I finished deburring the rudder stiffeners and dimpled them all. This thin sheet metal is MUCH easier to dimple with the hand squeezers. I bundled them up and labeled them left and right, and set them in the 'to-be-primed' pile. I'm going to San Antonio to pick up my primer and metal prep chemicals tomorrow morning, so maybe some of that fun stuff will get done this weekend.
The rudder skin stiffener holes and edges are deburred. I stuck a finishing nail in the wall and cut the head off of it to act as a hanger for the skins. I'm hoping to keep them from getting scratched up too much. I tried the soldering iron to remove the blue pastic around the holes method, but it was a real pain and i think the soldering iron left a few scratches anyways... I think hanging the skins on the wall and keeping an old blanket on the workbench will do just fine.
Here is the shim that must be fabricated for the bottom of the rudder. This is the second one, as the first one I drilled the hole a little off center. I used a punch and was trying to be careful, but it still slid off to the side a little. This hole was made in the drill press and it worked out a lot better. I decided to go ahead and cleco it onto the bracket to get the other 2 holes just right.
And that worked out just fine...
I did this just before the shim (the last thing I did tonight). Drilling a big 3/8" hole is a pain. I had to use the electric drill since the air drill is only 1/4". And the big drill bit snagged once it broke through (of course). No problem a little filing and it took care of that problem. These last couple activities make me glad that most of the holes in the kit are nice and small, and the prepunching makes it super easy!
