Page 08-04 Build Time: 81 hrs
Anti-Servo Tabs Complete

Eleven hours in debur, scuff and prep for primer, four hours in primer (had to stop and prep the skin and hinge where they attach) and a lean four hours in assembly including drilling out the hinges. The 11 hours in debur included wrinkling one of the skins on the scotchbright wheel. I was looking for a efficient way to get through debur and the wheel caught the edge of the skin - ping! - and it was bent. I did my best to tap it out with a soft mallet but every time I closed my eyes I could see it. Since I was going up to Vans anyway I decided to call and see if they could hold one for me. No problem and it was only $24! I've paid over $70 for a 3X2 piece of FAA/PMA 30 year old aluminum for the Cessna. It's such a joy to work on a plane they actually still build!

Bummer

I used the teflon wheel edge seamer on the skin edges where they attach to the spar. I was tempted to use it on the rudder and wish I would have but I had never used it before and I didn't feel like hacking off a good piece of 2024 just to try it. Now that I had an extra skin I could experiment. It turned out awesome! The book says be carful so I was. While getting a feel for it on the scrap part you could see how it nicely forms the metal. You can also work it back and the bend just disappears. The skins lay just right against the spar. I was mindful that this was very close to the rivet line so not too much. Just enough to make a difference.

Once assemble began it was pretty quick work to get the parts together. Drilling out the hinge was no big deal - just keep reminding yourself only the trailing holes and keep the jig with the notch at the hinge eyelet. Each new part has shown improvement both in technique and the finished product.

Even though the primer is an extra step I still believe it's the way to go. Total weight gain on the parts was 0.8 oz. I mixed up 4 oz of primer and catalyst and thinned it with about 0.5 oz. The last batch took 8 oz and I had to mix up a couple batches to get them all coated. I also remember the paint was splattering a bit and that's generally a sign of thick paint. The gun also needed a good cleaning so I went through it completely. The parts came out excellent (hate to throw out 2 oz of this stuff though) and next time I'm going to try to hit it even lighter. I'm looking for an almost translucent / perl look where the aluminum just peaks out from the primer. In any case, even thought the wing skins look daunting I'm committed on primer for all internal parts. The booth is working out fine also.

I have all four kits now, the main spars came today. I've spent a good 4 days in inventory and should be able to finish up tomorrow morning and then call Vans for the couple items that didn't show up. I also have one pretty nice scratch in a skin. I'll send them a picture and see what they say. I assume I'll just burnish it out. For those using blogs to get info on building I would have to say debur in critical. This is the craft in aircraft. If you look at the work Vans does on some of the parts you can see how much they do. It's a significant part of the process but very necessary. I'd also say that if you don't have the room just do a kit at a time. I chose to get all four because I will build this plane - not just the tail feathers.

On to the stabilator!