Dimpling and back-riveting

I made some good progress on the rudder today. First I dimpled the skins, stiffeners, ribs and fairing attach strips.

With that out of the way, I started riveting the spar together. Great fun!!

Then it was time to rivet on the counterbalance horn skin. Here is a look inside before the counterweight is installed.

Then I installed the counterweight.

Now it was time to get the stiffeners riveted to the skins. This is done by back-riveting, for that I needed to make my backriveting plate sit flush in the table. I cut a hole, then mounted a piece of 2×6″ wood. After that I cut out a piece of MDF that had the thickness of the table minus the backriveting plate and put both plates in the hole. I think it turned out very nice! 🙂

Now it was time to start riveting those stifferners. I like this way of riveting. The rivets turn out very nice everytime.

Riveting all stiffeners only took about an hour. Thats it for today, maybe I will start riveting the skins to the spar tomorrow.

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