I've measured and laid out rib locations for the right elevator. I've also built a fancy cocobolo/lyptus/spruce holding jig to hold it in place!
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Each elevator gets this reinforcement at the outboard end. It consists of a duplicate rib (not pictured here but you can see the holes for it that are drilled in this rib)and an upper and lower "doubler". You can see the lower one here. Both go under the skin out of sight. Doublers are used throughout the aircraft. They add strength and also are used whenever you have holes in components (see elevator trim page).
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Here's the outboard end of the elevator. The silver clecos are a smaller diameter than the copper ones. This end gets dimpled for counter-sunk rivets; I use smaller holes for this. Notice that the reinforcement rib and doubler haven't been added yet.
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Ribs and control horn primered with epoxy chromate and already riveted onto the spar. Everything inside gets primed for added protection against corrosion.
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My lovely laboratory assistant (wife) holding the completed structure. Now we'll rivet the skin!
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Okay. Here's the whole thing put together and ready to go. Here's how it goes: we have a batch of primer made up. The stuff keeps in the freezer for about a week (it doesn;t freeze). We coat the rib surfaces and the inside of the skin where the ribs go with it and then put it together like this. Then we pull a cleco out and replace it with a rivet that's been dipped in epoxy. There's never a time when a hole doesn't have either a rivet or a cleco in it. This ensures that the whole thing stays straight. It's a little messy but can be cleaned up when we're through.
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Control horn on completed elevator. Besides the seven 3/16 rivets holding it on the end cap, there are eight more that are spaced equally around the spar. The open center hole is for attaching to the horizontal stabilizer hinge; the other smaller hole is for a drilled head bolt that will safety tie to the hinge bolt.
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Viola! The finished product! We just spent twenty minutes cleaning it up. It's ready to attach to the horizontal stabilizer (if it were built!)
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