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New member of the Ugly trim tab club

Tkitchen1

Member
Hello all, I spent a lot of time this weekend working on the left elevator and trim tab. I have read a few horror stories about the trim tab and it bad characrteristics. although it is not perfect, it didn't turn out too bad. For all of those who have not done it yet, whe you make the wooden blocks for bending the end tabs down, use some type of hard wood. I cut up a regular 2x4 pine board and the pine was too soft. The soft wood deformed when I made the bend and the bend ended up being poorly defined and not real crisp.
 
Hi! One of the items my tech counselor recommended I work on was the "looks" of my trim tab. It does look a little rough because I too used the soft wood to make the bends. I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point - if I do anything. I may take out the pop rivets, cut away the old metal and make a rib to go there rather than the bent edges. Since I'm still trying to negotiate getting the bottom skin riveted to my left wing, I have a long way to go before final assembly and/or painting.

Since bending the ends can look a bit rough, if I was asked for a recommendation, I would suggest cutting the ends off of the trim tab and make the ribs. The kit(s) come(s) with some extra sheet metal.
 
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