Continuing on from where we left off we need to round off the leading edges of our tail surfaces. Spending a little time here to get these well rounded off will pay off when it comes time to cover the plane. The curved lines really help make a plane look good!!!

I've noticed in the almost 10 years that I've been in this hobby that there are a lot of tools out there, and every one of them claims to make something easy to do. In this case I am referring to the many “contour” sanders that are out there. The one in picture #1 has 3 different contours on it, a small radius, a large radius, and a 45 degree contour. While in principal this would look like it's a great tool and would save you lots of work. I'm not saying this isn't true, but in my experiences this tool wasn't worth the money. In picture #2 you can see trying to use the small radius to round off the leading edges or our stabilizer. In practice I found using this tool very difficult. First off, if the radius of your work doesn't match up with the radius of the contour of the tool you run the risk of “gouging” out grooves with the edge of the contour. Also, I found it very difficult to get sandpaper to adhere to the inside of the small contour. I've tried several different things including adhesive backed sandpaper and by spraying 3M 77 adhesive on the sandpaper, but I still couldn't keep the paper stuck in place. So if this tool is no good, what do I use to round off the leading edge?? A good old flat sanding block and piece of sanding paper is what I use. This is where that centerline we drew earlier comes into play. It will give us a guide to use as we start sanding down the leading edge (picture #3). In picture #4 you can see that I've started to “round off” the edge of our work area. In picture #5 you can see that I continue working to round off the edge. Looking at picture # 6 you can see that the rounded off area leads right up to the centerline that we drew earlier. Now turn your work piece around and do the other side the same way. Now it's time to use a good old fashion piece of sandpaper. Here I'm going to use 150 grit paper (pictures #7 and #8). Wrap the paper around the “rounded edges” that we should have by now and finish sand the edges round (picture #9). Work the entire length of the leading edge this way. At the corners you want to round them off into a smooth bend (picture #10). Make sure that you round off the edges of the elevator and rudder to match the mating surface (pictures #11 and #12). There you have it. So some it may seem that using a contour sander would be quicker to do, but not for me. I can round off the leading edges by hand quicker than most using a contour sander can do it in. Also, I don't like using electric sanders to round off the edges either. Why? Because electric sanders can eat up a bunch of balsa wood in a hurry if you aren't careful, and because of that I prefer to to it by hand so I can have better control over the progress of my work.

If you haven't done it yet, go ahead and round off the leading edges of both stabilizers.

Pictures
1. Commercially made contour sanders are available.
2. Using a contour sander to round off the leading edge.
3. When rounding off by hand start off with a centerline of the leading edge
4. Start working on one side and round off towards the centerline.
5. Start working on one side and round off towards the centerline.
6. Once side of the leading edge rounded off.
7. Use 150 grit sanding paper to finish rounding off the area.
8. Use 150 grit sanding paper to finish rounding off the area.
9. Use the sanding paper to complete the rounding off of the leading edge.
10. Make sure you round off the corners of your piece.
11. Round off the edges of the elevator and rudder to match the mounting surface
12. Round off the edges of the elevator and rudder to match the mounting surface

Until next time

Ken