Cutting Rudder Stiffeners

[GPV]

Hi All,.

I'm just about to cut my rudder stiffeners to size and was wondering if anyone has any tips before I go butchering them. How did you do yours?

Many thanks,

Greg

[mulde35d]

A band saw with a metal cutting blade was easy and accurate. I would highly recommend it.

[MS19087]

Originally Posted by mulde35d

A band saw with a metal cutting blade was easy and accurate. I would highly recommend it.

Plus 1. Bandsaw!

[DavidHarris]

Bandsaw works well. I had access to a sheet metal shop and could just punch out along the marked lines, which was even easier.

In either case, touch up the edges and remove the sharp corners with a scotch brite wheel afterward.

David

[Steve]

I used the throatless shear in the sheet metal shop. I also had good luck using a heavy duty paper cutter like the one in the copy room at work.

[N804RV]

I used a cut-off wheel on a RotoZip, then finished to size with a 3M 6" medium deburring wheel mounted on a bench grinder. Fast and efficient.

The el-cheapo bandsaw I bought from Homedepot was not up to the task.

[fl-mike]

Not sure about the 14, the the 8 rudder stiffener trim length fit on my 6" corner notcher. I did all of them in about ten minutes with a resulting very clean cut. It was like "butter"! But of course you have to have a notcher handy. It can be a handy tool for small trim jobs and such. I found mine (Diacro) on Craigslist for cheap.

[mturnerb]

Agree with others re using bandsaw. I shaped all these types of parts and also did much of the deburring of many other parts using a Harbor Freight buffer on a stand (https://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch...psugg_q=buffer, https://www.harborfreight.com/univer...=grinder+stand) and 6" scotchbrite wheels (I used two on my buffer - one finer, one more coarse. The coarse one is great for removing extra material from trimmed parts.

I like the buffer better than a grinder because the spindles are longer and there are no guards on the wheels - makes it much easier to position a part just right to work on it. It takes some practice to avoid damaging thinner parts (some thinner parts I just deburred using other methods).

[GPV]

Thanks everyone, I'll give the bandsaw a go. Hopefully I can rig something up to keep the cuts straight. Dreading this job!

[tyconnell]

Bandsaw - I created a jig:



I believe the clamp attached to the board is a toggle clamp.

I rounded the corners after cutting using the disc sander portion of a desktop belt sander, and finished with a Dremel 500 wheel. For flimsy parts like the stiffeners, I prefer this smaller wheel to the scotch brite wheel.