Rudder 7-1 to 7-4
In an effort to make my priming efforts more productive, I decided to start work on the rudder so that I can prime those parts along with the vertical stabilizer parts. After pulling out all the parts for the rudder (except for skins) from their various locations around my garage, I began by marking the cut points for the rudder ribs.
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| Rudder parts |
While examining the parts that form the internal ribs and shear clips, I noticed some brown discoloration around several holes and edges. I wasn't sure if this was some form of corrosion because the brown residue was easily wiped away with a finger, however there was also some roughness left in the aluminum around a few holes.
A quick email to Van's support had them tell me that this was not corrosion, but due to the laser cutting of certain parts (that was recently implemented to speed up kit production) and nothing to worry about. It also appears that the laser cut parts are produced without the protective blue vinyl, so I'll be looking out for this on other similar unprotected parts as I use them. Time to build on...
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| Brown discoloration around holes |
The 10 pieces provided for the rudder ribs will be cut into
- 2 top rib pieces
- 2 bottom rib pieces
- 14 internal rib pieces of varying lengths
- 7 shear clips to attach the internal ribs to the rudder spar
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| Ribs marked for cutting |
Cutting the rib parts was mostly done with the band saw, except for the longest internal rib which had to be separated using snips as it was too long for the band saw. Deburring of the rib parts took a little while and was all done on the bench grinder.
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| Ribs parts labelled and ready to go! |
In all there are 7 internal ribs in the rudder, each one getting progressively shorter as you move up in the rudder to account for the taper. I clecoed the ribs together to ensure that all parts were cut correctly and fit together well.
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| Ribs being formed |
Next I moved on to preparation of the rudder horn. The first steps involved deburring all the edges, and then countersinking certain holes. I again used my drill press to ensure the countersinks were straight, however, I couldn't easily get to two holes that needed to be countersunk close to the bend in the rudder horn. The reason is that the countersink cage hit the rudder horn and didn't sit squarely over the hole.
To get around this, I ordered a 1/4" Threaded Hex Shank Drill Adapter from YardStore. My plan is to thread the countersink cutter into this adapter, and manually drill the countersink into the rudder horn without the cage. I might need a hex shank extension as well to use this in my drill press. While I wait to receive the adapter, I'll continue with next steps in the rudder build.
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| Rudder horn. The two holes at the top corners still need countersinking |
All that was left to do in this section of the rudder build was to cleco the rudder horn to the bottom rib and match drill #30 holes into the. rib.
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| Rudder bottom rib with horn attached |
Next I had to debur the edges and lightening holes of the rudder spar and cleco the bottom rib to it.
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| Bottom rib attached to rudder spar |
This also required deburring the two striker plates that attach to the inside of the rudder spar into, but behind the rudder horn. Although most parts on the RV-10 are now final sized, I did have to final size the holes on the striker plates as they were smaller than the 1/8" rivets called for in those holes. The striker plates also had to be countersunk for a flush rivets, and attention had to be paid to the orientation of the striker plates to ensure the countersinks were done on the correct sides.
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| Striker plates attached to the rear of the rudder spar. |
The rudder is finally starting to take shape!
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| Starting to see a rudder forming there... this thing is tall! |
Build Hints
- Brown discoloration on bare aluminum parts is an indication that the part was laser cut, and is easily wiped clean.
- Snips are useful for making rough cuts in aluminum, but tend to deform the edges somewhat so should only be used when absolutely necessary.
- Countersink cages may not fit well when countersinking close to a bend. options are to either cut away part of the countersink cage, or remove the countersink bit from the cage and countersink manually using a drill press to ensure straightness.
Time Taken: 5.0 hours
Dates: July 8 - July 9 2022
Rudder Total Time: 5.0 hours
RV-10 Build Total Time: 25.2 hours