Section 10 - Aft. Fuselage (bulkheads; tie-down bracket priming)

Continued working on parts of the aft fuselage, including the rudder stops, horizontal stabilizer attach bar, rear bulkheads, and town-down bracket.  Since I fabricated/deburred the alclad parts enough to scratch them substantially, I decided to prime those with the non-alclad parts.

Countersunk rudder stops.  The regular countersink cage tool didn't fit due to the flange, so I used a countersink bit-extender (without a cage) and tried to carefully keep an even countersink:

Section 10 - Aft Fuselage (cable guides; j-stiffeners; longerons; attach bar; rudder stops)

A couple days of separating parts, deburring the edges, and other initial tasks for the fuselage.  A few of the parts completed so far are below (longer j-stiffeners not shown):

Section 9 - Elevators (wired trim tab motor; rolled left leading edge; fabricated counterbalances)

The elevators have (finally) been completed! The pictures and tasks below are from several days during the past ~week.

5 wires emanate from the trim tab motor, and need to be stripped, crimped into male micro-fit Molex pins, and then inserted into the black Molex housing shown below. Easy enough task? Not without the right tools.  First, I ordered a crimper that another blogger recommended - it is cheap, and really not great quality; however, for these 5 crimps, it should (and did) work fine. Then I tried to strip the 5 wires with my trusty old (emphasis on OLD - 35 years at least) wire strippers that my dad passed down to me. No dice - they were too dull to do the job on these fine 26AWG wires.  Next, I ordered a Chinese knock-off automatic wire stripper ... which is STILL in the mail, on the slow-boat from China.  Since I wanted to complete the elevators this week, I ordered a very high quality wire stripper (Ideal Stripmaster; 16-26AWG) that came the next day, and made quick work of stripping those 5 wires.  That's it - no more crappy tools!

A word about micro-fit Molex connectors:  Several folks on the VAF forums have made a big deal out of these connectors, but they are actually quite easy (if your eyesight is good - they are tiny). Strip about 1/8" of the wire; insert the metal pin into the crimper, making sure that the back end is flush with the crimper; insert the wire such that only about 1/16" of the insulation sticks into the pin - i.e. just enough so the first band crimps the insulation and the second band crimps the wire; and, then crimp firmly (but not too hard); finally, tug the wire to make sure the connection is secure.  Next, note that the pin's cross-section is a "U" and also note that inside each hole of the 6-pin molex housing has a little tab on one side.  That tab slides between the "U" of the metal pin.  You may or may not hear a click when it fully inserts; pull to make sure the pin seated in the black housing, and that's it!  It only goes in one way.  Others have just tried rotating it 90deg when it doesn't work ... but why guess? Take a look inside the housing to locate the little tabs, and then orient your pins to match.

Section 9 - Elevators (riveted right trailing edge; rolled/riveted right leading edge)

After letting the 6 right trailing edge foam ribs cure for 3 days following adhering with proseal, I double-blind riveted the 51 rivets in the trailing edge, riveted the remaining rivets in the tip rib and inboard rib, and then rolled and riveted the leading edge of the right elevator. Just as with the rudder, rolling the leading edge is an exercise in patience - two-thirds with a 1" PVC pipe duct-taped to the entire length (see section 5.9), and then the rest of the way slowly massaging it by hand.  The two skins must overlap to reduce/eliminate stress on the rivets; once they do overlap, blind-riveting them together was a snap ... and a great sense of accomplishment.

Straight, right trailing edge (top view, machined rivet heads):

Section 9 - Elevators (proseal foam ribs to elevators and tabs; rivet trailing edge; trim tab motor)

Productive week in the workshop - prosealed all foam ribs to the trailing skins of each elevator and trim tab; used VHB tape to attach all trailing edge wedges (3); squeeze-riveted the trailing edge of the left elevator and trim tab; pop-riveted the closeout tabs for the left elevator and trim tab; and, started working on the trim tab motor. I had to stop since my very old wire strippers were inadequate, and my new ones are on the slow boat from China.  Damn, I should have bought those from Cleaveland Aircraft Tool - they would be here by now. That's what I get for trying to save $4.

Proseal is a mess; and this particular formulation hardens quickly, so you have to work fast ... thus no pics of the foam ribs slathered in the dark grayish goo.  Left elevator is shown here.  Note that for all trailing edges, I modified the process only slightly - attach VHB tape to both sides of the trailing edge wedge, let cure for about an hour, stick to the lower skin, proseal the foam ribs in place, close the skins, and remove the VHB protective backing and stick wedge to upper skin (instructions has you doing this after proseal curing).  Worked well, and it was easier to remove the tape's backing.

Section 9 - Elevators (riveting skins to spars, and other misc. riveting)

This will be a long entry, because of a very productive Friday night and all-day Saturday ... most of it spent riveting many pieces together.  A "special bucking bar," used only for the RV-14 and RV-10 elevator to attach the bottom of the left elevator skin and top of the right elevator skin to their corresponding rear spar with AN426AD3-3.5 rivets, was used today ... and likely will never be used again for this build.  I wish I had taken pictures of bucking those rivets, but I spent so much of my mental energy trying not to F it up - one has to position the elevators on a shim (I used cardboard), and the edge of the elevator is then placed about 3" inward of the edge of the table.  The foot-long bucking bar uses the edge of the table as a fulcrum, and thus you press down on the back end of the bar, bucking upward into the rear spar under the skin.  Counterpressure pushing from the flat rivet set will set the rivet.  Anyway, here are the pics from the last two days:

Midway through riveting the trim tab motor housing doubler:

Section 9 - Elevators (riveting two skins to rear spars and ribs)

Slow yet steady progress on the elevators this week.  During the last few days, I riveted the left and right spars to 12 rib halves (not shown; the other half goes on the respective skins in a subsequent step) and 3 shear clips (2 for left elevator, 1 for right elevator). Shown below are the first steps to attach the skins to the rear spars and rib halves.

Clecoed then riveted top left skin to left rear spar and front part of trim tab hinge: