Dimple Doh!

Sat 17th Nov 5hr 10min

Cut stiffners and match drilled to left rudder skin. Prepped stiffner edges and dimpled them. Fluted and prepped tip and counterbalance ribs.
I ordered a spray gun from a British firm on ebay. It looks to be very good value and comes with the correct 1.5mm nozzle to suit the primer I am using. However, it will take a while to arrive and I also need to construct a demountable spraybooth, so I moved on again and made a start on the rudder.

The first job is to cut out two stiffners from each length of angle. After trying the band saw, I decided I did not like the way it dealt with the very light material and began to use the snips instead. Initially, I was keeping well away from my lines but I gained in confidence and was soon cutting to the line itself. It was really quite slow and a bit repetitive and tedious to cut them all out and then trim them to length and polish all the edges.




The Orndorff videos suggest working from one end along each stiffner while match drilling them and cleco every hole as you go. This is to make sure they lie flat inside the skin with no excess skin material between stiffner holes. While I agree with this, I found it necessary to check the correct alignment of all the remaining holes on the stiffner and hold the free end of the stiffner in place while drilling each hole up to the mid point and maybe beyond. Otherwise, I felt that there would be a tendency for a right-left miss-alignment to become established and the holes might not match by the time you reach the far end of the stiffner.


I had another 'unforced error' when dimpling the stiffners. I don't find the trigger of the pneumatic squeezer easy to use and this caused me to fire the squeezer before I was in position. As a result, I got a brand new dimpled hole adjoining the pre-punched one. A few moments later my wife came into the shop abruptly and gave me a start, causing another missed hole. At least the skins are not affected. I reckon I can make small doublers from the same material and put them behind the affected holes or even spanning three holes. Anyway, I have emailed support at Vans for their opinion.



Despite careful fluting of the flanges and checking them for 90 degree alignment, I found the rudder counterbalance skin quite difficult to attach. It needs quite a bit of persuasion to match up with the holes in the two ribs. I eventually got it all together. I used a small awl to help align the holes. I put quite an amount of strain on the parts but not to the point of deforming the holes or the skin

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