I finished fabricating the new stiffeners that I jazzed up the other day. A box and pan break would have been a very nice tool to have around. I tried several ways of bending the length of the stiffeners, but nothing worked well.
I ended up bending them with a hand seamer and working along the bend, back and forth until it was bent at 90 degrees. Then I had to do a little bending and fluting to make them straight. A bit of a pain, but they'll certainly do.
I recieved my back riveting set and steel plate.
"""Important Lesson""""
Just buy the right tools!
I struggled a little trying to back rivet with a plate that was too thin, and just using a flat rivet set.
The proper plate and especially the spring loaded back rivet set makes the job a SNAP!
It's actually FUN to do as it goes very fast!
In addition, the spring loaded set helped hold the skin and stiffener tight to the bucking plate and the rivets all the way at the back were acceptable!!!
Built the home made break to squeeze the bend at the back of the rudder. This design is not very good. It doesn't pinch the end tight enough. I'll try to find a better way of squeezing the end a bit tighter and follow up here.
They'll probably do as is, but I'd like them to be tighter.
Gotta have the right tools man!
Gotta modify the break to tighten up the trailing edge a bit.
