If you are building the rudder assembly from the Kit, be aware that the spacers for the rudder housing and the rudder itself are the same thickness of plywood. If you assemble them, according to the manual, the rudder will be too thick to fit in the rudder housing.
Pre-check the fit before you add the fiberglass, epoxy and paint to both pieces.
I am in the process today of using a router to plane down the rudder by 3/16+ to fit in the housing.
Thanks for the heads up. I won’t be there for quite some time, but I’ll put some notes in the margin.
So I am finally at this stage of the build. I’ve not completely closed up the rudder case yet, nor have I finished shaping and 'glassing the rudder. In dry fitting the parts together it is obvious that the rudder will barely go into the case once fiberglassed, and will probably have too much friction to operate. I am a little surprised the manual makes no mention of this as it seems rather important. I guess that when I shape the rudder, I should take a couple sixteenths off the thickeness of the portion that lives in the case. Anyway, thanks for bringing it up.
Aaron,
I would take at least 3/16" off. I used a router with a 1 1/2" bit, sitting on two rails over the rudder. Worked pretty well with a sand after. The fabric, epoxy and paint add up pretty quickly and it’s a pain to do it later like I did.
Goodluck!
Thanks @John_Shafer did you remove material from the whole rudder on just one side, or did you do just the part inside of the case and remove material from both sides? 3 16ths would remove the veneer and then some from one side unless I am misunderstanding the material. I’m not at home right now to look at it.
I took it off one side, since I had already finished the rudder.
