01 January 2014

Empennage: Elevators. Trailing edge ribs cut and left elevator ready for priming.

The elevator and trim tab trailing edge ribs are made of foam.  It must be a way to get ribs in there (rather than a stiffener) but still keep the exterior profile of the control surface continuous.  The foam is very strong yet cuts like butter on the band saw.  The key is to go very slowly and deliberately, slightly outside the cuts lines so it's easy to smooth out with the block sander.  I used inexpensive spray adhesive for the templates.


The left elevator, assembled.  The clamped wood blocks were placed to give me something to work against when I was aligning the horn for match drilling.


 And the trim tab.


When the weather gets warmer, I'll clean and etch the parts for priming.  Then it's time to start riveting the elevators followed by aft fuselage (tail cone) work.

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