A little progress XL H-58

[Kamcoman77]

Wow, 1/4" hinge pins. I'll bet they are super strong. Leonard must have changed the dimensions just after I bought my plans. My H-51 plans show 3/16" hinge pins.

[jrbirdman47]

Who needs flutes, Chuck? As Ty Webb so eloquently stated in Caddy Shack: "A flute without holes is not a flute. A doughnut without a hole is a danish."
Looking good there! I always lament that after it is all assembled, those who see it will never understand the amount of thought, sweat, and effort involved in making what they see as a finished product. After all, it's just a small airplane, right?

[Chuck in Indiana]

^^^^ Even the "insert tab A into slot B, bend over and drive a rivet"  kits are a huge undertaking, but building *every* part of even a small wood, steel, fabric covered airplane is another level. That's fine. As I mentioned before, I was looking for something to do during this pandemic.

[scottiniowa]

  Fortunately, I could run a 3/4" end mill through the big diameter. It's at least big enough if you don't have that capability that you can use a die grinder or Dremel to remove the excess.

Comma but.
What about that 1/4" diameter? Don't even think about using a drill. A 1/4" chucking reamer will follow a hole, remove the excess, not grab, etc 

 

Having made dozens of hinge type pieces before, I would like to say, that using reamers for similar holes, we can very often get a .742" then .746" and finally a .750" reamer to do the job.  And do so in lengths of 5-6" (length of reamer)  Same for the small side of things. 

Any holes drilled are done in the large pieces, then the pieces are cut for even sizes (yes this take a little pre-planning but worth it) 

This really works well for the butterfly or bird wing hinges (what ever you want to call them). You get a great deal of hinge pieces for the little bit of work required.  With little practice you can get that perfect fillet weld between large and small tube.  I will try to include a cad diagram showing the latter style hinge.
Best of success.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Here's another "gotcha" for the unaware like me.  Early in the project, I made up most of the little pieces so I'd have them instead of stopping construction to make them. Thoughtlessly, I just scaled the lightening hole locations in the rudder horn and cut them. Not good..anyone need a useless cnc machined rudder horn?

Here's where they should go..

Segment of the rib in blue, 1/2" angles in green. Ordered a piece of 6061T6 from McMaster-Carr aircraft supply for considerably less than ACS.. it will be here tomorrow.
Here's the vertical stab with beefed up 4130 leading edge and bottom rib. Hinges will be located and riveted in assembly.

Another small bite..

[Chuck in Indiana]

Vertical stab and rudder hinged and ready to mount on the non existent fuselage. 

Wow, 1/4" hinge pins. I'll bet they are super strong. Leonard must have changed the dimensions just after I bought my plans. My H-51 plans show 3/16" hinge pins.

Yeah, I made an executive decision. The plans call for 3/16" on all but the bottom of the rudder. I just made them all 1/4.
If someone is ordering stuff, I used up the 150 1/8" rivets called for in the materials list on this assembly. Fortunately, I have a few left over from an industrial job 20 some years ago..   

[Chuck in Indiana]

I've found that a pair of needle nose vise grips are just the ticket for holding gussets against the 3/8" trailing edges.

Weighed the first elevator half just for grins, and it weighs 15 1/2 ounces.
Second one in the jig.

[Theodore]

mine are half the width of these(edge that covering is bonded to)
ohmy
Remaking these today, visiting hanger shop that has shear and borrowing a harbor freight brake.
no rivet yet, undecided which ones to use. I have the ones that came from the home center(aluminum) or the ones that came
with the John Bolding kit.
also planning to buy or borrow some clecos(was going to use nails)
Thanks for the guidance here

[Chuck in Indiana]

Yeah, Leonard calls for 1/4" flanges on the ribs, but FAA 4313 gives a minimum edge distance of 1/4" from the c/l of the rivet. Because of that, I went with 1/2" flanges. That also means I had to order more aluminum..  his material list is a very minimum. Another 24X24 inch piece will do it if someone decides to go that way.

[Kamcoman77]

I made my rib flanges wider, too. To make them a little stiffer, I bent about 1/8" of the outside edge downward 20° or 30° to form a modified "C" section. It's hard to see in the photo, but these rib edges are slightly bent down. The bent down edge does not touch the fabric if I'm careful not to put glue on that part of the ribs when covering.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Very nice. Much more elegant than what I did.. (Where's that thumbs up emoji?) 

[Chuck in Indiana]

Typical method of jigging a stabilizer half. Naturally, a guy would want both sides to be sort of the same  especially the ends of the tubing so they will assemble easily.

[Kamcoman77]

Very nice work. Your photos should be very helpful to future builders.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Very nice work. Your photos should be very helpful to future builders.

Thanks, of course that's the plan. 
Here's the stab and elevators. I'll wait until making the pieces that join them before locating the hinges. I *almost* forgot to slide them on the spar before riveting..  

[jrbirdman47]

"I *almost* forgot to slide them on the spar before riveting.."

Any job worth doing is worth doing twice