April 12, 2008

I halted work on the elevator hinges until I can get a new elevator control arm so I tried working ahead with the rudder hinges. The rudder control arm assembly was first up so I started working on that problem. Of course, the blueprints aren't really correct on this part so I have to improvise. The rudder stop that I bought from Sequoia came pre-drilled where the holes go through the rudder hinges on either side. I bet that's great for the Sequoia hinges which aren't made with rivets, but for a plans builder like myself, it's only creates more work. The rivets, as spaced in the blueprints interfere with where those holes are in the rudder stop and the rivet heads will not let the hinge sit flush against the stop as well. I attacked the first problem today to make the hinges sit flush against the stop. First order of business was to plug those holes in the rudder stop that I didn't need.

Then I needed to create a recess for the rivet heads in the rudder stop. I used the backwards tape method to mark the rivet head centers an the stop and then drilled the appropriate diameter holes with a forstner bit. I did this for both sides to match the rivet spacing for each hinge.

Now, the rudder stop and hinges were all lined up and sitting flush, I made sure everything was correctly aligned by attaching the rudder control arm with the hinges and the rudder stop. Everything fits together nicely but now I have to figure out where to put the bolt holes through the hinges and rudder stop to replace the ones I doweled. The geometry isn't playing nice and the rivets are not in any convenient location on the opposing sides. I'll figure something out.

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