What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Stiffener tapering guide hole

idubrov

Well Known Member
When tapering stiffeners (rudder, elevator, practice kit), you are told to cut between the centers of the guide holes.

If you follow that literally, you get a small notch on the stiffener where it starts to taper:

stiffener-notch.jpeg


Do you smooth the edges of the hole and leave it or do you try to completely smooth it out? Aesthetically, I want to completely remove it, but given the taper angle, it would require pretty large radius to remove it fully (marked in blue, but that's a straight line, so the actual removal would be a bit more than that):

stiffener-notch-2remove.jpeg
 
Last edited:
I cut them the way you show them, then touch them on the belt or disk sander, when I finish them on the 3M wheel, I make the notch disappear. Doesn’t really matter.. when you do the other end, make sure they taper thin enough that they don’t contact the skin on the other side of the surface and cause a bump!
 
Last edited:
I was in the same mindset as you….on my rudder I left the notch but smoothed them out on the edges of the notch completely to leave the notch edges smooth. On the elevator the instructions say to completely remove the notch so I did that much like your blue line on the sander first then finishing up on the 3 m wheel. Either way you are safe….personally from now on the notch is going away for me.
 

Attachments

  • EB2693B9-223E-4AC9-8341-88FFEF138130.jpeg
    EB2693B9-223E-4AC9-8341-88FFEF138130.jpeg
    515.1 KB · Views: 62
  • 058A0C32-0D83-455F-B4E2-5F3D9A499C44.jpeg
    058A0C32-0D83-455F-B4E2-5F3D9A499C44.jpeg
    426.2 KB · Views: 43
Back
Top