The Elevators are finished!
Long live the Elevators!

The Elevators were started prior to the Tailcone, but actually finished after the Tailcone.  I had decided to move to the Tailcone after the HS only because I wanted to work on something big.   I'm glad that I did the two in reverse order, because after the Tailcone I was a much better builder and was able to do a more than acceptable job with the Elevators.  Some builders say that if you can do a good job with the elevators, the rest of the plane is not hard.  That's probably an overstatement, but I think they are harder in some respects than the Tailcone. 

I'm also learning that it makes things easier to batch building functions, such as cutting, deburring, priming.  One builder here in Oregon drilled, deburred, dimpled and primed all of his parts for the entire empennage before he set one rivet.  In some ways it makes sense, but it is nice to see the individual components being completed, one after the other.  Anyway, jump around within the elevator section and try batching things.  I have found at the very least that batching similar steps helps reduce setup time.  BUT!  Do not try assembling out of order.  These are puzzles, more so than the Tailcone.  They go together in a prescribed manner. 

Total Time for Section 9 = 105.25 hours

Page 9-2  (21 hours)

Step 1.   There are 16 elevator ribs that first must be separated.  I chose to do this with a Dremel cut off wheel because the ribs are so thin.   If you try this with a more aggressive tool, such as a band saw, it just will not work. 

10/29/05  -  1 hour

Step 2.  Now comes the fun part.  Deburr all the edges of the 16 parts and everything else under the elevator sun. 

In truth, I haven't done this yet.  What I did was to complete two of the ribs to see what was entailed, and they are pictured below.  Then I moved on the do more cutting.  I skipped right over to Step 7. on the same page and cut the shear clips (see below).  Then I went on to cut the j-stiffeners for the tailcone and got so excited about doing the tailcone that I stayed with that until that was done.   

But, now that the tailcone is finished, I've returned and completed the edge deburring.  If you can, do everything as it recommends.  It's so tedious when you're doing it, but afterwards you are rewarded by being able to fly through many of the later steps.

09/30/06 - 12/26/06  -  14 hours  

Step 3.  Now that you have separated and deburred everything in sight (I couldn't quite do everything all at once, but almost.  I left a couple of the skins for later.  Got too impatient.), cleco the rib halves together, making sure the alignment is as shown in the plans.  Final drill the four common holes of the rib halves and label.

12/22/06  -  1 hour  

Steps 4, 5 & 6.  These next three steps proved to be difficult for me, and was also difficult for my next door hanger mate, Bruce.  It's doable, so just keep working it, but at first there's a lot of head scratching trying to determine what needs fluting and what doesn't, what needs bending and what doesn't. 

First, bend the flanges of the E-903 and E-904 tip ribs so they are approximately 90 degrees.  A hand seamer is a good tool here, but so are your hands.  Just keep working the flanges until they are at the right angle. 

Once this is done, and it won't be perfect, you'll have to keep adjusting these, then straighten the E-903 and E-904 by fluting.  Check that they are straight by laying a steel rule along the holes.  Or, as they recommend, by seeing if the holes align with the E-913 holes.  You'll end up working with this the most. 

Finally, make up the two Tip Rib assemblies and final drill the common 1/8" and 3/32" holes as per the plans, except for the ones indicated.  Also final drill the 3/16" holes to #12.   There will be a lot of fooling around here, trying to get everything lined up.  Make sure you have the vinyl off of everything.  Don't worry about scratching.  Just keep working at it and then do the final drilling. 

12/23/06  -  4 hours 

Step 7.  Separate the 4 shear clips, E-1022.  Easy to do on the band saw.  Then final drill the holes in the short flanges to a #30, followed by hole and edge deburring. 

10/29/05 & 11/01/05  -  1 hour total  

Page 9-2