Horizontal stab skeleton
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- Written by Kevin Horton
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Here is the horizontal stabilizer skeleton in the jig.
The jig is made of wood, and it basically provides a stable structure to hold everything in alignment.
After building the jig, you use plumb lines, levels, measuring tape, etc to get all the spars and ribs properly aligned, then you clamp them in place.
Then, you drill the holes for the rivets that hold the skeleton together, deburr the holes, and rivet the works together.
Squeezing rivets on horizontal stabilizer front spar
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- Written by Kevin Horton
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Here I am riveting the pieces that make up the front spar of the horizontal stabilizer. I am using a hand squeezer to mechanically squeeze the rivets.
The front spar is made from four large pieces of aluminum riveted together.
The rivets can either be driven with an air powered rivet gun, or mechanically compressed (or "squeezed") with a hand (or air) powered squeezer. The squeezer can only reach rivets that are close to the edges of the material, so there are many places where the only choice is to use the rivet gun.
I get more consistent results using the squeezer, so I try and mechanically squeeze as many possible.