Tailfeathers Cont...

Now that the bushings are made I needed to hold them in position while I welded them. This is not easy to do by clamps etc. because the bushings need to be spaced a little from the tubes to allow for fabric and paint and still allow the elevator to pivot. On the Super Cub tail, Piper calls for 1/16" gap to be filled by weld material. These is easily accomplished by a simple jig made by drilling 3 holes in some pieces of plywood and trimming them with the bandsaw. Here is a pdf file with the layout of this simple jig: Piper Hinge Jig. I need to give proper credit, this came from Christian Sturm's excellent site  detailing his build of a scratch built Super Cub. Lots of good info there. www.supercubproject.com

Pretty simple to use...I made mine from plywood so they char a little. I tacked the bushings with heavy tacks using my MIG welder and finished with my Meco Midget Torch.

After building these hinges I found what I think would be a much better way. I don't have much experience building hinges like this i.e. Piper type with hinge pins, I've always used the Pitts style which tucks the elevator stab in much closer to the horizontal stab. Here are a couple of pics that a gentleman used for his Skybolt project. I may use this method for the vertical stab and rudder.He has some good construction pictures which are applicable to any steel tube welded fuselage at: http://www.captalrice.com/Skybolt.htm

Here I am welding up the "ribs" on the stabilizer.

So here is the elevator spar attached...next will be the rest of the elevator.