Opposites attract

How do you make opposing R2 skins come together? Screws? Maybe… Studs? That’s got potential... Mood lighting and a little tequila? No señor. The way I went was with magnets. Rare earth magnets to be exact. These little things are awesome. Part of the fun was leaving them on the workbench and watching them find the nearest nail to be drawn to. They have a mind of their own. I found them stuck to pliers, paint cans, toolboxes, drills, anything! What this told me was that they would be ideal for aligning and keeping the skin ends together along with the screws I’d already mounted a little further inboard. But the skins are aluminium which means they’re as compatible with magnets as they are with our old friend tequila. So, the first job was to make up some metal brackets that could attach to the skins.

I found some 40mm square tube laying around that would do the job nicely. A few minutes with the hacksaw, a few quick holes, a quick tidy up and lick of paint and they’re done. Total elapsed time = 2 days.

 

 

Now I had to attach them to the skins. I chose to only attach them to the inner skins and not both. The fasteners needed to be a flush fit, so solid rivets got the job. The brackets and magnets were held in place with edge clamps while the first holes were drilled through the skins.

Clecos then held them in place while the second holes were drilled.

    

The skin holes were then countersunk…

…and the rivets were test fitted.

The squeezers made light work of the rivets and the job was done.

 

Putting everything together was just a matter of screwing the back skin into place, mounting the magnets to the brackets and then placing the front skin into position. The magnets hold everything in place really well. I then put the front skin screws in and he's ready to roll.