of the bucking bar. It created a significant outtie that I coaxed back to a fillable state, but I just don't know if this sharp line/dent should be taken care of differently than an "oops, I let the rivet gun walk and bashed a bowl shape into a skin." It doesn't look like there's a crack, but it's hard to tell.
 
One opinion. 10x magnifier. No cracks when magnified 10x? Good to go.
 
Ding

Oe trick I have used, are a heat gin or hair dryer, watch and don’t overheat the skin,and when good and hot, work the ding with some dr ice. It will shrink the skin. Won’t get it all out, but it should require less filler.
 
Dents

This can be avoided most of the time by using high density foam to protect from loose bucking bars. Camping pad foam is one example of foam.
 
Many moons ago on my -9 build, I dropped a bucking bar from a few feet into the bottom of the fuselage and a location of one of the antennas was instantly chosen. Stuff happens.
 
Many moons ago on my -9 build, I dropped a bucking bar from a few feet into the bottom of the fuselage and a location of one of the antennas was instantly chosen. Stuff happens.

That's funny, and I don't care who 'ya are...
 
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