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Practice Kit Confusion?

MrPilot

Member
My practice kit recently arrived in the mail and after careful reading and inventorying, I have to admit that I am completely confused!

The rivet quantities I received vs. what is listed on the practice plans just don't match up...

The practice plans for the airfoil show that the skin rivets needed are 3-3, but I only received Qty:11 and it needs 67 3-3's per plans (56 for the skins and 11 for the double flush. However, I looked at a set of RV-8 preview plans and it calls for 3-3.5 rivets for the skins??

I thought the bags might have different sized rivets based on what step you are on, but each bag appears to have the same size rivets throughout.

Am I just totally reading the plans wrong?? Any help getting me on the right track will be appreciated.

Thank you,
Chris
 

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I don't know if i can help too much, I've never done the practice kit, but in case someone else doesn't chime in. It may be a discrepancy. On the plane(mine at least) the plans call for 3.5's most everywhere that is 2 layers thick.
 
Thanks for the input.

I took a look at the inventory list and it shows that Bag 1 with the AN426D3-3 rivets should weigh .02 lbs. I weighed the bag and it is .002 lbs. So I guess they just shorted the 3-3 bag by a lot. The other bags seems pretty close to the shipping weight listed.

Guess a call to Vans is in order tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
Different Options

There's a few things you could do with the practice kit. Bear in mind that it's been a few years since I did my practice kit before I started building, and that other more experienced people could have different ideas.

1. Buy some rivets of the sizes called out. They're cheap anyway, and having a few extras never hurts.

2. Check with Van's, they may well just post out a few extra rivets free of charge.

3. Try using the rivets that you actually have, as it will help you get a feel for rivet lengths anyway. In building the actual aircraft there would barely be a builder on this forum who hasn't substituted in a different length rivet (usually a half-size up) somewhere along the line. i.e. you could use some of the 3.5 length rivets where the 3's are called out. Best case, the longer rivet sets quite OK, and the worst that happens is a slightly longer rivet cinches over, so you drill it out and try again, and that'll just be practice for the "main event" so to speak.

4. Going from a 3 to a 3.5 rivet shouldn't be a huge deal, and you will find that a 3.5 does fill the countersink on the trailing edge better. If you went from a 3 or 3.5 to a -5 length rivet, expect big problems.

5. There's plenty to do with the practice kit that will get you up to speed with all the match-drilling, deburring, and dimpling anyway, so waiting a few days for some rivets won't be a big inconvenience.

6. Check rivet lengths with a gauge, and refer to the riveting stds that Van's put in their plans. I'm sure there's fine-print in there somewhere that says it's up to the builder to ensure that the final rivet length installed meets the spec.

7. Have fun with it! It's a great way to see how all the metalwork process are done without destroying thousands of dollars of real aircraft parts.
 
Geoff,

Thanks for the tips! I will give Van's a call and see if they will send over some more 3-3's. If not, I will get some on order.

Regards,
Chris


There's a few things you could do with the practice kit. Bear in mind that it's been a few years since I did my practice kit before I started building, and that other more experienced people could have different ideas.

1. Buy some rivets of the sizes called out. They're cheap anyway, and having a few extras never hurts.

2. Check with Van's, they may well just post out a few extra rivets free of charge.

3. Try using the rivets that you actually have, as it will help you get a feel for rivet lengths anyway. In building the actual aircraft there would barely be a builder on this forum who hasn't substituted in a different length rivet (usually a half-size up) somewhere along the line. i.e. you could use some of the 3.5 length rivets where the 3's are called out. Best case, the longer rivet sets quite OK, and the worst that happens is a slightly longer rivet cinches over, so you drill it out and try again, and that'll just be practice for the "main event" so to speak.

4. Going from a 3 to a 3.5 rivet shouldn't be a huge deal, and you will find that a 3.5 does fill the countersink on the trailing edge better. If you went from a 3 or 3.5 to a -5 length rivet, expect big problems.

5. There's plenty to do with the practice kit that will get you up to speed with all the match-drilling, deburring, and dimpling anyway, so waiting a few days for some rivets won't be a big inconvenience.

6. Check rivet lengths with a gauge, and refer to the riveting stds that Van's put in their plans. I'm sure there's fine-print in there somewhere that says it's up to the builder to ensure that the final rivet length installed meets the spec.

7. Have fun with it! It's a great way to see how all the metalwork process are done without destroying thousands of dollars of real aircraft parts.
 
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