Posted by Jack on in Fabrication, Flight

EAA Sheet Metal Class

Recently I took a class hosted by the EAA at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance. This class fills up quick and I had to sign up last fall for this spring spot. The first few hours of the class Saturday were sheet metal and rivet theory taught by the instructor Jack Dueck. After that we dove straight into our project for the rest of the weekend: fabricating a mock-up of a wing assembly.

The idea was to learn various sheet metal techniques: Forming, match drilling, solid riveting with a squeezer and gun, back riveting, flush riveting, etc. The project is well designed to have a mix of most techniques.

This former C150 was one of the many training tools they had at the school.
Here I am about half way through the project. The skin on this side is all flush riveted.
This is the finished wing section, with built in access port. On the left is another practice part we made to try various techniques.
The top skin was all flush riveted on. Upon completion of the part and a critique, the instructor signed the part.