Trimmed skins and deburred all edges and holes. Reassembled skins and riveted everything to complete the rudder. The rudder is done.
Rudder
Day 7: Nose Skin Assembly (2.5 h)
Lined up the nose skin with the spar, drilled the holes and cleclo'd the skin in place. Also marked the tip rib overhang for later trimming.
Day 5: My First Mistake
After riveting the skeleton in place I pulled out the skin and aligned it with the edge of the spar and with the pre-drilled holes against the ribs. Everything looked good until I got to the tip rib: there was a significant gap between it and the holes. I spent quite a bit of...
Day 5: Riveting the Rudder Skeleton (1h)
With the parts primed I first clecoed the doublers and bottom rib to the spar and riveted them in place. I’d never riveted before so this was a nervy experience but turned out to be real easy and straightforward. After this I attached the remaining ribs and worked my way up the spar until...
Day 4: Priming (30m)
Before riveting it is recommended that you prime the metal wherever two parts will touch. The thinking is that there is a small danger of corrosion at the joins where substances could possibly get between the two surfaces. I toyed with the idea of painting everything but that was a lot of work so...
Day 3: Rudder Skeleton Deburring (20m)
Left work early today to get ready for my trip to the UK tomorrow. Got home, saw the pieces on the bench and couldn't resist doing a little deburring. I tried using a flat file but didn't seem to be doing too well so switched to a large drill bit instead - a quarter...
Day 2: Rudder: Skeleton Assembly (2h 30m)
Day 2: Attach rudder horn to bottom rib; drill and cleco bottom rib to spar; installed rear ribs 2, 3, 4, and the nose rib; drilled bent stip and attached it and the tip rib to the spar. Rudder skeleton fully assembled. 2h 30m
Day 1: Rudder: Inventory and First Steps (1h 30m)
Day 1: Bench building; parts inventory; edge deburring; cut spar doublers to size; drill and cleco doublers to spar. 1h 30m
Rudder on the Way
The rudder is on it's way! Estimated delivery is July 12. Got a lot of prep work to do in the garage before we can get started.