Rudder skins

[Thunderpig]

I am in the process of deburring the edges of the rudder skins and the cut stops are pretty noticeable...opinion on taking them all the way down? I have a grinder with two wheels, but the skins are just sloppy enough to make that an issue...so down to the 1 in scotchbrites on a drill...

[tims88]

I completely removed those notches. I used a coarse file on them until I couldn't feel them anymore and then I touched up the entire edge using a hand held grinder with a 2 inch scotch brite wheel.

[Thunderpig]

Figured that was the best way...time for the spousal unit to help do some grinding...thx

[rocketman1988]

Just a word about safety and scotchbrite wheels. As you are using them to debut edges, grooves will develop in the wheel. If you are smoothing the edge of a piece, especially a small piece, it is possible for the piece to be ripped from your hand if the edge gets too deep in the groove. FYI...it happened, no injury but the potential is sure there...

[ppilotmike]

I used my 6" 3M debur wheel, mounted on my bench grinder to debur all my skins (even the large ones). It makes short work of it and will take off all the notches left from fabrication at the Vans plant. I would do one side of the edge of the skin, moving the skin left to right in front of the debur wheel, then flip it over and do the other side, left to right. Then, if possible with the part, I would do a final debur, running the skin edge straight down the middle of the wheel, in a small groove. I found that when doing the "side to side" deburring, I usually could get the groove to go away, thus not creating any deep set grooves in my wheel. This was my process for almost all parts. On some of the really large skins, I would chuck up a 1" diameter sanding wheel, then debur wheel into my drill, running it along the edges of the skin, inside lightening holes too, on occasion. My $0.02.

[flion]

I would not trust my skin edges to a grinding wheel; they have a habit of 'grabbing' the work. For all my skin edges, I just used a regular mill file. It only takes a few passes to get the edges even. Then I follow with a hand deburring tool and a dremel wheel for the inside corners. My main wing skins only took about 10 minutes each that way (not counting the rivet holes, of course). And no rippled or dished edges.