While up in Upland, I happened to be over at Harbor Freight, and I scored this $5.99 5/8" tubing bender. Sweet!
Not. It's a piece of junk. The bend radius is way too tight, and the channel has sharp edges and is pretty rough. This was my initial stab. Lovely, huh?!
Ok, a slight improvement...but still totally unacceptable in my book. Many builders have said that a little kink in this breather tube is no big deal, but screw that.
Ok, getting there, but any sharper a bend than this and the thing just folds. I did some research and found that if you fill the tube with sugar or sand it'll bend nicely. This is still the 2024T3, by the way, which is pretty rigid. I'm gonna score a length of 6061T6 tubing from Spruce, and that oughtta be much softer. So with 6061T6 and the sugar trick, it should be no problem. I'm getting a 6' length to make a 12" long piece, so I've got spare to practice on...
Ok, empennage tips! Let's do it so I can rig this puppy for good. Initially I fit the HS tips, which were ok but not great. With the tip pushed in up against the rib flange, it stuck out with a 1/16" to 1/18" gap in the recess. A little sanding of the inside edge and that was cured.
While I was at it, I had a fair bit of sanding to do on the trailing edge of the elevator tip, which was kind of bulbous at the back end.
Ok, this picture isn't very clear, but I got the HS tip fit to where I wanted it. Man, I am soooo glad I didn't do the emp tips 2 years ago when I finished the emp. I'm happy to be doing it now when I have much more skill, tools, and patience!!!
I laid out and drilled #40 pilot holes.
I started drilling the top edge, which was coming out great...when I remembered that I had gotten ahead of myself. You need (well, need is relative, but it's good to have) aluminum backing strips glued into the tips to give the rivets something more to grip than just the glass. Ooops...forgot about that. It's alright, I had only drilled to #40 at that point anyway.
Using E6000 adhesive, I glued 1/2" wide strips of .020" inside the tip flanges.
