230 hours on the hobbs. Bent the rudder trailing edge today!

After literally weeks of fretting over everything that needed to be done to ensure that the bending of the trailing edge of the rudder was completed correctly, I am happy to report that with additional assistance and info provided by Steve Riffe, and personal assistance from another fellow RV 8  builder Bob Markert and his wife Mary, the rudder has finally been bent successfully.

The sequence of events over the past week was basically:
1. Secured the bending brake to the work bench by screwing it down onto te bench from underneath. The clamps are simply holding one of my flat boards on top of the brake after I had screwed it down on the bench So that I had a place to set the rudder to keep it flat. Don't be confused by this pic - the clamps have nothing to do with the bending brake, since it has already been screwed down from underneath, as the next pic shows.

2. Removed additional vinyl covering and prepared Leading Edge surfaces for primer. This was somwhat problematic for me because none of the holes in the leading edge have been drilled yet since the trailing edge has not been bent into its final position. It is almost pointless to prime a surface if you are going to have to remove material and then re-prime it later, so I did some more masking and scuffing in areas that would be difficult to get to after the rudder is bent, and will wait until later to apply the primer. This process took quite a bit of time to work through last week. I also needed to remove the vinyl from the outer TE of the rudder before performing the bend, and also from the inside as well. Make sure you do this, otherwise the vinyl may interfere with correctly bending the aluminum.

3. Decided to empty the work bench and move it away from the wall so that it would be easier to view the edges of the rudder while it was being bent. Man is there a lot of stuff under there! I was able to do some early spring cleaning after moving the bench, and take inventory of all my spare wood and other items, so it was good to do this for several other easons as well.

4. Had to fabricate a bunch of parts out of stock aluminum sheet per the plans- namely the two metal attach strips for the bottom fiberglass fairing of the rudder, a spacer or shim for the steering support assembly that attaches to the bottom of the front spar, and the support bracket that basically acts like a truss to strengthen the forward spar and the bottom rib where all the rudder cables will be attached. This area needs additional support, so it is beefed up quite a bit to handle the forces and loads that will be experienced when applying the push/pull action of the rudder pedals. This will happen mostly during takeoff, landing, and during ground handling maneuvers like taxiing, etc.

3. Was able to get hold of Bob Markert today who graciously show up this afternoon to help me bend the rudder. I learned that when he did his, they had attended a builders workshop in Atlanta, which was desiged to get all the tail parts completed in a very short, assembly line fashion, with lots of help. He told me that everything that happened during that workshop was basically a blur, but he did recall some valuable information about the bending process. They used two people to control the brake, while others checked the edges to make sure everything stayed in place during the bend. As I suspected, consistent, slow pressure was applied during the bend. The bend was stopped prior to the end point and checked to make sure everything was OK, and then finished up.
4. I chose to Duct Tape edges of the rudder to prevent them from moving freely. I also added a 2x4 to the forward section of the rudder to help support it, since the back part is the only part of the rudder skin that is being supported after inserting it into the short 2x8 space of the bending brake. Another block was added next to the break to support the top part of the rudder skin, which is at an angle to the rest of the rudder while inserted into the bending brake.
5. The only thing in question at this point was if I was going to flip the rudder to complete the bend, which is what Steve did to his. Bob told me that they did not flip the rudder when they did his. So, command decision time - we would bend it and check everything after about half way there, and make the decision to flip it or not at that time. After the preliminary bend check, I decided that everything looked fine as is, and so I finished the bend without flipping the rudder over.

Long story short, I butted the traling edge of the rudder up against the hinges just as both Steve and Bob had done with theirs, I taped down the edges to kepp them from moving freely, supported the forward section of the skin so it would not influence the rudder TE to move out of position, and then we did the deed. Slow equal pressure was applied, with me on one side and Bob on the other side of the brake. We went a bit more than half way before we stopped. The entire edge appeared to have "moved" out from the hinge line about an eight of an inch or so, but we reasoned that this was simply due to the act of the forcing the metal to bend over, and decided that this was not hurting anything. So we got back on the brake and continued for the last couple of inches.

A word to those that are going to try this for the first time just I have - The first part of the bend goes pretty easily, but the last part of the bend does take considerable pressure to finish up those last couple of inches. As you can tell from past pics of myself, I am NOT what you would consider to be a "light" or small person. I had to basically put both forearms on the brake, and was also leaning over the top of it to finish the bend. I also felt the point where the stiffeners were just starting to bottom out, and the skin would not move any further. Time to stop bending at that point!

End result was that we may have over bent the rudder just a smidge, but the edge came out quite crisp and very straight. Bob even told me that it was better than his turned out, which made me feel pretty good.  I could not wait to finish prepping the top and bottom ribs, and I just had to cleco everything together so that I could apply the straight edge and get an idea for how everything came out. Did I have a bulging TE? Did I bend everything too far? Was the entire TE straight? So much anticipation! Well, I am happy to report that everything seems to have worked out wonderfully.

Radius of the final bend appears to be about the same as Steve's - about 1/8 inch or so.

Below is a pic that shows how the stiffeners align themselves with each other after the rudder is bent into proper shape. Hopefully this makes the reason for the tapered rear edges a bit more clear. The stiffeners partially overlap each other, but not all the way. When the time comes, I will show a similar pic that will show a small dab of RTV sealant placed in between the stiffeners at their closest point to each other at the very back of the rudder. I will use a children's medicine - dispensing syringe to make this as easy and non-messy as possible.

The only thing I noticed was that the TE where the top and bottom ribs attach to the skin seem to cause the TE of the rudder to bulge just a bit. This is a result of the angle of the ribs not quite matching the angle of the skin. the ribs seem to be just a bit fatter at the rib TEs than they should be. I know this because the rest of the skin between the two ribs came out flat as can be. I think that when I finish prepping the ribs and front spar, and straighten all the flanges, that the bulge will be barely noticeable.  On to the next steps! Thanks again to Bob and Mary for the assitance.