April 1, 2005 - Left Elevator |
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Curling the leading edge of the right elevator had been such an unpleasant
task that I postponed doing the left. The elevator skins are thicker
than the rudder skin and curling them is just a bear. While I
wait for the fuselage kit to arrive, I'm going back to the empennage and
finish the things left undone. Starting with the dreaded left
elevator leading edge. Last time I used wood dowel. I decided to try 1" PVC pipe. First I bent the edge tip of the side that ends up on top using my nifty edge-roller tool. Then I taped the pipe to the skin using lots of duct tape. |
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After curling.
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| The way I curled the PVC pipe -- and skin -- was by attaching a vise clamp to the PVC pipe and twisting that. You can see the vise clamp on the left. It's not easy, and not a lot of fun. I just worked through it, doing the best I could. | ||||||
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OK, the bottom and top skins are curled as tight as I can get them.
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| With Lynnette's help and more duct tape, I was able to cleco the leading edge skins together. | ||||||
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| Next step was to drill the holes to #30. After deburring, I pop-riveted them, which was easy and fun. | ||||||
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| Overall, the left elevator leading edge came out better than the right. That made me happy, but I was even more happy just to be finished with it. | ||||||