RE: Composite-ARF Integral, kinda build thread
I reported in an earlier post that my stab was off at the tip about 3 mm relative to the wing on one side, and in an even earlier post I reported that the first Integral that I had didn't track well, and that it would never come out straight from any maneouver where I pushed or pulled.
Well, I figured out what the problem was. It turns out that on my first Integral the stab tube was loose in the the tube that's embedded in the rear of the fuselage, so what I did was use some CA and CA kicker to build up the edges of the tube in the fuse bit by bit until the stab was nice and tight, and also properly aligned with the wing, and it fixed the problem entirely.
On my second integral, the stab tube was tight, but it was misaligned with the wing. What I found was that what was making it tight was epoxy that had squeezed out when the tube was glued into the fuse, creating a little lip on each side that was holding the stab tube in place. I took a tapered reamer, and removed this lip on both sides, which made the stab tube loose like on my first Integral. Then I used the same trick with CA to tighten it back up, but this time aligned with the wing, and everything worked fine.
So, if anyone else has the same problems, either with a loose stab, or with a misaligned stab, they can use they same tricks to fix it. Just make sure you use the CA kicker before you put the stab tube back in the fuse, because if the CA hasn't cured properly, you run the risk of CAing your stab tube into the fuse.