Flaperon Trailing Edge Riveting Question

[HighWing]

I think the reasoning for the rivets might help with the decision. The trailing edges of the flaperons on the early Kitfoxes were glued with structural adhesive only. After some time, some of the seams began to open because the adhesive failed. Whether the failure of the adhesive was due to improper preparation before gluing has always been my suspicion, but it is just speculation on my part.

The rivets are simply like suspenders for those who already wear a belt. In my opinion at least, they are not structural, but only serve to absorb some of the forces that work on the glue joint. both of my Model IVs have flush rivets over carefully countersunk top holes. The first IV flew almost ten years with no trailing edge separation and I did the same with my new one.

I understand the thoughts from a person with aluminum construction experience. It seems contrary to everything riveted to countersink two thicknesses of .015 aluminum, but it seems to me that to dimple and then rivet, the end result will be not quite as clean as using conventional rivets. Stronger, yes, but great strength is not the purpose here. One further thought - it might not be a bad idea to dip the rivet in a bit of Hysol so that there will be no possibility of the rivet working loose.

One thing I did to clean up the contour a bit was to use the flat set for the flush top.

Flaperon Rivet Flat.jpg

I used a rounded head set in the squeezer to give a rounded effect to the rivet extension on the bottom.

Flaperon Rivet Crowned.jpg

[JoeRuscito]

Lowell did you use a hand squeezer for those rivets? like this one? https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catal...?clickkey=4583

[HighWing]

Yes, I used that squeezer.

[TJay]

I kinda did the same thing that Lowell did but I bought a dimple die set from Aircraft Spruce and welded them to the end of some vice Grips worked great I think they only cost around 6 bucks each.