January 31, 2007


Today I started on the ribs for the horizontal stabilizer.  Gotta love the preformed kit - here the tip ribs and leading edge ribs are sitting on their drawings.  They are almost perfect parts - very little deburring is required.



Here's a peice of .025" channel provided in the kit.  This will become the ribs for the horizontal stabilizer.



To make sure I get a straight edge by using a jiffy square - the additional ruler is because the square edge isn't smooth.



A closeup shot:



Ready to cut.



Although I wasn't too sure the first time, the $10 miter box and woodsaw I got from Ace hardware cuts the channel very well.  The cuts end up straight and need just a bit of filing/sanding to clean them up.

Here's the saw before the cut:



The saw is a pretty agressive blade - maybe 12tpi?  But go slow and hold the peice agianst the back of the box and it cuts fine.  There is a lip on the front of the box to hold it against a bench - quite ingeious.  I leave about a 1/16th of an inch or so extra material for cleanup.



Here the cut is started, but not complete.  The shiney line is the actual cut.



Here's the completed cut.  You can see the yellow of the box between the peices.  You'll notice that the cut does NOT go all the way throught the flanges - the saw is too aggressive to cut vertical material.



I use a set of snips to cut the flanges.  This is the edge that the saw and snips leave:



Cut channel.  The bench looks more cluttered than it really is - I also try to pick up a little every evening to keep the mess manageable.  I'm able to leave everything where I leave it though - that helps a lot in getting at least a little bit done every night (or mostly every night ).



The edge after filing off the metal left from the snips.



Almost down to the line - just a bit of sandpaper to make the edge perfect.



Done.




I actually cut more than just this one - I didn't figure you'd want to see multiples of the same shots.

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