20 Sep 08 Started the Rudder

Finally after getting my pilots license I can get back to building the plane. I got right back to work by finishing the dimpling on the HS and countersinking the HS stiffener. Took about an hour for all that. I decided to prime the stiffener, so i figured I’d start on the rudder before I primed.

The first task is to make some skin stiffeners. Here’s how the come, and how they get cut up:

Then they need to be cut to size:

The end result are stiffeners that will be back-riveted to the skin. This is roughly the layout:

And finally drilled and clecoed to the skin, and through to the table. Good thing i bought a few sheets of particle board for this:

Beth helped out by using the fantastic squeezer to dimple all of the stiffeners. I had spent about an hour on the scotchbrite bench-grinder getting these guys really smooth and straight. You don’t want all those shear marks and edges.

In formation, ready for prime!

And finished up by priming everything. I’m trying to shoot everywhere metal meets metal on the plane. Other than that, I won’t go overboard with the priming:

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