I've been dreading this very moment. I was so fixated on getting a straight trailing edge that I inadvertantly messed it up. The steel rectangular tube I bought to use as a straight brace did its job well. After the Proseal cured and I removed it from the tube my TE was dead straight. So far so good.
Once I got to the riveting of the edge I proceeded as recommended in section 5. In a few of the holes I had some of the Proseal squeeze into the hole and dimple. I got out my plastic scraping tools and started to remove the excess sealant.
That's when I first saw something looked wrong. I got my 5X jewelers loupe out and then I saw the problem. The hole was double drilled! It was about 15 to 20% oblong. I checked some of the other holes and found the same thing. The secondary hole was always on the side of the hole away from the edge.
It hit me what had happened. I used the TE as a match drill guide to drill holes in the steel tube. Because the hole is perpendicular to the chord of the rudder I drilled them with a slight angle to the vertical. This angle caused the drill to ride into the hole until it bit into the steel.
This really put a damper on my enthusiasm for building. I will have to build the rudder all over again. Total cost for parts is $319.22 + shipping. At least I know where the tough spots are in this assembly. The worst part isn't the money. It's the hours lost. Oh well, chalk it up to experience and move on.
Trailing edge getting riveted. I would soon discover the disaster causing me to scrap the rudder.
