Spent time today preparing the Horizontal Stabilizer's 10 ribs. The edges are rough and they need to be smothed out. Then the flanges (the edges that surround the perimeter of the ribs) have to be bent or fluted. When the ribs are punched out and bent at the factory, they are bowed. Bending a series of creases along the flanges takes up the excess material around the rib and allows it to lie straight. It's a lot of trial and error getting these right. Then you have to deburr or smooth out all of the rough edges with a file and then a scotchbrite pad. Next I cleco'd the forward horizontal spar and splice angles that were bent to a 6 degree angle. I countersunk one of the holes on the splice angle too deep (first time using a countersink bit) and have ordered a replacement part.
The horizontal stabilizer ribs after deburring and fluting.
