Unlike the previous two pieces, the rudder is composed of two skins instead of just one folded over. There are no ribs per se, just stiffeners and a forward spar. The stiffeners are the first to be tackled. Naturally, they come from Vans pre-punched to match the holes in the skins, but they must be cut to length and then tapered on one end to match the slope of the rudder. Then the ends are rounded off, polished smooth, and the edges debured. There are a total of 16 stiffeners to prepare and let me tell you, this bit gets a little tedious after the first two. So I decided to just leave out the remaining 14. Kidding, kidding.
 |
| Stiffeners cut to length |
 |
| Cutting the taper |
 |
| Edges polished and ready for drilling |
Once the stiffeners are prepared they need to be match drilled to the skins. The build manual recommends drilling and clecoing into your wife's dining table to hold the pieces immobile, but this sounded vaguely troublesome to me. So I'm just using some scrap 3/4" plywood instead.
Match drilling of the stiffeners complete. Be sure to tune in next week when 'Russel the riveter' attemtps back riveting the stiffeners to the skins.
No comments:
Post a Comment