Wing - Left Wing

2004-05-16 - Riveting the top skins. (2.0 Hrs).

A little better progress today.

I got to use another one of my bucking bars that I didn't realize I had. I ran into these rivets along the bottom edge of the wing, that are right up against the reinforcing bars. They cannot be squeezed, and I didn't have a bucking bar that could get in there, so I used the thinnest one that I had. After mangling the first few rivets that I tried to set, I noticed the other end of another bucking bar looked a little thinner. When I pulled the protective cover off, I found the perfect tool for this job.

Here's the special BB.

Here's how you reach the rivets in the bottom half of the center ribs. I was actually able to reach three more rows of rivets above this one. This is very tiring work.

All but 9 rivets in the two center ribs, plus the rivets along the top. These can be reached by pulling the tank. However, my wife said she feels sorry for me and has promised to help buck the remaining rivets on the skins. This is quite a departure from her previous position on helping with the project, which was "I'm not going to work on that plane." I showed her how to use the pneumatic cleco gun, and she thought that was pretty cool. She said that if she knew there were these neat tools to play with, she would have offered to help a lot sooner. That, and I had to promise not to yell at her, which I tend to do. Maybe that's why I don't have any friends.

	I got to use another one of my bucking bars that I didn't realize I had. I ran into these rivets along the bottom edge of the wing, that are right up against the reinforcing bars. They cannot be squeezed, and I didn't have a bucking bar that could get in there, so I used the thinnest one that I had. After mangling the first few rivets that I tried to set, I noticed the other end of another bucking bar looked a little thinner. When I pulled the protective cover off, I found the perfect tool for this job.
	Here's the special BB.
	Here's how you reach the rivets in the bottom half of the center ribs. I was actually able to reach three more rows of rivets above this one. This is very tiring work.
	All but 9 rivets in the two center ribs, plus the rivets along the top. These can be reached by pulling the tank. However, my wife said she feels sorry for me and has promised to help buck the remaining rivets on the skins. This is quite a departure from her previous position on helping with the project, which was "I'm not going to work on that plane." I showed her how to use the pneumatic cleco gun, and she thought that was pretty cool. She said that if she knew there were these neat tools to play with, she would have offered to help a lot sooner. That, and I had to promise not to yell at her, which I tend to do. Maybe that's why I don't have any friends.