Rats -- How do I fix this

[aparchment]

I am not sure where my brain was with this mistake, but now I need a way out that is less onerous than drilling out twenty 426 3-3.5s and two pop rivets. Let me know if you guys have any ideas, or if I should just call the company on Monday.

I was assembling the rudder and riveting the counterbalance skin to the rudder skin. I happily riveted the 6 aft most 3.5 rivets and then installed the tip rib, completely forgetting the 6 (3 on each side) 3-4s that I needed to install through the two skins and the front spar. Damn and double damn. I didn't catch this until I had 20 of the 3.5s in place on the end rib. I really don't want to drill them out -- not to mention drilling out the pop rivets. Any thoughts?

Antony

[Spike]

Youch. Seems to me you either have to drill, or enlarge the holes for CS4-4 rivets there. Id ask the factory about that first though.

[jim_geo]

Drilling out rivets isn't that bad. I should know I've drilled out about a gazillion. Pop rivets... well they aren't a lot of fun but I've done a few of those also. Just drill them out and don't look back.

[cjensen]

i would second jim's thoughts antony. it's not really that bad. i had to drill out 36 470 4-6 (or something like that) on my HS spar/stiffener!!! that really sucked, but it worked out fine, and i only enlarged one hole. drill 'em, just take your time and be careful. let us know what you decide.

[aparchment]

Thanks for the moral support guys. I was pretty good at dealing with the few rivets I drilled out on the HS and VS, but with the rudder I seem to be all thumbs. Very frustrating. I am going to chat with Van's on Monday and see if there is a -3 sized pop rivet I can put in. I need to review the diagram in section 5 to see if such a thing even exists.

For now I have moved on to the elevators.

Boy it's cool to be able to post and have responses within an hour.

The people on this site really do represent the next generation of RVs in the air, and I feel like when we finally meet at a fly-in, we are going to have a pretty good idea of what each of us are like.

Antony

[captain_john]

Antony, RV people are a great bunch!

By and large, they are helpful and passionate about our hobby.

Very rarely do I meet an individual who isn't eager to talk about some portion of the process.

CJ

[aparchment]

Gentlemen:

I returned to my workshop this morning well rested, with a positive attitude and steady hands and successfully drilled out all 23 rivets, including the pops. Not a single problem!

Glad that's over with. Onward and upward.

Thanks again for the support guys.

Antony

[jim_geo]

Ya'll may remember this picture from an earlier post.



I'm recycling it here partially to get as much life out of it as I can, OH my misery! But also to restate that I had to drill every one of those cussed rivets out of the stiffeners and otherwise completely finished elevator skin. Drilling out rivets becomes a part of life. Checking your drawings until you’re dizzy is the only sure fire way of avoiding problems that lead to it. I try really hard not to make errors like that and still end up drilling out a few because of missing a size detail.