Solo Rivet Helper

My friend Dan was coming to help rivet the bottom inboard wing skin yesterday while his mom and wife had lunch with Paula and her mom but had to cancel. A trip to the emergency room will change your plans in a hurry. Everyone is fine now. They were also going to the Rodeo in San Antonio and missed that, too. Rough day!

The weather was beautiful so I pressed on solo but had to devise a way to get to some of the more difficult rivets. Below is a picture of what I came up with. Actually works great and the rivets come out very consistent. It's only good for the rivets along the rear spar but some of those are the most difficult, especially the ones where the ribs are close together under the wing walk doubler. It's a very simple tool and took me less than 15 minutes to make. I used a 1.5 x 1.5 board with a hanger bolt in the end that I had used on a tiling project. The notched and angled bucking bar holder is attached to the end of the board with a wing nut and there is a pin (finish nail) that keeps it from rotating if the wing nut loosens. It's actually much smaller than it looks in the picture. It easily fits through lightning holes to remove and reattach in each bay.

Here's the setup sticking out the upper or aft lightning hole. A simple twist of the board keeps back pressure on the bucking bar.