tails from the trailing edge (the sequel)

Good productive Sunday in the shop this past weekend.

With the JB Weld epoxy well cured on the pitot/static tube assembly, I was able to sand away some of the sloppy clumps and prepare it for priming.  The bench top belt sander worked well for this when taking down slowly to the metal.

With most of the end clump of epoxy removed, I rounded the tip of the static port probe:

In order to prime the assembly, I needed to block off the pitot tube end and the small static port probe holes.  I found a piece of steel rod and with a bit of electrical and masking tape on the end made a nice tight fit to prevent primer from getting inside the end.

Kind of hard to see in the picture, but I used some 3/16 inch drill bits in the static probe holes, then primed it all.

In no time, the primer was dry, so I flipped the assembly over and primed the inside tubes after taping off the ends where the pitot/static lines will attach:

Primed and ready for install on the wing, very happy how this turned out!

This picture shows the rounded static tip well.  The scuff marks in the primer are cosmetic only and look worse from the camera flash.  The inside of the tubes have been treated with Crown to protect against rust.

Also primed the front strut pick-up and support angle.  These will get rivetted once the lower wing skin is done.

Next up was laying out the 020 aluminum for the outboard and inboard trailing edges.

 
Lengthwise bends using the 1/8" radius bending shoe:

The bending brake can only bend the aluminum so far, but does a great job of creating a crisp trailing edge radius:

A preliminary test fit onto the rear wing channel showed a need to trim a little length of the forward facing edge to ensure the distance between the rear channel rivet line and the trailing edge is exactly the same as the other wing.

To finish the bend to the 18 degree opening angle as described in the plans, I secured the trailing edge to the bench with a 1/8 inch rod running the entire inside fold.  The wood shims are thinner than the rod so they don't crease the aluminum as it is bent flat:

A better look at the overall set-up.  The wooden shims are wedged in place between the rod and the securing playwood which is screwed down to the bench.

A long board and c-clamps apply an even squeeze to form the trailing edge:

I needed to slot the trailing edge skin where the rear strut pick-up protrudes through from the rear channel.  I marked the location by extending the lines forward when the pick-up was in place, removed the pick-up then transferred the location backwards to the trailing edge skin when it's in place:

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Knowing where the slot needs to be laterally, I can created the slot based on the width of the pick-up (the narrow black rectangle represents what needs to be removed):

Two holes drilled at the end of the slot, then cut out the slot using the Dremel tool:

It worked perfectly, the slot is the perfect size (the slot on the right is for the flapperon arm which has been temporarily removed to make positioning everything easier to manipulate for fit-up):

Both trailing edges fit up and ready for A3 match drilling to the lower skin and rear channels.  I need to run the plumbing for the pitot/static and the fuel lines before getting to much farther, but the trailing edge is straight and true.

Next up, taking the lower skins off for debur and priming, along with further wing tip fit up.

Thanks for following along as always.