Well, while im waiting on my motor from tower, i was getting the tail feathers glued up. The problem i have is in the elevator, it wasnt flat, it had a slight bow to it, but i thought i could take care of that with the metal hardware that holds the elevator halfs togather. That worke, but i was so worried that it wouldnt be flat, that i somehow forgot to make sure the hinging edge was straight. So when i came down 30 minutes later and removed the part from my press, the damn thing is not even close to having a straght hinging edge. I will get some pitures up after work here. But if anyone knows what im talking about, and has an idea of how to fix it lemme know. thanks.

Ok, leeme see if I got this right...

The two elevators are joined by a "U" shaped piece of metal, right?

And are you saying that the two elevators are not lining up with the TE of the Stab?

If so, you should be able to carefully bend the joiner so that they line up correctly.

You are correct, thats exactly what is wrong. And i did think that bending the U shaped wire would be the way to go... But its not going to be easy, since i epoxied, and glassed the U shaped connector like that... Ill pos a couple pictues here any how, so you can see it. Thanks again, and if you have a specific idea on how to bend that without breaking the elevator, feel free to let me know.

Yea, post a pic. It seems to me that you could just bend the wire, unless I'm missing something

If you take your heat gun to the metal U joiner, you should be able to melt the epoxy enough to remove the joiner. Rebend it to the proper angle and reglue.

If you apply enough heat to "melt " epoxy, be prepared for a recovering job on the elevator as well.

theres a picture of the gap i have, and theres not much there to grip with anything to bend it

I'm sure that you'll be able to bend it if you take your time and be very careful. I would brace the rear center of the joiner wire against something vertical and stationary then evenly apply pressure to the outside-front of the wire (both ends at the same time).

Use needle nose grips to hold the center of the wire joiner and push on the front of the wire to bend it backwards.

Be wery, wery careful.

To expand on what ChuckW said, Pound a nail into your workbench (If you don't want to put a nail hole in your workbench, use your wife's Dining Room table) Place the elevators with the nail in the center and pull back on the two ends (See pic)

You might considert taking a stright edge and a knife to the leading edge of the elevator.


Bending steel vs. trimming balsa. I'll take trimming balsa.

Hell no. It will take 2 seconds to straighten that out as opposed to all of the sanding required to even out the wood. Not to mention all of the possibilities of screwing it up.

Just bend the metal rod, it's not like you need to be Superman. Geeze, it's only a little piece of wire, not a steal girder.

Heck, find a nail on the wall in the basement and lay that steel straight edge across the top (hinge line) and pull down gently on either side with the nail in the "V". You'll probably have to deflect it slightly past flush to get it to end up flush. If you're worrying about collapsing the "U" channel (I would) wrap a finishing nail in the channel first with wire for as far as you can across the gap. It will keep it from buckling. Go slow or you'll pop the channel out of the epoxy.

Heck, that big a gap is within my acceptable building tolerances. The hinges will pull it up flush when you glue them in if you press the edges together.

Thanks for all the great replys, im gonna give fixing it a shot after i get home from the run around... Kids confrences this afternoon, fun fun. Ill post pictures of the sucess of the fixing, i hope.