turtle deck skins

[bipbuilder]

Have rear fuselage clecoed together. I noticed the tension on the clecos with the skin in place on top of the turtle deck. Lots of small waves between each cleco. Was wondering if the rivets should be installed with the skin laid out flat on the bench or while clecoed to the formers. Also has anyone tried putting a small bend on each skin just off center line to relieve some of the tension on the rivets.

[Bryan Cotton]

I would rivet the turtledeck skins together while flat. I would not try to add a bend. I assume the Onex turtledeck is similar to the Waiex.

[lovtoofly]

Hi
I put a small bend on each sheet with two long pieces of oak boards clamped to the skins before install and it worked well but hard to do. There is a lot of pressure on the skins there.

Len. Onex 152

[ldmill]

Take a look at the alternative method I used when riveting my turtle deck skins together on the turtledeck spine - link below to my Expercraft log. Worked out very easy, was a non-event.
http://websites.expercraft.com/ldmill/i ... g_id=34602

Lorin Miller
Waiex N81YX - 230 hours and flying strong...

[dhogue]

Recently completed the Onex turtledeck installation.
I riveted the two sides to the splice channel together, flat, on top of a table without pre-bending/shaping.
After installing the turtle deck assembly, per the plans, I have no waves between the skins and splice channel rivets.

Tip:
When riveting the turtle deck assembly to the turtledeck formers I did have to make small bends in the former tabs in order to close gaps between the former tabs and the inside of the turtledeck skin also when riveting the turtledeck to the formers I had someone pushing the tabs up into the inside skins before pulling the rivet. This worked out well as there are no dimples in the skin at the formers and was not the difficult process I originally thought it would be.