After the whole assembly was finally completed, the hinges were VERY tight and the pedals were pretty stiff as well. This was to be expected because of the inevitable welding scale. I first gave the components a good cleaning in the bead blast cabinet and then blasted the pieces with the air gun to get out the remaining beads. I used some solvent and flushed out the rest of the residue. The hinges especially were very stiff, so I got some valve lapping compound and worked it into the hinges via the oil hole. I slowly worked the hinges and now they spin very free with hardly any play. I did the same with the pedals. I flushed out everything with lots of solvent and everything operates just as it should...nice and smooth. With flight controls, any little bit of binding is cumulative and I want thing to be as smooth as possible.
