Greetings,
I just finished riveting the rudder trailing edge and thought I'd pass some info along. I pretty much followed the plans - they said you could use Proseal or "a good epoxy" along with an aluminum angle to glue the edge together to keep it straight prior to riveting. I opted for JB Weld as I had used it before on a number of other projects and others have said that it worked well on the TE. After riveting according to plans, the edge came out "absolutely perfect".... then I picked the rudder up and heard something chinking around inside. I shook it and managed to shake some - actually quite a few - small broken pieces of JB Weld epoxy from it. It seemed that the impact of the rivet gun shattered some of the hardened epoxy.
It's probably not a big deal as I think the epoxy/Proseal is intended only to keep the edge straight for riveting, but IF I were to ever build another rudder, I would opt for Proseal. I haven't had the pleasure of using it yet, but I assume it's maybe a little more pliable when fully cured and not brittle like the JB Weld.
Greg
San Diego
I just finished riveting the rudder trailing edge and thought I'd pass some info along. I pretty much followed the plans - they said you could use Proseal or "a good epoxy" along with an aluminum angle to glue the edge together to keep it straight prior to riveting. I opted for JB Weld as I had used it before on a number of other projects and others have said that it worked well on the TE. After riveting according to plans, the edge came out "absolutely perfect".... then I picked the rudder up and heard something chinking around inside. I shook it and managed to shake some - actually quite a few - small broken pieces of JB Weld epoxy from it. It seemed that the impact of the rivet gun shattered some of the hardened epoxy.
It's probably not a big deal as I think the epoxy/Proseal is intended only to keep the edge straight for riveting, but IF I were to ever build another rudder, I would opt for Proseal. I haven't had the pleasure of using it yet, but I assume it's maybe a little more pliable when fully cured and not brittle like the JB Weld.
Greg
San Diego