There are lots of times when you can use a nice scraper in the shop. They are great for removing sticky labels, cleaning up paint, or even removing laser-splattered prepunched holes in thick aluminum stock. The problem with using any blade on aluminum, however, is that the sharp corners of a single-edge razor blade will leave scratches. But not if you take a few seconds to round them off on your grinding wheel. Use real light pressure and just a few touches. Now your blade will be effective and not leave marks in your work! We like to use the little clamp handles you can buy at Harbor Freight to hold the blades, by the way. They’re cheap and much easier to use than a bare blade.
In Case You Missed It
The Dawn Patrol
Dick Starks - 0
Hummel UltraCruiser builder Dennis Brooks came to Liberty Landing looking for a place to store his airplane, and left with some new friends and a test flight courtesy of The Dawn Patrol.
Effect of Propeller RPM on Speed, Efficiency, Noise, and Vibration
Getting better performance from a constant-speed prop.
Build it Better
Paul Dye has used his engineering discipline to jot down his thoughts on the many lessons learned as we gain experience as pilots and builders. His goal, and ours, is to leverage the tribal knowledge of longtime builders such as Dye to get you thinking about Experimental aircraft on a higher level. Not simply nuts and bolts, but larger concepts centering on safety and self-discipline. We hope you enjoy this series.