Devin W.C. Ryan

Building 4 Star 60 Day 2: The fin starts

Today I got over for another great building session with Peter.  Peter kindly had the sheeting for the (tail) stabilizer of my plane glued together.  We marked out one side of the sheeting tracing the framework with a pencil to know where the stabilizer framework had to go on the sheeting and then flipped over the framework.  I placed glue along the entire surface that was coming in contact with the sheeting while Peter spread it.  I then flipped over the framework, placed it on the sheeting, wiggled for good glue disbursement and then temporarily pinned in place while I glued the other side.  I removed the pins and placed the other set of sheeting onto the tail.  Peter then placed weights to hold everything snuggly together while it dries.

Sheeting glued and wrighted
Glued sheeting to both sides of the stabilizer I did on day 1.

The next step was buidling the fin.  Found it on the plans, pinned it in place followed by pinning wax paper over it.  The next step was to find the pieces and line them up on the plans followed by gluing and pining.  I then measured, cut, and sanded the rectangular ‘centre pieces’, need to remeber what their called and will update, until they fit snuggly but not to tight such that they are pushing out / warping the pieces already glued and pinned.

After completing this phase I had what’s below.  The long piece, trailing edge, is not attached yet however the bottom part has been sanded to give the desired angle and will be cut at the top when the time comes.

Fin framework glued and pinned
Tail fin framework glued and pinned.

The last part for the day was to prep the sheeting for the fin.  You always want to go oversized to ensure you cover everything and then can (what I imagine and will learn how) cut it down to size.   This time Peter and I did it together.  Peter tapped the back side using special tape (leaves no residue) and then folded the pieces back so I could run glue down between, top to bottom.  Then we layed them down flat, on glass, and wrighted them down while the pieces dry together.

Fin sheeting taped and glued
Fin sheeting taped and glued

That wrapped up another fun building session!  I’m definitely learning little by little.

Update 10/22/2016: I couldn’t remember the name for the ‘centre pieces’, it’s ribs

1 thought on “Building 4 Star 60 Day 2: The fin starts”

  1. Pingback: Building 4 Star 60 Day 3: Fuselage + Stabilizer – Devin W.C. Ryan

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