ZachMiller
Member
I'm working on rolling the rudder leading edge, and have a couple questions for those who've completed this task. The method I'm using is having a 1/2" black iron pipe run through two wooden blocks clamped to the table. I'm using gorilla tape between the skin and pipe. I'm bending one section at a time, i.e. bending the rudder in three sections. The actual rolling seemed to go well enough, although I am wondering if a slightly larger pipe would have been beneficial (the pipe is a hair under 1" OD).
1: There are two dimensions given in the upper right hand corner of the rudder drawing. The tip dimension is 1 5/8 from the forward side of the spar. Is anyone else able to get this dimension? I'm showing more like 1 7/16 with everything clecoed together. It just doesn't seem possible to get this dimension without creasing near the spar. The lower dimension is closer, but still a little short. This dimension for the LHS elevator I have rolled is much closer.
2: How much pull together is acceptable? The manual says there shouldn't be much preload or you risk cracking the skin at the stiffeners, but how much is normal? Right now I've rolled the edges such that the rivet holes are about 1/4" (or less) from lining up when no force is applied to the skins. It is fairly easy to pull them together to get clecos in. Is this acceptable?
This is by far the most frustrating part of the empennage build for me (granted I skipped the trim tab bending and went right to riblets). I'm admittedly a huge perfectionist, but I feel like this is unnecessarily difficult. It's taken me about 3 hours for the first elevator and about 2 hours for the rudder. The bends aren't perfect either, there is some 'faceting' of the bends in a few spots, particularly at the ends. Nothing a couple more tedious hours of tweaking won't fix.
/Rant
Thanks,
Zach
1: There are two dimensions given in the upper right hand corner of the rudder drawing. The tip dimension is 1 5/8 from the forward side of the spar. Is anyone else able to get this dimension? I'm showing more like 1 7/16 with everything clecoed together. It just doesn't seem possible to get this dimension without creasing near the spar. The lower dimension is closer, but still a little short. This dimension for the LHS elevator I have rolled is much closer.
2: How much pull together is acceptable? The manual says there shouldn't be much preload or you risk cracking the skin at the stiffeners, but how much is normal? Right now I've rolled the edges such that the rivet holes are about 1/4" (or less) from lining up when no force is applied to the skins. It is fairly easy to pull them together to get clecos in. Is this acceptable?
This is by far the most frustrating part of the empennage build for me (granted I skipped the trim tab bending and went right to riblets). I'm admittedly a huge perfectionist, but I feel like this is unnecessarily difficult. It's taken me about 3 hours for the first elevator and about 2 hours for the rudder. The bends aren't perfect either, there is some 'faceting' of the bends in a few spots, particularly at the ends. Nothing a couple more tedious hours of tweaking won't fix.
/Rant
Thanks,
Zach