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Edit: (I just noticed my phone auto corrected "Preforming to Performing" and of course I can't correct it!!! Sigh...
I guess i'm just in a posting mood tonight of "how too's" or more like "how I" did something. With the knowledge that there are very few on here building aluminum ailerons from scratch there may be a few that will install aluminum leading edge on to their plane. If so you will need to preform a radius into the leading edge. This is how I did it for my leading edges of my ailerons. There are other sources that show how to do this with a vacuum but with my small leading edges by the time I got something to seal it could have just done it the way I did with brute force.
First thing you need to figure out is the the ending radius you will need. Next you need to figure out what smaller radius you will need to form around to get that radius after it springs back some. I found through some trial and error that a 7/8" diameter tube worked for me by forming small pieces of scrap around it.
Next i got the length of tube I needed and drilled to vertical holes exactly on a centerline of the tube so I got exactly the tangent the sheet at the centerline on my leading edge. Then I screwed two screws through the tube and sheet into my table ( I didn't need all the sheet so I didn't care if I had some holes on either side) you do need to go thru the sheet to to keep the tube right on the center line of the leading edge.
Then I used some cheap fairing strip to keep the straight areas of the edges when I pulled up on them. I used some small clamps to keep them there while I pulled hard on the strong sheet. Then I pulled hard on one end to get my larger clamps on working down the leading edge with several clamps. I slowly worked the clamps close so that the edges meet perfectly. I the squeezed hard on the clamps to set the radius. Slowly remove the clamps as there still is a bit of potential energy there. And there you have it a formed leading edge.
I guess i'm just in a posting mood tonight of "how too's" or more like "how I" did something. With the knowledge that there are very few on here building aluminum ailerons from scratch there may be a few that will install aluminum leading edge on to their plane. If so you will need to preform a radius into the leading edge. This is how I did it for my leading edges of my ailerons. There are other sources that show how to do this with a vacuum but with my small leading edges by the time I got something to seal it could have just done it the way I did with brute force.
First thing you need to figure out is the the ending radius you will need. Next you need to figure out what smaller radius you will need to form around to get that radius after it springs back some. I found through some trial and error that a 7/8" diameter tube worked for me by forming small pieces of scrap around it.
Next i got the length of tube I needed and drilled to vertical holes exactly on a centerline of the tube so I got exactly the tangent the sheet at the centerline on my leading edge. Then I screwed two screws through the tube and sheet into my table ( I didn't need all the sheet so I didn't care if I had some holes on either side) you do need to go thru the sheet to to keep the tube right on the center line of the leading edge.
Then I used some cheap fairing strip to keep the straight areas of the edges when I pulled up on them. I used some small clamps to keep them there while I pulled hard on the strong sheet. Then I pulled hard on one end to get my larger clamps on working down the leading edge with several clamps. I slowly worked the clamps close so that the edges meet perfectly. I the squeezed hard on the clamps to set the radius. Slowly remove the clamps as there still is a bit of potential energy there. And there you have it a formed leading edge.
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