Balance counterweigh assembly & main spar

Last few days, I decided to try something on the elevator. I finished EL-ASS-001-C-F-0 sheet 8 and sheet 9 yesterday and today.

Balance Counterweight Assembly, and first rivet!

This is on sheet 8 of EL-ASS-001-C-F-0.

This looked small enough, and did not require any countersink or dimple. I decided to build this a try.

Yesterday, I picked out the parts and did the routine: cleco, match drill, take it part, clean, prime.

And today, after the priming I finished the job by riveting it together. I pulled my first rivet! There were some nerves but once I tried the first one it was pretty easy!

Could not reach tight spaces

The instructure was clear and the whole process was pretty easy. I did have to skip 2 rivets near the angle bracket because the rivet holes were too close to the corner and my rivet gun couldn’t reach. I tried to use the Close Quarter Rivet Pulling Wedge but my Milwaukee rivet gun would not bite on the rivet. I think this is probably a issue with the gun. I bought a hand riveter on amazon. I will come back to these 2 rivets when I receive my hand puller.

Torquing bolts

Another task I skipped was torquing the AN3 bolts. This is because I don’t have a toqrue ranch yet. Just bought one from amazon. Hopefully I will receive it this weekend or next week.

One thing I am not sure: do I need to apply loctite? The instruction didn’t say. I will probalby ask on the facebok group.

Photo and video log

Elevator Main Spar

This is on sheet 9 of EL-ASS-001-C-F-0.

The next thing I tackled is the elevator main spar. This was also pretty quick and easy.

It took a little bit of time to clean and prime just because the parts were pretty bulky. I had to move them carefully so it doesn’t hit anything in my cramped garage.

Pics