Today I completed a couple of steps on the aft fuse by attaching the rudder stops and about 30 nut plates.
The rudder stops turned out to be easier than I thought. I was able to start by squeezing the aft two rivets easily, and then bucking the forward two without much trouble. I did the right aft side, then the left aft side, then right forward side, then left. Both came out fine.
Then I dimpled a set of nutplates and started riveting them on. I dimpled 4 nut plates that I shouldn’t have, as I found an error in the drawings. The diagram called out for 9 dimpled nutplates and 5 un-dimpled on each side. But it should have been 7 dimpled and 7 in-dimpled, as there are 7 that sit flush with the longerons. I have a ton of these things, so it didn’t matter at this stage.
I started with all the un-dimpled nutplates, which was quick and easy. Unfortunately I had to drill out a rivet when I inserted it without checking that it was passing through the nutplate. It wasn’t, so I drilled and redid that one.
When I moved onto the dimpled nutplates, I realized I hadn’t held the nutplates steady enough when dimpling. As a result, many of them were slightly bow shaped. This was problematic, as they wouldn’t sit flush against the holes, and had a tendency to break when the second rivet was set. It took me a few nutplates to realize what was going on, and then I drilled out several, dimpled new nutplates (this time holding them level when dimpling), and then re-riveted them on.
The end result was ok. Some of my rivets didn’t set as well as I wanted, but these are not structural, and plenty strong enough to support the screws they will be holding. my main concern was making sure they were straight, aligned with the hole, and not likely to snap off.
