Trimming Stabilator Ribs – The Guessing Game

The plans call for filing a radius on all the HS-1204 and HS-1205 ribs. Unfortunately, the drawing the plans refer to is a side view … so there is lots of room for interpretation. It would truly be much more helpful if the amount of material required to be removed were shown as a top view so a builder can see the suggested radius.

Based on the amount of material removed from the ribs in the vertical stabilator that required trimming and a quick look at a couple of other builder sites I chose to use a water bottle cap to mark the radius of the cut. Instead of filing, I just used the left & right hand metal snips I have and then smoothed the cut with a Scotch-brite wheel. It looks to be about the right amount to cut off based on the builder sites I visited, but won’t really know until after a trial fit.  If more needs to be trimmed …  I’ll make note of it here.

                                                  Trimming the HS-1204 and HS-1205 ribs with metal snips.

                             Left to right - Cut and uncut HS-1205 and uncut and cut HS-1204 ribs. A water bottle cap was
                             used to draw the radius and left and right hand metal snips were used to cut the material.

                                                         Using the Scotch-brite wheel to smooth the cuts.

                                       Finished ribs after using a small diamond file to smooth the inside edges.