Odd and Ends

I went out and bought a few things I'll need for composite work. Some rotary cutting discs and a carbide cutter for my Dremel tool. Also a cordless Ryobi oscillating tool that uses the same battery packs as my other Ryobi tools. I've got a fair amount of trimming to do on the lower rudder fairing and I wanted to insure I had the needed tools. I removed the rudder from the vertical stab and replaced the center rod end bearing that was just a hair too short. The new one is longer and I'm now have full thread engagement along the entire nut plate. I also needed to torque the jam nuts on all 3 rod ends. My flare nut claws foot was too thick to fit over the rod end thread due to bearing interference. So I modified it with the Scotchbrite disc on my bench grinder to thin it out. It took awhile since it was tool steel and got quite hot during grinding. But after reducing its thickness by approx .100" it would fit in place and I could torque the thin jam nuts per AC43.13. I needed to use caution as protruding rivet heads prevent the claw foot from seating fully on the thin AN316-6R nuts. My last chore was creating a fixture to securely hold my rudder upright while I work on the fairing. I pieced together some scrap lumber and old towels for padding for an acceptable solution.