Moving along
After one slow month because of lack of electricity (it's now back
) and some holidays abroad, some progress was made on the elevators and rudder.
The lead couterweights were drilled to accept the bolts.
I drilled the holes using three increasing drill bit sizes.
Lead is soft so it tends to "grip" the bits.
Use of lots of Boelube, going in very slowly and removing the bit frequently from the hole did the trick.
Then sawing off the excess material for the right side weight with a hacksaw was a pain... One hour more or less...
I kept a bit more material on so final balancing can be made when all is done and painted.
I also kept the lead shavings and cut part in case of further need.
As you can see, after the lead was cut, I found an air bubble that extends inside by about half an inch the size of a cigarette.
Lead is fairly easy to melt so if the weight is too light, I could always fill in that hole...
I also built a trailing edge bender.
The wood beams are held together with a full lengh piano hinge behind and the bottom beam is bolted on my work table.
I used two clamps as handles close to center to prevent warping of the wood.
From behind, standing on a stool I had to use my body weight to bend the rudder edge properly.
If I had to do once more bending tool, I would choose bigger beams.
I will get longer clamps to get more leverage for bending the elevators.
Here's the rudder edge after bending.
Looks good to me, we'll see how well it goes later on.
After priming the rudder frame parts, assembly started.
Having the parts held solidly in a vise is a great help to get those rivets properly done.
I couldn't figure a way to get the squeezer or a bucking bar in the rudder horn hole so I installed the optional blind rivets.
The skin was solid riveted on the frame on one side and once more temporarily blind riveted on the other.
I installed wall backets to store the finished parts.
Looks neat, and they're out of harm's way...
October will be a slow building month also as I have a pretty hectic sched, but my wing kit should arrive somewhere in the middle of the month so I'm happy anyway!!!