Rudder Styrofoam

One inch wide strips of Dow Styrofoam are required for the rudder. There are many ways to cut it (e.g., hot wire, various saws and knives), but I chose the easiest considering what I had on hand: a thin, break-away blade cutter. This method produced no mess and avoided a potential ventilation issue, too.

I found the best method was to be patient and start with the blade extended out only about 1/2", taking three or four increasingly deep cuts till I reached the underlying cardboard protecting my work surface. The final cuts required the extended blade to be less supported by its handle, so slowing down prevented chip-outs and errant cuts.

1" Thick Foam, Drywall Square and Cutter.

Foam Strips Ready for Final Sizing

With some small foam scraps, I experimented with filing and sanding to get the contour for the 1" Rudder Tube. After some trial and error, the best approach was to cut a small 'V' on the end of the foam then use some 80-100 grit garnet paper wrapper around a piece of scrap 1" tubing to get to the desired final shape.

Note: the two 24" x 48" tables above had to be leveled to fit together for a suitably long work surface. My basement and garage floors are very uneven. I found a YouTube video that had a variation on what I ended up doing. I used an old (as in early 1990's-old) 2" x 10" waterbed frame board to cut out 7" diameter circles. Next I attached them to the table legs with 3/8" x 3" long hex head bolts and tee nuts. I offset the hole in the 'wheel,' about 2" off the outer circumference,  to provide an eccentric movement, giving me lots of room to play with for leveling:

Rudder Frame Taking Shape

Taped a multi-drawing, 1-to-1 scale paper template to the tabletop again for the bottom trailing edge rudder tube bending (removed in picture below). Next, took advantage of the square, flat, straight-edged table top to align the two trailing edge tubes. This allowed me to cut the lower half of the trailing edge tube to final length for the rear edge splice (just to the right of the B4T1 drawing), and measure the angled cut where the tube joins the bottom of the torque tube.

...need a bigger table?

Rudder Tube Bending

After some small bit of trepidation, I determined to do something I have little experience with; tube bending. I started by making a 1-to-1 scale model in SketchUp (imported the Sandlin plan drawing, B4T1, then scaled it) and printing it out on multiple sheets. Masking tape held the sheets in place to act as a bending guide. Next, two scraps of wood, drywall screwed to the sacrificial table surface, acted as the bender:

Trial and error...

The top half of the rudder trailing edge tube.

Now, more printouts for the bottom part of the rudder trailing edge tube and repeat the process. Finally, I'll be joining the two somewhere in the vertical section.