Bending Horizontal Stabilizer Front Spar

[chris]

This seems like one of the tricky parts when building the tail so I thought I would show the way I did it.

I used the harbor freight arbor press method.

Materials list:
1. Arbor press
2. 1" diameter steel rod
3. 2x4 V block. (I would make the V a wider angle if doing it again. I just went as far as my table saw would let me with minimal effort)
4. Tape
5. Aluminum angle that you've spent the hours for half of a full work week carefully shaping. Maybe a slight exaggeration but it was a pain.

Steps:
1. Measure and mark the center line for the steel rod.
2. Apply tape to help keep it aligned
3. Align the center line of the bend radius to the center of the V block
4. Apply more tape to keep everything centered on the V block.
5. Press away but try not to over do it. Check the angle periodically when you get close. I find that its much easier to add more bend to an under bent piece than to try to correct one that has been bent too far.

[rizzz]

I did not have a press so I just did it in my vice (I have a pretty good quality vice).