Bent elevator spar

[BillL]

Originally Posted by JonJay

Try bending it back with hand seamers, avoiding the edges of the dimpled hole. If you can get it close, take your squeezers and redimple the hole. The dimple die will reform the area around the hole. As an experienced sheet metal guy, I would have that fixed in about two minutes. If you mess it up further trying to fix it, you will have learned a bit more and then you can order a new part.
This really isn't that bad and is easily fixable in my opinion.

+1 a little "shrinking" and you have it. Or - - you will have some extra material to make stuff for the remainder of the build. For perspective, I bought a top forward fuse skin just for use as a template. Shipping alone was $75, so you are getting off easy.

After all, building the empennage is still in the "training" category (like all of the first build).

[sbal0906]

Originally Posted by wirejock

Order snail mail. There's always something to do while you wait.

This. Shipping by regular mail to Winnipeg in Canada doesn't even take too long -- maybe a couple of weeks at most. And most of the delay is the border crossing. You're in Wyoming? I'll bet that won't take more than a couple of days.

Yes, there's always something else to do!

Cheers,

[wirejock]

Originally Posted by sbal0906

This. Shipping by regular mail to Winnipeg in Canada doesn't even take too long -- maybe a couple of weeks at most. And most of the delay is the border crossing. You're in Wyoming? I'll bet that won't take more than a couple of days.

Yes, there's always something else to do!

Cheers,

Ooops. Sorry, I missed that.
I live in the mountains so it adds a day or two.
Lots of mistakes. They get retasked as new useful stuff. Flap spars made a really nice adjustable plans rack. Mistakes are just opportunities to design new projects!

[kentlik]

Totally repairable...

[drone_pilot]

By the picture, that doesn't look like too big of deal. Try repairing as the others have mentioned. If its not to your liking, then order parts.

I imagine Vans will tell you to build on but I may be wrong. I would think a lot of the load is carried by the skin and not just the spar and by the picture, I'm not so sure that the integrity of your spar has been compromised. Damage looks to be only on the flange from what I can tell.

[jcarne]

Thanks for all the great replies guys. As many of you suspected here is the reply from Van's:

"I don?t see any reason that bending this back would compromise the spar, no deformation in the bend radios or the web of the spar. Flatten and build on."

I will try to flatten the bend and see how it goes. If I can get it back to straight which shouldn't be too big a problem I will carry on. The thing that makes me feel a bit better about this is not only is it a small bend but it is right between the two rod ends.

[jcarne]

Well I think I have a fix I am happy with, what say you? I gave my dad a call to help me out with this one as he has been working with sheet metal for 30 years more than my 4 (he does HVAC). The first picture below shows how the bend in the flange was tweaking the spar forward. The ruler is placed on the bottom portion of the spar. (notice the gap on the left between ruler and spar)



The following picture shows the ruler on the top portion of the spar where the bend was at it's worst. This pictures shows a bit of deflection but definitely not plastic deformation as you will see in the picture after this one. (this forward bend of the spar will happen when the flange is bent)



This next picture is the same top view and top of the spar after the fix has been made. You can still see a very small sliver of light but I believe that it is due to some deformation caused by riveting the doublers as it also shows on my other non-damaged spar. (left elevator)



The following picture shows the spar from the front after the fix has been made. Can you tell where the bend was?



In the next picture the drill bit shows where the bend was.



And the final picture shows the spar as it nests with the skin.



So what do you guys think of the fix? I am pretty happy with it and think that it is still a safe spar especially considering that the bend was between two hinges.

[David Paule]

Good job!

That should not be a problem at all.

Dave

[BillL]

Nice work!

[wjb]

Nice work; build on! (however, we may need a word or two about your primer choice... ;-)