6/24/2007
I started this morning by putting a board down the tailcone for access back there to drill, buck, etc...
Now that I could get back there, I clamped the 787 top rib to the 707B clip and 707 bulkhead for drilling.
The 707 to 707B drilling is easy, but the instructions are backwards for drilling the 707B to the 787 rib. They tell you remove the right side skin and lift up to drill it thru the pre-punched holes. Well, since the pre-punched holes are on the *left* side, it made sense to remove the clecos and lift the left side up. I used a 12" #30 bit to drill the holes. No big deal from there.
After that, I fully removed the skins to finish drilling the lines that match up to the longerons. I didn't want to drill them while they were in place because the structure underneath was already drilled and dimpled/c-sunk. Since they are machine precise in the punching process, I just drilled those lines on the bench.
After I had the skins off, I found the problem from the other day with the J channels needing to be trimmed. I should have known that there was a problem when they needed trimmed because they were cut specifically to the plan dimensions. The error was mine, hands down. While they were taped in place, they did slip out and shift forward when I was moving the 706 bulkhead to fit the skin. Oh well, I'll order new J channel and drill the holes again. Not a huge screw up. You can see that I COMPLETELY missed the material altogether!
I went ahead and deburred and dimpled both skins and the bulkheads. I need to look a little further in to the plans, but I think I have maybe one or two more small skins to dimple, and that is over with!
I deburred and dimpled the 787 top rib, then riveted the 707B clip to it. The rivet callout is too long here, so I had to drill one out. 4-5's are TOO LONG! 4-4's are what you need here.
The only other thing I got done before Brit pulled in the driveway was dimpling the 788 gusset.
So, I'll be placing my third parts order of the project tomorrow...
3.5 hours