This is how I set up to bend the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer. That is an old disc from an airplane that I am using to bend the tubing around. The square tube is that long just because I didn't see any need to cut it and it didn't get in the way.

To bend the leading edge I gradually bent it little by little while holding it down against the jig, then comparing it to the line I had drawn on the template. This technique allowed me to keep the tube flat while bending it.

Here you can see how it is beginning to take shape. Disregard the holes in the board. I thought I had an idea but I didn't.

Both of the leading edges completed. A pretty good matching set. I just need to trim them to the correct length.

To do the elevator trailing edge I just turned the board around and bent the 3/8" tube in the other direction (I did have to move the disc a little closer to the square tubing because of the difference in tubing diameter).

Just me bending the trailing edge. The gloves keep my sweaty hands from causing the steel tubing to rust (and keep my hands clean).

If I got a little too much bend in it I would just place this board between the tubing and the square tube and 'unbend' it a little. Good for making small adjustments.

Both trailing edges done. They just need to be trimmed to length.

This is the beginning of the hinges for the tail group. Two 6" pieces of tubing.

Here are the tubes after being welded together. All that is left to do is to slice it and square the slices up.

This is how the hinges will fit onto the spars of the tail. A clevis pin will be used for a hinge pin. A dremmel tool with a sanding drum works great for cleaning the inside of the large hinge tubes after welding.

Murphy's Law says that if it rains and your roof leaks it will only drip where your steel is. I hate Murphy.

I have clamped the hinges in place while I slide the others around and into the proper location. If I didn't whenever the spar moved all of the hinges moved. In this picture you can also see the 1/4" rod I used to make sure all of the hinges stayed in alignment while welding.

Checking to make sure the horizontal stabilizer spar is oriented vertically so that when I install the rib that covers the end it will be flush.

Here all of the parts (so far) are laid out as they will be when welded together later. The trailing edge is shimmed up to be level with the center of the elevator spar and the hinges are taped in place.

The top of the vertical stabilizer spar (the tail post) gets formed to the stabilizer leading edge to make them blend nicely together after welding.

Here I have adjusted the height of the tail post and marked it after the top has been formed. (Sorry, poor quality picture on big page).

To bend the vertical stabilizer leading edge I made this wooden former because the tubing was smaller and is bent to a smaller radius. I was afraid the tubing would collapse if it didn’t have better support than on the horizontal stabilizer leading edges.

Here I am bending the leading edge to the correct shape. It was a little different because it had bends in two directions. You can see the guide lines (black electrical tape) on the left.

All bent... a pretty good resemblance of what I was trying for.

To draw the curve of the rudder trailing edge I used nails at the dimensions called for in the plans and welding rod which bent smoothly around the nails to form a nice smooth curve. This technique was used for marking all of the curves that I had to bend.

 

Using the same technique as in the other bent parts I bent the trailing edge of the rudder. All that is left is to trim it to proper length.

Here I have clamped the trailing edge to the tail post to check and make sure the shape looked right and to check for any flat spots. The vertical stabilizer leading edge support hasn’t been made yet in this picture.

To make the spar for the rudder I had to flatten both ends to blend them into the 3/8" trailing edge. Fortunately I didn’t forget to put the hinges on the spars before flattening ends out or I would have never gotten them on. (This is one of those hints mentioned above).

Here I have trimmed and fitted the bottom of the rudder spar. I am holding it in place to mark the top to make sure it matches the vertical stabilizer.

The rudder spar and trailing edge ready to tack weld. The trailing edge is shimmed up to make sure it is lined up with the centerline of the spar.

This shows how I shimmed the hinges up to insure they would be centered on the spar.

The vertical stabilizer and rudder after fitting the ribs. All I need to do now is tack weld it then finish weld it together. The square is checking to make sure the ribs are perpendicular to the spars.

Because the top of the tail post and the bottom of the tail post are different diameter tubes you can't make the hinges for it the same as the other tubes. Otherwise there is a 1/16" difference in the centerline of the hinge pins which would probably create binding. Because of that I cut the hinges for the tail post in half before welding and held them in alignment with a 1/4" rod through the pin holes.

This is the beginning of the rear horizontal stabilizer connector tube. The two short tubes are fitted to the aft longerons.

After fitting the short tubes I mounted them on the longerons with the connector tube so I could mark the axis to file the saddles (where the connector tube contacted the short tubes) so the connector tube would be perpendicular to the fuselage centerline (lose anyone?)

Here the connector tube is finish welded on.

This is the trim tab actuator rod arm. To see how I made it click here.

This is the completed trim tab actuator rod bell crank. To see how I made it click here.

This is the rudder horn welded onto the rudder. I ended up taking different steps to come up with the same result as the plans show. To see what I mean click here.

After cutting the servo/trim tab out and installing the piano hinge this is what it looked like. I used nut plates and flat head screws to mount the hinge.

This is the elevator tip after welding the plates on and melting the lead in. To see a few pictures of how I did this click here.

This is the rudder stop. To see the steps taken to make it just click here.

This is what is called the Walking Beam in the Skybolt plans. Basically just a large idler arm. Because of my previous mod it made it pretty easy to install.

This is the stick reverser. To see the slight difference in how I installed it compared to the plans method and why click here.

This is a picture of the servo / trim tab actuator horn. I added a small spacer to the left side of it to keep it from shifting from side to side which will keep the servo tab actuator horns in alignment.

Ok, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I know I am trying to stay as close to the plans as possible but a few things just need changing. I decided to make my pedals adjustable. To see how click here.

After the fact I figured I probably over did it on the fair-leads. The plans only show two per side but for some reason I was thinking every upright got one. So mine did. No chance of my rudder cables ever touching the fuselage! Duuhhh.

At first I was going to mount each fair-lead using this technique. I quickly figured out that it was going to be hard to keep them all in alignment and also parallel this way.

This was the solution to that problem. I just took an old tube and put the fair-lead mount tubes on it. Perfect alignment and exactly parallel.

This is the view down the fair-lead mounts after welding. They seem to be in alignment.