Brief Description: Deburr Rudder Skin, Prep and Prime Parts
The rudder skin was deburred all around the edges using a mill file and a 1 in. ScotchBright wheel on my electric drill. The skin is very thin (0.020 in.) so to stabilize it I clamped it down with a 2X4 so that about 1/2 in. of skin was overhanging the edge of the table. Using a mill file I knocked off the little tabs on the edge from the stamping process and ran a ScotchBright 1 in. wheel around it. I'm not a fan of this part of aircraft building, but it's necessary.
The skins were quite a bit of work to prep as well just because of their size. Lots of scrubbing with Prekote and liberal amounts of elbow grease and a maroon ScotchBright pad. At the end of the day my arms were pretty sore. I keep thinking I'll get used to it, but I'm not there yet.
Priming went smoothly for the most part, but I misjudged how much primer I needed and ran out before I finished everything. I had to mix up another batch and of course there's that 30 minute induction time after mixing before you can use the Akzo.
This Akzo stuff is nasty. I've taken to keeping my respirator on anytime I'm around it. I'm considering switching Stewart System Ekoprime. It's not toxic like the Akzo and it's a lot easier to handle. As much as I hate to waste 3/4 of my Akzo, I'd rather not get cancer. I'm not going to prime parts again for a while, so I'll do more research on both and decide which way I'll go soon.
The rudder skin is so thin (0.020 in.) that I stabilized it with a clamped 2X4.
A mix of rudder and vertical stabilizer parts prepped and ready for priming.
Finished parts curing. They aren't perfect but it's much better than last time.
