I did a final deburring pass on the elevator parts to get things ready for washing, etching, and priming.
I also put a slight bend in the trailing edge skins. When I went to use the edge forming tool I realized that the plans for the elevators have this step in a different order than was specified for the rudder (which was to form the edge before the dimpling step). Oops.
I explored different options for doing this and ultimately settled on forming it carefully with my thumbs. I was able to impart a slight bend along the edge with no visible creasing marks. When checking with a small metal straight edge there should be just enough of a bend (as compared to the result of the edge forming tool on some scrap) to allow the skin to remain tight at the back of the elevators after riveting. I guess I’ll find out when I get there..
The next parts to prepare are the foam trailing edge ribs so I took a look ahead at that step. The plans provide a scale measurement for the templates but I noticed that the pages that Van’s provide aren’t actually printed to 1:1 scale (15.5″ vs 16″). I’m not sure why this is the case so I’m going to contact them and request a PDF version that I can print scaled versions from.
