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Acceptable Fix

drone_pilot

Well Known Member
Hello All,

I'm riveting the tail cone of my RV-14A together. There are a couple of #30 holes that I didn't dimple on the rear of the left and right skins, however I did manage to dimple the bulkheads under the holes. The problem is that I discovered this after I have riveted the side skins to about 99%.

Is is acceptable to dimple the outer skin thru the bulkhead since everything is pretty much finished at this point? I can reach the holes with my pneumatic squeezer.

I have built a -7A already but don't remember making a mistake like this.
 
Ben,

If you have the room to get a rivet puller inside the area where you forgot to make your dimple, you may be able to use a close quarters dimple die set to create the dimple. If you are dealing with a machine countersunk under structure, you could just use the male die on the outside surface to pull the skin dimple into the countersink. I have used them and they do work ... Cleaveland Aircraft Tool has them ... see link below.
https://www.cleavelandtool.com/collections/countersinking-and-dimpling/products/3_32-close-quarters-die-set

Edit: Just reread your post and just noticed you were talking about riveting to a bulkhead. Should not be a problem using the close quarters dimple die set and the rivet puller and pulling can be done from outside .... HOWEVER, you will likely need to modify the female die on a grinder so the outer edge of the die does not compress into the web of the bulkhead. Below is a link to a photo that shows how I needed to modify a male dimple die to clear the web of a brace that needed dimpling ... in your case, the female dimple die will likely need to be ground down in a similar fashion as the male die shown in my photo because your female dimple die will be on the bulkhead.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p8KVOmv4cdA/XNsmu_IGq-I/AAAAAAAANGg/Ez8HsFUy-pkeIxJJKhkltge8-dxB28srQCLcBGAs/s1600/DSC03415.JPG
Hope that helps,
 
Last edited:
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