A couple visitors came by my shop and noted that the profile of my elevators do not have the concave dip at the trailing edge. It perked my curiosity but I was in the middle of building my center section spar. Now that I have just finished Chapter 17, I decided to tackle this concern. Before I can take any action, I need to extract the profile of the elevator and compare it against the plans template. I did it in two ways:
Extracting Elevator Profiles |
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I traced these profiles on top of the plans profile and sent them to Dennis Oelmann for review (Dennis Oelmann built my canard & elevator). After a few phone calls and e-mails, we concluded that the 'lack of concave' is probably caused by excessive micro overfill at the concave location and that the desirable profile can be recovered with a 'bit' of sanding. I offered to take a shot at it first. If I cannot make it right, Dennis offered to make it right. Regardless... |
Shaping the Starboard Side (1st Round) |
This was how my starboard elevator looked. There was quite a bit of micro fill left at the concave location. Note the two pencil marks I drew along the trailing edge (.3" and 1.5" from the trailing edge respectively)...
That's where I'll concentrate on the sanding. |
Just a closer look at the profile. I can feel very slight concave, but not significant.
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After I sand off most of the micro overfill (no removal of glass), the concave started to show. However, I was using a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a wood dowel and I was not able to get a real consistent concave profile along the entire length of the elevator.
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Another picture of the starboard profile after my first round of sanding. Note the slight concave profile... I was not satisfied and I think I need a final sanding/shaping with a profile sanding block to make it better.
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Shaping the Port Side (1st Round) |
This was how my port side elevator looked. Again, I drew two straight lines (.3" and 1.5") along the trailing edge respectively.
That's where I'll concentrate on the sanding. |
Port side after the 1st round. Note the slight curvature...
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I like this
curvature a bit better than the starboard side. I think I had a bit more
practice
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Another shot of the port side after the 1st round. Again, it looked OK but I was not satisfied. I think I need a slight final shaping with a fixture as well. |
Tools I Used |
Here's the tools I have used. The top and the left were used in the 1st round...
The one at the bottom right is the wood sanding fixture with the elevator profile I used in the second round (below). I just wrapped a small strip of sand paper only and ran it along the trailing edge of the elevators. It removed the extra micro at the concave location. |
2nd Round Results |
Here's my starboard side after the 2nd round with the profile fixture. This fixture helped me to achieve a more pronounced and consistent concave profile along the trailing edge. Not perfect, but pretty close. |
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Here's my port side after the 2nd round. Again, consistent along the trailing edge. Not perfect, but pretty close. |
Another look at the port side outboard. |
I am happy to see that I was able to get a reasonably close concave profile per the plans template. I was careful not to sand into the glass. Actually, I used a 600 grit to smooth out all surfaces after the 2nd round.
It
took a LOT more sanding than anticipated. The micro overfill was hard to get
off... If this is an indication of things to come in the final smoothing and
contouring phase, I may as well give up while I am ahead .
BTW, my canard & elevator weighs 29 pounds.