Rudder and Vertical Stabilizer

I got to the shop everyday last week! I feel like I made a ton of progress. I finished the rework of the Vertical Stabiler parts that I had to reorder, prepped, primed, and started final assembly. I also final drilled and mocked up the rudder. Also picked up a fe new tools!

Vertical Stabilizer
First I reworked the front spar and match drilled the ribs to it.

I started by straightening out the rear spar stiffener. I was a little skeptical about the method that Vans recommenced in Section 5 but it worked great, to well in fact. I clamped the VS808PP into my vise preloaded the 808pp by bending it in the direction i wanted to correct then I smacked it with a rubber mallet. Literally the first tool I remember my Grandpa using on a project, “The Persuader”! It worked a little to well and put a small bend in the other direction that I had to correct.

Then I began the work of demurring all of the edges.The Dremel tool worked great with a sanding disc wheel for the large lightening holes.

I decided after this assembly that my rivet hole deburring needed a tool to hold the bit, my hands started to cramp from holding the deburring bit and spinning it in all those holes, both sides.

I moved my bench grinder with the 6” Scotch-Brite wheel vertical so that I could run the edges of the larger skin pieces easier while using the bench to support the piece.

Here is all the pieces demurred! Now I just need to get to work on metal prep for priming.

Vertical Stabilizer Paint
The Stewart System primer sealer showed up this week so I started the process of metal prep and priming. I ordered the EkoPoxy and the EkoPrime both in ZC Green. I decided for the first assembly the EkoPrime would be fine since the only difference between that and the Poxy is that the Poxy is solvent resistant. I didn't think it was likely I would be cleaning the inside of my Vertical Stabilizer or Rudder with solvents in the future so the cheaper and easier, no mixing of parts required, EkoPrime would be the better place to start for my first HVLP painting.

I mixed the heavy duty degreaser, 1:10, and the acid etch, 1:2, with distilled water.

Fist I cleaned the parts with the degreaser rinsed them off with tap water and then sprayed on the acid etch rubbed it with red Scotch-Brite pads and let is sit for 3-5mins. I then rinsed the parts off with tap water and let them dry.

While the parts were drying I set up the paint booth and system. I had to build a painting stand with chicken wire and wood frame, Don't love it but it worked ok, set up the paint gun and measured out the primer. The paint gun I'm using is the Eastwood Concours LT, it comes with a 1.3mm tip and you can buy the 1.5mm and 1.8mm. I am also using the Devilbiss DeKups starter set to keep the gun clean up easier all I needed as the DPC11 Adapter.

The primer was mixed 10% with distilled water by weight, this was just to help it flow on better. I mixed up 9grams of primer and 1gram of water. That ended up being more than enough to prime all the parts of Vertical Stabilizer.

Set my pieces out, put on my protective gear and started to spray!

The primer went on well, I need to work on my technique going forward to get a better even coverage, but I’m happy with it for my first go.

The paint booth worked really well, the exhaust fan did a good job to move out the overspray. The primer did seem to fall out as a dust on the ground , which was unexpected and easy to clean up after.

Vertical Stabilizer Final Assembly
I meant to dimple and countersink before I primed, but forgot about that so I had to do it after. Turned out to not be that big of a deal for the dimpling, but the countersinking opens up the metal to the air again. Before I started to assemble I did a practice rivet, turns out I still know how to do that. Then my first rivet I over did and had to drill out! Turns out I still know how to do that too! For these first rivets I used the back riveting method instead of my squeezer because something I read on the forums about the squeezer deforming the thinner piece of the metal, not sure if there is anything to it, but back riveting definitely gives a great looking manufacturers head finish.

After I finished the front spar I did the countersinking on the 808PP doubler and flush riveted that to the rear spar. It wasn’t until know that I realized I needed to dimple the rear spar and now the 808PP double was in the way and wouldn’t let the dimple in, lucky I was able to the dimple between the spar and the doubler.

The plans say to use flush rivets to install the 411PP brackets but it didnt make sense since they never had to countersink the bracket. I had been working about 8hrs now without food and thought I had to be missing something and decided to do nothing until I could reach out to Vans about this one.

The plans have you install AN470 rivets with the manufactured head to the rear to keep as much room available to rivet on the skins. For some reason the 470 die wouldn’t fit into the squeezer on the side I needed to to get the squeezer around the flange so I had to shoot these rivets, I almost like shooting the rivets better than the squeezer since I can see the progress. I also need to get larger clamps since mine don't clamp much more than the tables edge.

Now that I’m reading the plans for the 470 rivets I notice the 411PP brackets are actual installed on the Rear of the spar so the flush rivets make way more sense now! I really need to bring food so I can think clearly!!

Rudder
While I was waiting for the primer to show up in the mail I finished the rudder final drilling and mock up except for the trailing edge, which I was waiting for my drill press to do.

I am having some issues with the rudder skins lining up well at the end of the counter balance area. It just feels really tight and I’m hoping the tension on the skins wont cause the skins to crack in the future. It already feels like the holes are getting bigger from just the clekos. The plans also have you make a lap joint on the left rudder skin so that it will ay flat after riveting. The lap joint I made lays flat on the top side but not the bottom, when I looked at the ribs behind the skin the bend on the ribs looks like its more flat on the top, which might be why the skins arn’t aging flat. I plan on trying to work these some more.

After I primed the VS I went to work setting up the Skil drill press and drilling the trailing edge piece for the rudder. The plans call for the holes to be final drilled 90 degrees to the cord line, the bracket from Cleveland tools makes this super easy.

I then installed the tailing edge and clekoed every hole. The plans call for you to match drill the skins and trailing edge starting in the middle and working out clekoing every hole with that same angle. I did a few holes then I stopped to think. I found in the forums the angle to the skin your drilling into is 84 degrees from the spar, but that means its 84 degrees from the trailing edge on the reverse skink. The skins are so thin i think it shouldn’t matter as long as the trailing edge piece is drilled correctly, which the jig made sure of, so I think I’m going disassemble everything and ream the skins to the final size individually. More thought on that needed.

Vertical Stabilizer 23.0 Hours, Rudder 1.0 Hour