This took about 3 days.. yes all I have done is cut the rudders out… well not even all the way through but the cuts are done.

I spent quite a bit of time practicing on a test piece I made trying different saws and ways to cut straight. I ended up with a new tool. The hot glue gun! How did I ever get this far without it? I played for a while a learned how to get the glue off without damaging things and practiced setting it up.

I went for an aluminium angle iron guide hot glued to the part. Oh and I spent hours too marking out the rudders and making a few decisions. The angles are per my previous log entry. See pic 1. I went for 3″ extra rudder length and then reduced that slightly with a cut line that should match the airflow in flight and the bottom of the lower winglet.

I tried quite a few small saws I had from guitar making days and bought some new ones from a hobby shop and modified the one in the pic slightly. The first cut took over 90 minutes. By the 3rd cut I had sorted out which saw worked and a technique to make it cut the rudder length in about 10 minutes. The results are gun barrel straight and very thin cut lines. I’ll have to widen them! Doing straight accurate cuts has been a concern for some time but no longer! I’ll have ailerons for breakfast now I’ve cut the rudders. I’m mainly grabbing the blade and driving that straight while pressing firmly on the aluminium angle and pulling it from the tip back so it digs into the glass slightly. The handle doesn’t get a lot of use.

There is still a bit to do before separating them from the winglet. See the next log… it might be setting up hinges…

Top cut placements

Hobby saw at work

Saw and guide