April 3rd, 2023
Hikaru and I drove down to Aurora to pick up the empennage kit
When it comes to dimpling skins, from what I can tell, most builders go with a “hammer type” C-frame, or a “lever type” compression C-frame. This hammer-type dimpling tool and this compression-type dimpling tool from Cleaveland Aircraft Tool seem to be the most popular.
I decided to go with a different option, the CARD1 from Hisham Hassan at Clemson Aeronatics (not sponsored), which came highly recommended by the VeArds here. It’s a C-frame, but it’s BEEFY! I mean, struggle-to-lift-up beefy.
Rather than being powered by hand, it works with your pneumatic squeezer! Being so BEEFY and using the pneumatic squeezer means that, in addition to dimpling, it can also rivet!
Best of all, if you pick up this package, you also get some BEEFY yokes and a couple of handy tools to sweeten the deal. In the end it’s hardly more than what you’d pay Cleaveland Aircraft Tool for the hand-powered compression dimpler, but you get better ease of use, more capability, and generally higher performance tools. I figure that if it costs me an extra hundred dollars, I’ll make it up in time saved.
Unfortunately, this tool is all I have for now… no parts to dimple and no squeezer to do the dimpling. I’ll post an update in due time…
28 months down, 3 to go!
In anticipation of moving back to the US in April and getting to work on our RV-10, I’ve decided to put together this blog!
The empennage, QB fuselage, and QB wings are on order (once delayed due to the long wait for Hikaru’s visa). We’re not sure when we’ll be able to pick up the empennage kit, but we’re hoping for April.
https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto
