Horizontal Stab Spar Riveting

I didn't have much time to work tonight, but was itching to at least try to set a few rivets to get the ball rolling.  Since it was a little late at night, I figured I should start with something that I could use the pneumatic squeezer on instead of using the rivet gun (not sure how loud it'll actually end up being outside of the garage - I'll have to test it out one of these days and see how loud it is).

So here we have it - the first rivet in the plane is a universal head rivet in the doubler of the front horizontal stabilizer spar.  Only about 10,000 to go.

I learned a few things with just this first rivet.  First off, even with the squeezer, it's entirely possible to make a lopsided shop head (the side of the rivet formed by squeezing, as opposed to the manufactured head).  If the set in the squeezer isn't somewhat centered over the rivet shank, the squeezer will tilt off to the side during the power stroke and cause the formed head not to be even.  The other thing I realized is that I'll have to be mindful of any metal surface that is coming into contact with the parts.  The primer isn't hard enough to stand up against tools and clecos scratching at it.  It'll hold up to most things, but I'll just have to be careful not to abuse it too much when assembling parts.

Along with the first rivet I set also came the first rivet I drilled out!  I put in one too many rivets in one section of the doubler - a hole where a rib has to be riveted.  So out came the drill to get more practice at drilling out rivets without damaging the hole.  I practiced this quite a bit a few months ago on my practice kit, and it turned out to be a non-event.  

I got most of the rivets set in the doubler except for a single row in the attach angles.  I couldn't get at those with the squeezer because of how close to the angle they are, so will have to use the rivet gun and bucking bar approach.  Maybe tomorrow when it's not so late.  There are some holes that will remain empty in the doubler for now.