NOTE: The Rivnuts have been removed from the aircraft. DO NOT make this modification!!
The seat pans are supposed to be riveted in place, which blocks off an area of the cockpit floor. I wanted to be able to access this area to store a backup battery, or for whatever reason. Rivnuts are simply a rivet with a threaded insert and I decided to give them a try.
A little paranoia goes a long way to making sure you don't drill in the wrong place. I used #8 screw sized rivnuts.
I used the "keyed" version, which requires a small notch to be filed in each hole.
I also added a bit of Permatex sleeve retainer to lock the rivnut in place.
By the time I got to the seatbacks I tried something different. First I drilled and clecoed it with a 1/8" bit, then removed the seatback and enlarged the hole in the tube for the rivnut. This worked fine for one of the seatbacks...
But the left seatback did not fit correctly. In a fit of common sense I put the frame in place, then drilled the pilot holes and installed the rivuts. It takes overnight for the Permatex to dry, tomorrow I'll enlarge the holes in the seatback to fit. I should have done this to start with instead of trying to do the full size hole in one shot.
By the way, here's the winch...
And the SeaRey gets airborne for the first time.
Tonight I started machining the new throttle bracket, using 1/4" x 4" 6061. I was going to try to eliminate the backplate but realized it was beyond my abilities. Instead I'll just use some AN3 bolts through the existing holes.
The seat pans are supposed to be riveted in place, which blocks off an area of the cockpit floor. I wanted to be able to access this area to store a backup battery, or for whatever reason. Rivnuts are simply a rivet with a threaded insert and I decided to give them a try.
A little paranoia goes a long way to making sure you don't drill in the wrong place. I used #8 screw sized rivnuts.
I used the "keyed" version, which requires a small notch to be filed in each hole.
I also added a bit of Permatex sleeve retainer to lock the rivnut in place.
By the time I got to the seatbacks I tried something different. First I drilled and clecoed it with a 1/8" bit, then removed the seatback and enlarged the hole in the tube for the rivnut. This worked fine for one of the seatbacks...
But the left seatback did not fit correctly. In a fit of common sense I put the frame in place, then drilled the pilot holes and installed the rivuts. It takes overnight for the Permatex to dry, tomorrow I'll enlarge the holes in the seatback to fit. I should have done this to start with instead of trying to do the full size hole in one shot.
By the way, here's the winch...
And the SeaRey gets airborne for the first time.
Tonight I started machining the new throttle bracket, using 1/4" x 4" 6061. I was going to try to eliminate the backplate but realized it was beyond my abilities. Instead I'll just use some AN3 bolts through the existing holes.
