May 20, 2004 - Left Elevator Prep

 

Yes, this is the famous "de-vinyling". I am using the soldering iron to cut plastic, so I can strip it off where the rivets will go.

The problem with de-vinyling is that it is slooooowwwww. To really melt the plastic well so that it tears cleanly, I could one-alligator, two-alligator, three-alligator for every one centimeter!

Here I am using the C-Frame to dimple the right elevator in preparation for riveting the stiffeners. It's hard to tell, but I am wearing ear protection as the dimpling is loud. Lynnette always helps me dimple the skins; it's a two-person job unless you build some sort of apparatus, which I havn't.

Done. All the components pictured here -- left elevator skin, stiffeners, and servo reinforcing plate -- have been edge-smoothed, deburred and dimpled. The stiffeners are now ready to backrivet to the skin.

You can see the affects of "de-vinyling" here. The purpose of de-vinyling is to leave as much of the blue plastic on the skin as possible, to protect against scratching. But the real purpose is because it looks cool; everybody likes it. It's tedious, but is worth it I suppose.

 
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