I finally learned, if at all possible, it is much easier to do hinge slots before building the control surface. Once I got all the rudder and fin parts and pieces cut and sanded to length I set up my small drill press with a piece of aluminum bar clamped to the table as a jig to hold center spacing for drilling .050” holes in the 3/8 square stock. I drilled were the hinges will be… spacing my holes about 1 1/2 times the diameter of the bit. I then used the trust worthy ole hinge slotting tool to finish the slots off. Drilling the holes took more time but it made the job with the slotting tool so much easier. All in all I am sure I saved time and the quality is much improved. If there is a better way I sure hope to learn it soon.

Now, for the bevels on the hinge line of the fin and rudder. I am sure these are not scale. But, the sure look nice when finished. The bevels are 17 1/2 ° per side per rudder and fin. This will give me a max of 35° rudder travel in each direction.

You will not find this set-up for the table saw in any textbook. You must be really careful and you must be confident with your table saw to be doing this. I little hobby type table saw would be much better. My problem was the slot for the blade is much too big for working with 3/8 stock.

Picture
1drill press set up
2&3-table saw set-up
4&5 bevels for the hinge surface
6&7-hinge slots