Hi, I need to cut or sand two angles on my ailerons leading edge. (for proper travel) Is there a tool available to do this? Thanks, Bill

[link=http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXK315&P=ML]Great Planes sanding bar[/link]

There are a lot of "geewhiz" gadgets that have come out to sand these bevels, but the easiest I have ever found is a good ole sanding bar.

Ken

The best trick is to first decide how you want it shaped. Some planes hinge the ailerons on the top edge, which requires a different type of bevel than if it is supposed to be hinged on the centerline. If yours (and I suspect it is) supposed to hinge on the center line of the aileron, first draw a straight line down the aileron on the centerline from one end to the other. Next draw a line to represent the extreme back cut on the top and the bottom. Next, using a sanding bar, remove the material between the line from the top to the centerline. Turn the aileron over and remove the material between the bottom line and the centerline. You should end up with a perfect V shaped aileron leading edge. Remove a little material at a time, and stop to check your progress often. Don't oversand it.

Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1

A great sanding bar can be made from a Belt Sander belt and a 1x4 board. Get a belt and cut it across the splice. Use some carpet tape and tape the stretched out belt to the board. Use a fairly course belt, IE 120 or so. If you would like a finer mesh, you can put it on the reverse side. You can get belts to a very long length, but one that opens to about 24" is usually all you will need. The long length prevents you from rolling the edges much as a 1" stroke will sand the whole length of an aileron on most planes.

Don

I take a marker, darken the whole leading edge and then sand with a bar with the alieron resting on the edge of the table.

Go to your local hobby store and buy triangle stock and glue it to the leading edge of your ailerons. Or to the trailing edge of your wing. Or both.

I mark the center line (thickness-wise) of the aileron, rudder or elevator and then take the measurement of half the thickness and mark it on each side of the control surface, then sand all of the material out between these lines and you get a nice bevel. On one plane i built, I cut a piece of 2x4 at a 45 deg. angle lengthwise and used that as a guide for my sanding bar, it was easy and worked great! The last plane i built, I marked out the measurements and used the sanding bar as Ken noted earlier, turned out good too, but required more work than using the 2x4 guide.

I scribe the centerline with a hinge centerline marking tool then sand by eye with a nice long aluminum sanding block. If you go slow and have good light, it's not that difficult. Though, on future builds, I may think of some way to make it easier to be more accurate.

EDIT: This is the hinge marking tool I use... http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXK262&P=0
There's other ways to mark a centerline, but this thing makes it so darn easy.