[<<Prev]
[Next>>]
[December 21, 2005]


Tonight I worked on finishing up the VS doubler. I had already cut the two 2" holes on the bottom of the doubler, so it was time to move onto the 1.5" holes. The first one I did came out slightly bigger than 1.5"....it was 1 9/16" in diameter. I couldn't figure out how it got enlarged until I looked at the cutter on the fly cutter - a booger of aluminum cut-off had become attached to the outside of the cutter, causing it to enlarge the hole slightly. I didn't know if this was an issue. It was the 1.5" hole on the bottom of the doubler and because of this, it was the hole with the most material between the edge of the hole and the edge of the doubler. Van's support line wasn't open yet, so I continued to move on. I figured that either it was no big deal, or I would need a new doubler. I could obviously use the practice on the fly cutter! The rest of the holes went smoothly, and I always paid attention to if any boogers attached to the cutter. When all the holes were done, Van's hotline was open. I called them up and got Ken (again). He said not to worry about it. It was only 1/32" closer to the edge.

Next came the daunting task of deburring the edges of the doubler. Even without the lightening holes, the doubler is punched pretty nastily. There are all kinds of big burrs that need to be taken down. My process for the edges was to take the vixen file and knock down the edges first. One of the sides near the bottom was way off and needed a lot of filing. After the vixen file, I used a fine file, then course emery cloth, medium emery cloth, fine emery cloth and finally the scotch brite pad. The holes were similiar except I didn't use the vixen file and I used a curved file. It took about 1.5 hours to get the doubler smooth.

Finally I deburred and dimpled all of the holes in the skin. There are some holes in the very top of the skin that are used to attach the fiberglass tips. I didn't drill these out to #40 when I was drilling the skin. I will do some research tomorrow to see what I should do with these now.

The doubler with all 7 holes cut. I do not know if I would do this "optional" step again. It was a lot of hassle.


This was the worst burr of the doubler. It took a little work to get it flush.


The skin dimpled (except for the top, and the one hole that the DRDT-2 didn't get (upper left).


To dimple the hole that the dimpler couldn't reach, you need to use a pop-rivet dimpler. It couldn't of been any easier.

[<<Prev]
[Next>>]

http://RVplane.com

Last Modified: August 13, 2023