Rolling Rudder Leading Edge

Since we were able to finish the trailing edge of the rudder yesterday, the only step left to do was roll the leading edge! This proved to be a little tricky, but the end result turned out very nice.

We bought a 3/4" steel pipe about 5' long from Home Depot and wrapped it in one layer of duct tape. This protected the primed skins from possible scratches from the pipe. Once we had it wrapped, we set the rudder on its left side and securely taped the pipe to the skin. Following the directions in the manual we used a pipe wrench to grip the pipe and cranked away. While Dad was turning the pipe, I made sure I held the skin firmly against the work table and pulled towards the pipe to get a nice tight bend. The first side of the rudder was easy since there was no opposing rolled skin in the way to work! Once the left skin was bent, we untaped the pipe and flipped the rudder over and started the same process. Since this side doesn't have a flange for the pipe to parallel up to, we had to make sure the pipe was parallel with the edge of the skin before we taped it up. Like I said earlier, the right side was a little more difficult because the previously bent left skin is curled in your work area and doesn't leave much room left for your hands. But after a few minutes we were able to get the second skin bent properly.

Once the skins are bent you still have to finish the form with your hand and cleco them together. This required a bit of grunt especially towards the lower part of the rudder since the spar is so much wider. We drilled the holes and deburred them and set the blind rivets and voila! We had a finished rudder!