While I wait for the tubing to arrive to complete the undercarriage mount I decided to make a start on the elevators. The shape of the elevator was laid out on the building board together with that of the horizontal stabiliser. In both cases the dimensions were verified against the actual fuselage as the plans are unclear on the impact of the tapering shape of the fuselage on the positions of the cross members. i.e. they change as the fuselage ends are pulled together in real life but not on the plans.The tubing for the right elevator was cut and fit into position on the building board. Note the use of drills to space the thinner tubing off the board to get the centre lines to match with the 3/4" front spar. It is essential to fabricate and install the hinges on the spar before welding up the ends - got that right. However, it is also essential to install the hinges before flattening the end of the 3/4" tubing to match the top rib - oops!
The elevator actuating arm is set at 13 degrees from the vertical to get a right angle with the elevator pushrod at elevator neutral position.
I used the tubing notcher with a 3/4" hole saw to form the front end of the two pieces of channel into the curve to fit the front spar. First the two sides of the channel were tack welded together to get the required 3/4" overall width then the holesaw could cut a neat arc out for an accurate fit with the spar.
The top joint between the rear section of the end rib and the front has been left open to allow the elevator horn to be filled with lead to balance the elevator - that's a job for tomorrow once I work out how. Other than that, all that's left on the right elevator is to final braze the joints and clean up the flux.
