Saturday was a rainy day at DOG Aviation and was
spent dimpling the fuselage tail cone skins for the flush rivets that are being
used on the RV-12 project. Once the dimpling is completed, the tail cone skins will
be ready for final metal prep and primer. The first tail cone skins that were dimpled
using the C-frame were the left and right F-1281 skins and they proved to be
slightly challenging in that they are curved. Because of the curve, they
required a little extra work to make sure the rivet holes were square to the
dimple dies before whacking the C-frame with the mallet to create the dimples.
Once again the two different sized pool noodles
proved to be useful for keeping
both the F-1281 skins at the right height and angle for the
C-frame.
A level was used to help keep the skin aligned square
to the dimple dies
to insure the dimples would be perpendicular to the rivet the
holes.
A note of caution for those also dimpling their
RV-12 skins … both the F-1280 left and right skins have a lone hole sitting
just forward of a row of holes. These two holes are for the static ports and are
NOT to be dimpled. Suggest placing a piece of tape over the holes as a reminder
to skip them during the mind numbing process of dimple mania.
The static port on both the left and right
F-1280 tail cone skins do not get dimpled.
All nine of the tail cone skins are nine feet
long and there are lots and lots of rivet holes to dimple, so it takes roughly
an hour to dimple each skin … with nine skins to do, this will be a two day
process.
Passin’ the time away on a rainy day dimpling
one of the tail cone’s two F-1282 bottom skins.
I have been removing the blue plastic film in preparation
for priming and also doing a little final sanding of all of the skin’s edges
with a foam sanding block. For a long time now I’ve wanted to mention the
sanding blocks the DOG Aviation procurement department picked up a while ago, but
keep forgetting to mention them. Have been using some extra fine foam sanding blocks
made by 3M and have to say, they do a great job. Because they are made of foam
and have a rather thin outer abrasive coating, I was not holding much hope for
their longevity. However, I have to admit, they really do a great job of final
smoothing on edges and last and last. I have been using one for a long time now
and only have one little tear in it where it caught a really sharp burr I
missed during initial filing. Amazingly, they will quickly smooth a sharp edge
without getting torn up but obviously are not made for jagged edges.
The 3M extra fine sanding block procured from
Home Depot and
aircraft supply does a great job of final smoothing aluminum
edges.