Used the bandsaw to seperate the stiffeners, then the vixen file to straighten the cuts, then the Scotchbrite Wheel to smooth.

Deburring Spar

Vixen file again for the spar edges to remove the little saw teeth left after the pressing process.

Managed to deburr the edges using the Scotchbrite Wheel. The benefit of mounting the grinder on a portable workstation!

Used my Sealey Air Die Grinder with a 1″ Scotchbrite Wheel to deburr the holes. Worked rather well, but you have to be careful to not let the wheel “bite”. Careful angling stops it happening.

Spar Assembly

Sioux Air Drill used to final drill all the holes.

Skins

The rudder skins are very thin, so used a length of wooden dowel to roll up the vinyl covering. This reduces the risk of a creased skin incident!

Soldering iron with a smoothed and rounded bit (to prevent scratches on the skin) used to remove the vinyl in strips around the rivet hole lines. Some people advocate removing all vinyl … actually so do Vans, since the stuff apparently gets harder to remove with time. However, others reckon it might just prevent a scratch on the skins. Of course when the plane is prepared for painting the skins will have to be well and trully scuffed up anyway.

I’ve decided to do it, since it doesn’t take that long and when I prime, the vinyl acts as a good mask for etch priming along the rivet lines on the outside. This means that the dimples are Etch Primed under the rivets : )

I deburred the skin edges using a flat sanding block …. I was worried about bending them because they are so thin.  I’ve found Norton R222 J-WT ALUMINUM OXIDE HANDY CLOTH ROLL 50mm x 25m P600 grit pretty good for gentle deburring … Aluminium is very soft!

Counter Weight

Straightforward to machine countersink the lead weight to accept the dimples.

Clecoing

Structure clecoed together. I haven’t riveted the plates etc on the spar yet, since I want to prime everything first.