cracks in skin around rivets on rudder

[abwaldal@gmail.com]

Ok I'll jump in here cause I like my (fix) or maybe temporary. Repairs only work on painted rudder so you can paint over.
My 6a 2001 variety 500 hours cracked and drilled rudder. 6 on the right and 2 on the left. oil canning for sure. Went to VAN's To get new rudder parts and skins. Forget it they don't have. So brain in gear.
Drilled about a 3/16 hole between spar and stiffener. Sanded outside, scraped inside with sharp crooked hooky tool sorta like bent finger.
Next I used (J B weld) My other epoxy was at home. Took the bendy hooky thing and got epoxy inside against spar and over stiffener and thin cap over outside.
Got hard, next day sanded off smooth, When I paint it you won't see the repairs.
Now will it hold???? time will tell. only have 8 hours on repairs. But, it is way faster than rebuilding complete and in my opinion should work real good.
Do I have an out of balance problem?? probably not cause the little weight is right next to the spar and very little at that.
Oh by the way it feels very stiff now. I pushed on one quite hard and no movement.
My repairs are my own and I don't warrant your success. Have fun.
I love this experimental world and this blog.
Art

[plehrke]

Originally Posted by AlexPeterson

I've not heard this before. How are the cracks at the forward end of the stiffeners caused by the trailing edge radius? There is an unsupported (at the front) stiffener floating on a sheet of .016" aluminum, so there is naturally a very large stress concentrator there. .

I think what was meant to say was the cracks on the forward end of stiffeners is from not pre-bending enough the LE radius. I also have 2 such cracks that are each 1/2" long that I stopped drilled 10 years ago and they have not changed. It is pretty obvious from the shape of my LE that it introduced some stresses at the front end of the stiffener.

Cracks on the last rivet are from not pre-bending the TE enough.

[blackbeard10]

Checked the rudder for what looked like wrinkles in the skin. Relieved to find that the two lines are shadows generated by several different led lights and the skin is smooth and with some dirt and grease. Based on comments I will stick to my plan and monitor.

Thanks for all the comments.