❏
7. Remove the stab from the fuse. Use a sharp #11
hobby knife or use the Expert Tip that follows to cut the
covering from the stab along the lines you marked. Use care
to cut only into the covering and not into the wood.
How to cut covering from balsa.
Use a Hobbico Hot Knife (HCAR0770) or soldering iron to
cut the covering from the stab. The tip of the soldering iron
doesn't have to be sharp, but a fine tip does work best. Allow
the iron to heat fully. Use a straightedge to guide the
soldering iron at a rate that will just melt the covering and not
burn into the wood. The hotter the soldering iron, the faster
it must travel to melt a fine cut. Peel off the covering.
❏
8. The same as you did for the wing, cut the covering from
the hinge slots in the stab and elevators and the fin and rudder.
Be sure to clear out the slot with the back edge of your hobby
knife. There are three slots in the rudder and in both elevators
and two hinge slots in the fin. There is also a hinge slot in the
fuse that aligns with the bottom hinge slot in the rudder.
❏
9. Use six more CA hinges from the CA hinge strip.
Temporarily join the elevators to the stab with the hinges.
❏
10. Position the elevator joiner wire, evenly spaced,
over both elevators as shown in the photo. Mark the ends of
the joiner wire onto the elevators and extend this mark to the
leading edge of the elevators.
❏
11. Drill a 1/8" hole through the LE of both elevators at
the marks you made. Use a Great Planes Groove Tube
™
or
a 1/8" brass tube sharpened on the end to cut a groove in
the LE of the elevators to accommodate the joiner wire. Test
fit the elevators to the stab with the joiner wire. “Tweak” the
joiner wire if necessary to get both elevators even.
❏
12. Remove the elevators and elevator joiner wire from
the stab.
❏
13. Use 30-minute epoxy to glue the stab into the fuse.
For the most strength, apply epoxy to both sides of the stab
and inside the fuse where the stab fits. Slide the stab and
the elevator joiner wire into position. Wipe away residual
epoxy with a tissue dampened with alcohol. If the stab
required a weight on one side or the other to align it with the
fuse, reposition the weight. Use the pin and string to confirm
stab alignment. Allow the epoxy to cure.
12
