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HS-905 Nose Ribs

BOHICA

Well Known Member
Is it me or does riveting these suck? My rivets do not want to stay flush to the surface of the skin. I moved the rib close to one of the supports of the jig and i still can't get a good set on it.
 
Those ribs are a pain. A technique I found somewhere on the forums that worked well for me is to take a clear 1/4" hose and cut it into appx 1/8" length. take this hose that now looks like a tiny donut and place it over the shop end of the rivet. Use your tungsten bucking bar and gently push on the end of the rivet with the hose. The hose will help push the two pieces together and allow you to rivet it without any separation between the pieces. If you do a search you will probably find a better description of this technique. I have used it in several places during the build. Good luck

Eric
 
I'm right at this stage, and planned on riveting these later this week. Is the big problem access to buck, or the separation of the sheets?
 
Those ribs are a pain. A technique I found somewhere on the forums that worked well for me is to take a clear 1/4" hose and cut it into appx 1/8" length. take this hose that now looks like a tiny donut and place it over the shop end of the rivet. Use your tungsten bucking bar and gently push on the end of the rivet with the hose. The hose will help push the two pieces together and allow you to rivet it without any separation between the pieces. If you do a search you will probably find a better description of this technique. I have used it in several places during the build. Good luck

Eric

Not getting this image into my head. Any pictures?
 
I'm right at this stage, and planned on riveting these later this week. Is the big problem access to buck, or the separation of the sheets?

Bucking bar is not the issue. Seems like things flex when riveting and the rivet does not want to stay flush to the outside of the skin.
 
Bucking bar is not the issue. Seems like things flex when riveting and the rivet does not want to stay flush to the outside of the skin.

I meant to edit my original reply... I think I understand - I placed the skin in the cradle and clecoed the nose ribs this afternoon, and I see what you mean - even with the clecos, the ribs don't want to stay flat with the skin. Almost like it's a three person job - one to squeeze the skin together against the ribs, one to buck and one to drive.

I'll be honest, it's pretty exciting to see the piece finally come together - the first "big" piece.
 
When the rivet heads don't stay flush with the skin, i think the problem is too little hand pressure on the rivet gun. Also, make sure you don't push the rivets out with the bucking bar.

I have been working on these a few weeks ago. Had the elevator skin held down with tape in the jig so i didn't push it upwards when working on the frontmost rivets.
 
Is it me or does riveting these suck? My rivets do not want to stay flush to the surface of the skin. I moved the rib close to one of the supports of the jig and i still can't get a good set on it.

Tonight I tried riveting these. Yes, they suck. They really suck... I struggled to get the forward most rivets. None of the rivets were particularly easy to get access to, but most were doable - but those forward most rivets? Torture. I was fortunate to get some assistance from a friend who completed his 14 four or five years ago.

I ended up having to order some "oops" rivets to take care of poor rivet removal technique.
 
Tonight I tried riveting these. Yes, they suck. They really suck... I struggled to get the forward most rivets. None of the rivets were particularly easy to get access to, but most were doable - but those forward most rivets? Torture. I was fortunate to get some assistance from a friend who completed his 14 four or five years ago.

I ended up having to order some "oops" rivets to take care of poor rivet removal technique.

I'm trying to get time to get my neighbor to come over and help before I have another go at. At this rate I am going to build the plane twice to get one.
 
Got them in finally. Had the neighbor help keep me lined up and the I started with some slow taps and then finished them off. Tungsten bucking bar with some duct tape on it worked well for preventing collateral damage.
 
Multiple Challengers Here

We are building a -10 but use the same ribs in the HS. They are a major irritation to install.

Our tungsten bar arrived with sharp corners and edges. We used it with the hose concept listed above with great success. However, collateral damage was significant due to our clumsiness. That took quite some time to clean up. The edges of our bucking bar was subsequently ground down in an effort to minimize future damage.

Use enough gun pressure, but don't overdo that. Same for bucking bar.

We're FAR from experts, but for those who follow, perhaps this will somehow help.

Best regards,
Mike
 
This “clamp” worked really well for me. I didn’t have any issues this way - but do recall, on a few rivets, using a small piece of tube on the rivet tail for the first couple of hits only, then removed it and finished the rivet. You really need to balance your hand pressures between the gun and bar and use low psi on the gun. I removed the restrictor from my gun and rely on the regulator pressure. I used a swivelling mushroom set with the rubber ground down so it just barely holds the set in place and I reached down into the assembly from above.

https://tasrv14.blogspot.com/2019/01/8-11-8-12-riveting-hs-ribs-and-spars-to.html?m=1
 
Whish I would have seen the tube picture earlier. Well I got it done. I agree with the soft hits and go slow to start.
 
Tips

Advise is correct. If the rivet is proud, too little pressure against the factory side or too much on the bar. Easy to push too hard with a tungsten.
The windshield washer hose tip works well to hold parts tight. Cut a doughnut slightly thicker than the rivet shank. This one does require pressure on the shop side so get some help or practice on scrap.
Practice on scrap left and right handed till you can use either tool in either hand. Then grab the double offset and repeat. Repeat more with eyes cleosed. Gun bar skills will serve you well. Lots of places on the airplane, nothing else will work and many times the shop side can't be seen easily.
 
I got to these HS nose ribs on a -10 last night. Fortunately I remembered seeing something about the rubber donut technique and gave it a try. Worked well, mostly. Still not easy to get a bucking bar into that space. Even the little Cleveland tungsten bar. Fat fingers. Had to drill one of the furthest rivets out and the tail was stuck in the rib flange. Ovaled the flange slightly getting it out so went up to a 4 oops. The oops did the trick. Hoping for less of these in the future :)
 
Yeah, they weren't fun. I ended up with bruises on my arms from that session.
 

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