Using a rivet gauge, determined a 470AD4-4 rivet was just a little short and a 470AD4-5 is just a little to long. Checked the Aircraft Spruce’s WEB site and they stock some half sizes … fortunately they carry 470AD4-4.5 rivets. The anti-servo tabs will be put on hold for a few days until the 4.5 rivets arrive.
Mean while I decided to move on and get better acquainted with the stabilator's parts. Because I’m dimpling the stabilator skins for flush rivets and also trying to use solid rivets to attach ribs wherever possible, I had some home work to do. I put the spar box loosely together to get a better picture of what is going on plus reading and rereading the instructions then reading again before dimpling any parts.
After getting a better picture of the spar box assembly, I realized I would need to put dimples in four layers of material at a couple of locations so I brought out the 120 degree dimple dies and dimpled away. Because the ribs used in the spar box do not have a flat web where the lightning hole is, I discovered I could not use the pneumatic squeezer to make the dimples…the small taper near the hole prevented the squeezer from sitting square on the hole to be dimpled. Fortunately, I had the dimple die set that can be used with a hand rivet squeezer to dimple the two outer ribs of the spar box.
the dimple dies designed for use with a hand squeezer make nice dimples.
