I took my oldest son who is also interested in the build (as much as a teenager can be "interested") and we learned a lot over the two day session. The instructor was outstanding and made the entire class feel comfortable with the setting. He was approachable and didn't laugh at any of our dumb mistakes, which created a highly effective learning environment.
Over the course of the weekend, there were two projects. The first was attaching three pieces of aluminum of varying thicknesses to a section of angle. We attached the pieces using universal rivets (AN470AD) and flush rivets (AN426AD). The techniques included deburring, countersinking and hand-squeezing. Pretty straight forward...I made plenty of mistakes!
Next up was a small section of a wing/aileron which took up most of the weekend. All manner of riveting techniques were used as well as the use of the rivet fence, match drilling and installation of a hinge and some nutplates for an access panel. Here are the pictures of that project, don't judge me! ;)
Bottom line, it was definitely worth the money to attend the workshop. The experience gained in trying every type of riveting was invaluable, and I can only hope that I'll get that money back by not breaking/destroying parts of my airplane. On to the Vertical Stabilizer!
No comments:
Post a Comment