Stephan's Sonex #1627 Builder's Log

I got tied up with a project for work so I didn't get as much building time in over the past few weeks. Thankfully, the project is wrapping up so I will be able to spend more time in the coming weeks.

I worked on the cutting the left and right elevators to size. I've started using a wood-working iron to cut the plastic protective covering. I had been using a utility knife, but it always left some scratches on the metal skin which then have to be polished back out later. The iron worked well and gave nice and clean cuts of the material without any scratches.

I started by marking up the skins with all the cut lines. I used the finished elevator root assembly to confirm the orientation before cutting. It's easy to make a mistake here and make the angled cut in the wrong direction. I used the Dremel Saw-Max to make the initial cut. It worked reasonably well, but it does seem to heat up the material quite a bit, as the protective covering turned brown close to the cut line. I used a Scotch-brite wheel to take most of the excess material off and then used a vixen file to get me to the cut line.

Next, I will have to mark and drill the pilot holes for the end ribs, center ribs and root assembly.