Author: seasidebul@... Time: Thu Mar 7, 2002 9:35 am PST Link
Has anyone had any trouble with the trailing edges of the ailerons coming out
wavy? I thought about capping the edges with a thin piece of aluminum. Any
help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Dave Meck
RV-9A (wings)
Author: "rv9builder" <rv9builder@...> Time: Thu Mar 7, 2002 9:46 am PST Link
--- In RV-9A@y..., seasidebul@a... wrote:
> Has anyone had any trouble with the trailing edges of the
ailerons coming out
> wavy? I thought about capping the edges with a thin piece of
aluminum. Any
> help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Dave Meck
> RV-9A (wings)
My ailerons look pretty good, but my rudder is wavy and the
trailing edge of my right elevator has some puckers between the
rivets. I'm thinking about filling the gaps with Superfil. Another 9A
builder at my airport did this and it looks pretty good. Anybody
have any other ideas?
Mark Schrimmer
Author: "Tom" <treed@...> Time: Thu Mar 7, 2002 10:26 am PST Link
My rudder has a slight wave but the elevators are dead nuts. The trick,
at least for me, was to use a 1/4 by 2" by 48" piece of steel I bought
at Lowe's. After taping the rivets in from the bottom side, I weighed
down the entire control surface. Once there, it didn't have to be moved
and was perfectly flat. I used a piece of 1/4 masonite board to act as a
support under the rest of the surface. Straight edges.
I also slightly bent the edges BEFORE dimpling with that edge bender
thingy from Avery. The edges closed just fine. A little filler in them
during paint prep and there will be no problem.
Hope this helps,
Tom
N91TR
Emp done, working on wings.
-----Original Message-----
From: seasidebul@a... [mailto:seasidebul@a...]
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 12:34 PM
To: RV-9A@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [RV-9A] ailerons
Has anyone had any trouble with the trailing edges of the ailerons
coming out
wavy? I thought about capping the edges with a thin piece of aluminum.
Any
help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Dave Meck
RV-9A (wings)
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
RV-9A-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Author: "Newsted, Gary" <Gary.Newsted@...> Time: Thu Mar 7, 2002 3:37 pm PST Link
Dave, this is a common problem. You've probably underestimated what it
takes to hold these beasts flat while riveting, or possibly have
over-driven the double-flush rivets. There are several ways to skin
this cat. The first thing to keep in mind is to GO EASY on the
double-flush trailing-edge rivets! Use very low pressure and just snug
them all up before you drive any of them to completion. You can make
several passes along the trailing edge if you like. If you just mash
them down one at a time, it bows the sheet metal between rivets,
resulting in waves which are almost impossible to remove. Make sure
you are using a good solid piece of steel as your back-riveting anvil.
Builders have reported good results with long sections of heavy
angle-iron (pollished smooth with a sander). The heavier the anvil,
the better things work out. Weight or clamp down the top surface,
preferably all but the one rivet you are working on
and move the opening along as you go.
My own technique is a little different. I found that using a table I
made beautifully straight edges, but when I hinged them to the wing,
there was an overall twist that was unacceptible to me ("straight" but
not "true"). So I did the rest by standing the wing on its nose in the
cradles, clamping the entire trailing edge (wing and control surface)
between two pieces of the longeron angles, then gently snugging down the
rivets with a hand-squeezer just enough to hold its shape. Then I
remove the control surfaces, moved them to the table, and proceeded to
back-rivet them. They came out great.
Some have reported good results with a thin film of ProSeal, allowed to
set up (days), prior to riveting.
Because the rudder trailing edge uses such thin sheet metal, I ended up
with very slight waves there which I didn't like. So I took the route
of fabricating a very thin "U" channel (3/8 wide x 1/16" thick),
ProSealed it along the rudder trailing edge, then set a #3 rivet through
it about every 4". It came out great and definitely stiffened the
edge. I hesitate to suggest this for all control surfaces however, for
fear of inducing flutter. You can get away with this on a rudder,
particular if you keep it thin. I don't know if anyone has done this
on wing control surfaces.
Keep in mind too, that most RV's have some sort of wavy trailing edges
(even the factory birds), so don't get too bothered by it unless it
really sucks. Worse case, you can order new skins and try again. The
control surfaces, in my opinion, are the hardest part of the project.
Keep the faith!
Gary
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]