Ribs, spars, and gussets for rudder

04/24/2009

Empennage

Cut the ribs, spars, and gussets for the rudder. For the trailing edge of the rudder, I took the strip of 3/8”X1” and marked a line 3/8” from the edge on the 1” side. I then sanded the remaining 5/8” on one side until I had taken off 1/8” of the wood. I then turned over the board and did it again. A lot more work but I think it looks better. For the rib, I needed to taper off the ends to the trailing edge. To do this, I marked a line 7” from the edge of the trailing edge. I then marked a line of the drawing and measured where that mark fell on the diagonals. I then marked a line on each of the ribs and diagonals according to the measurements determined on the drawing. I then found the centerline of each rib and diagonal and marked 3/16” off on each side of that centerline giving me a width of 3/8”. I then created a taper from the offset centerline to the taper start line. I then took my hack saw and cut outside the line and then sanded off the rough side.