Left Elevator Edge Preparation

Tue 4th Dec 1hr 40min

Preped the edges of the Left elevator skin and skeleton parts and trim servo doubler and cover plate

The elevator skins are difficult to handle. My two bench-edge vices with the lengths of timber running between them were a help for the trailing edges. However the elevators are longer than the horizontal stabilisers, vertical stabilisers and rudder and I only had two lengths of timber long enough. Still, I managed by using a shorter piece between the two trailing edges and a clamp in the middle to counteract the bowing of the outer timbers.

The edges around the hinge openings in the leading edge also needed to be prepped. In this case, I held the skin between two lengths of timber lying loosly in my vice. The vices were set to about two thirds of the width of the leading edge so that the skin just rested there in a good position for access. No clamping force was used so it was not held securely and one hand had to be on the work all the time, but it went okay.

When it came to the ends, unlike the VS for example, the elevator was much longer than the height of my table so I had to secure the piece to the table top as best I could and work horizontally over the table's edge. The outboard end was okay as I could get a piece of timber clamped across the section of skin that overlaps the counterbalance assembly and still leave the edge of the skin just overlapping the edge of the table. For the angled outboard end, all I could do was put one clamp on the trailing edge and another on the edge I was working on, moving it as necessary. This provided some support but was not ideal.

I used wet and dry paper on most of these edges (other than the trailing edges) as I felt they were too delicate for the small scotchbrite wheel in the die grinder, especially as the work was not securely held in most cases.