Elevator finishing!

 So tonight I was on call for work and could not go to church so I took the time to finish the elevators.  Started by bending and trimming the trim tab hinge pins.  I also drilled the little hole for the safety wire.  The bends turned out nice but I missed the dimensions a little bit.  Oh well this will soon be long forgotten!

 Then I realized I never finished the trim tab cable exit hole closeout covers/cable mount.  So I deburred the covers.

 Then I measured and marked the covers for drilling the cable mounts.  I saw many reports of failures of the mounts supplied by Vans.  While some say that Van's improved the welding on these, I decided to go with the aftermarket ones.  They are made from a solid chunk of aluminum and look much nicer ever though nobody will ever see them.

So then I match drilled the cable mounts to the closeout cover.

 All drilled.

 Then because I plan to use screws to attach them, I upsized the holes to #28 for #6 screws.  I have an assortment of weird cleco's and the green ones work great for #28 holes.

 Next I dimpled all the holes for #6 screws.  This deforms the covers a little bit so I had to work them back to flat by hand.

 Next I countersunk the cable mounts to receive the dimples in the covers.  I ended up breaking the pilot off of my new #28 one hole cutter.  Bummer!  Seven holes and broke.  That is an expensive bit!

 Then I primed the parts.  I did not want these mounts to go unprimed since they are raw aluminum and will be hidden.  I also attached them to the plates using #6 screws.  I read that this is suppose to make my life much easier in the future for installing/maintaining the elevators and trim tabs/cables.

 Then I attached the cover assemblies to the elevators with the called out screws. 

 Next I decided to go ahead and fit the counterweights.

 Vans has you cut the raised portion off of two of the weights.  I used the coarse wood cutting blade that came with my band saw to do this.  It worked great!  Just had to go slow.

 Here are the results from the saw.  Much better than shaving lead with a vixen file!

 Then the directions have you trim the ends of the weights.  The dimensions of the cuts end up tapering and making the weights/hole symmetrical.  Not sure why Van's makes the builder do this because it waste a ton of lead.  Why not just cast them with the correct dimensions?  I imagine they are used on multiple models and there is a reason.....

 Used the band saw to cut them.  Easy peasy and here they are.

 I then mounted them per the directions.  Side one.

 And side two.

 And here they are.  All done with the exception of the fairings.  These things were the most time consuming so far.  Some real brain teasers and tight spaces to work in.  New to me construction techniques and the fact that it has two trim tabs made these much more challenging than the RV-7 elevators.  Glad to finally get them done and move on to the anticipated TAIL CONE!