First Rivets: and at long last, I have reached to point of actually installing some rivets. Rivets can be "shot" (using a gun) or squeezed. Shooting is noisy and violent. Feels totally out of control. Like so many things, the skill lies in getting things into the right position then letting the tools do the work. You don't normally think of getting work out of a hunk of steel (bucking bar), but holding it lightly, in the correct location, is all it takes.
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Here is the area of the first rivets. I kept thinking of the "golden spike" .. but that was for the end of a project, not the start. This feels like it needs some sort of celebration. Is it like turning the first shovel of dirt for a new construction? The smudged black on the surface is from the rivet gun ... must have had some oil on the face. The rest of the rivets were set using a pneumatic squeezer ... a much easier process. |
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With the left and right stabilizer spars connected, the kit will no longer fit into the box it came in. |
10:08:27 PM 
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