[Revified]

New builder here in Lacey WA (South Puget Sound)... I currently am in the very beginning stages of my RV-14A Empennage kit and facing some frustration/hurdles due to a lack of knowledge and experience when it comes to sheet metal work and riveting. I've made progress through the first couple pages, have probably done about 100 total rivets but some need re-done. I have the motivation, my sails just get deflated when I attempt to redo a rivet and the same errors occur and feel like I dig myself into a deeper hole trying to correct it.

I've watched countless hours of videos, I'm apart of my local EAA chapter (currently no meetings but they will kick back up next year however everyone has their own projects) and am looking at flying somewhere to take the EAA homebuilders course in the months ahead or even do a builders assist with Synergy Air in Bend, OR (if they still offer it) just figured I'd reach out and see if someone is local and maybe has a passion for building/teaching, or has experience and willing to lend a hand. I want to be a student and learn as much as I can, I just unfortunately am admitting I need my hand held for the first couple steps to get me going while I learn how to recover from particular mistakes.

Appreciate any help

 

[N804RV]

New builder here in Lacey WA (South Puget Sound)... I currently am in the very beginning stages of my RV-14A Empennage kit and facing some frustration/hurdles due to a lack of knowledge and experience when it comes to sheet metal work and riveting. I've made progress through the first couple pages, have probably done about 100 total rivets but some need re-done. I have the motivation, my sails just get deflated when I attempt to redo a rivet and the same errors occur and feel like I dig myself into a deeper hole trying to correct it.

I've watched countless hours of videos, I'm apart of my local EAA chapter (currently no meetings but they will kick back up next year however everyone has their own projects) and am looking at flying somewhere to take the EAA homebuilders course in the months ahead or even do a builders assist with Synergy Air in Bend, OR (if they still offer it) just figured I'd reach out and see if someone is local and maybe has a passion for building/teaching, or has experience and willing to lend a hand. I want to be a student and learn as much as I can, I just unfortunately am admitting I need my hand held for the first couple steps to get me going while I learn how to recover from particular mistakes.

Appreciate any help

You're welcome to come up to my hangar anytime. I'm retired and spend at least an hour or 2 there almost every day. I'm at the Skagit airport KBVS in Burlington (north Puget Sound).

I know exactly how you feel. Even though I took the EAA Sport Aviation workshop for sheet metal, I still couldn't figure out how to buck or squeeze good rivets with the tooling I had. It was very frustrating and costly. I ended up buying all new parts for the vertical stab and a lot of the horizontal because I was so disatisfied with my riveting.

I don't think I gained any confidence until I spent some time with an experienced builder, going over his tooling and set up and helping him buck a few rivets. Then, he came to my shop and showed me how I could improve my set up, and why my riveting looked so poor.

I'm happy to pay it forward. But, I am about 100 miles from you.

 

[Blake]

I’m in Raymond Washington. About a hour and 15 min from you. I’ve built a rv-14a and other rv’s. Currently working on a rv-7a and a rv8. Glad to give you some advice.
Sending a pm

 

[Revified]

You're welcome to come up to my hangar anytime. I'm retired and spend at least an hour or 2 there almost every day. I'm at the Skagit airport KBVS in Burlington (north Puget Sound).

I know exactly how you feel. Even though I took the EAA Sport Aviation workshop for sheet metal, I still couldn't figure out how to buck or squeeze good rivets with the tooling I had. It was very frustrating and costly. I ended up buying all new parts for the vertical stab and a lot of the horizontal because I was so disatisfied with my riveting.

I don't think I gained any confidence until I spent some time with an experienced builder, going over his tooling and set up and helping him buck a few rivets. Then, he came to my shop and showed me how I could improve my set up, and why my riveting looked so poor.

I'm happy to pay it forward. But, I am about 100 miles from you.

I just may take you up on that.... I have already replaced part of the spar due to riveting it backwards ... probably won't be the last parts to be replaced.

Sincerely appreciate it, if I don't find someone more local I'd be more than happy to load up some pieces, rivets, tools etc and take a drive

 

[AlphaCharlieBravo]

Hey there Brandon.
Im very local to you, East Side Oly. I just moved my RV7 project from my garage to my hangar for final assembly. PM me your # and we can arrange a look at your project and I'll do my best to help you get going on the right track.

Arnie

 

[Revified]

Hey there Brandon.
Im very local to you, East Side Oly. I just moved my RV7 project from my garage to my hangar for final assembly. PM me your # and we can arrange a look at your project and I'll do my best to help you get going on the right track.

Arnie

Arnie thank you so much! PM sent

 

[kenandsteph14]

Hey there, I'm also a new builder working on a 14 emp, currently assembling the horizonal stabilizer. I'm building in southern Oregon, but I'm in the Puget sound area several times a month and would be available to help.. or maybe commiserate from a similar position.

Have you completed any of the practice kits? That could be a great way to get some extra hands on practice without the stress of worrying about making a 'mistake' on the actual kit.
I took a 2 day class with Tim Mix down in Mulino OR and did the practice airfoil kit. I had zero experience beforehand, and I'll honestly say, I didn't feel super impressed with my own work on that little thing, but I learned a ton, and it gave me confidence to start on the project.
Finding some well organized builder logs online and reading there can help you recognize pitfalls that others have learned from, and avoid similar ... Learning situations
Your post is also encouraging, because I'm going to copy you and make a similar one for myself, looking for local builders to learn from, so thank you!

 

[Revified]

Hey there, I'm also a new builder working on a 14 emp, currently assembling the horizonal stabilizer. I'm building in southern Oregon, but I'm in the Puget sound area several times a month and would be available to help.. or maybe commiserate from a similar position.

Have you completed any of the practice kits? That could be a great way to get some extra hands on practice without the stress of worrying about making a 'mistake' on the actual kit.
I took a 2 day class with Tim Mix down in Mulino OR and did the practice airfoil kit. I had zero experience beforehand, and I'll honestly say, I didn't feel super impressed with my own work on that little thing, but I learned a ton, and it gave me confidence to start on the project.
Finding some well organized builder logs online and reading there can help you recognize pitfalls that others have learned from, and avoid similar ... Learning situations
Your post is also encouraging, because I'm going to copy you and make a similar one for myself, looking for local builders to learn from, so thank you!

I'm going to look at getting a practice kit and hopefully have a mentor.. when I first got my kit I feel like I accomplished a lot, even started working on the horizontal stabilizer after I had the skeleton for the vertical stabilizer 'complete' just waiting for someone to look at the rivets before I closed up the skin.. but then the person's build I was following along with on Youtube made a mistake on the very first spar by not riveting it on the 'aft side' which means I made the same mistake .... He was confident enough to drill out the rivets and even made additional holes for more reinforcement, I however wasn't confident with straying from the plans and reordered the parts .... finally got the motivation to re do it last week, just want some guidance/help on doing it all correctly the 2nd time around.

I'm sure on certain rivets I'm overreacting, but don't have the knowledge or experience to confidently make that decision just yet.

Hopefully you get good people to help you also, let me know if you're ever up here and I'll do the same if I make it down south!