Today I drilled a series of 1 mm holes through the rudder post for the lower rudder hinge. Turning a series of holes into a nice neat sawn line required a bit of head scratching. I ended up taking this old saber saw blade in my hand and very gently pulling it from hole to hole, back and forth till I had a shallow trench in the rudder post. This particular blade just happened to be the exact same width as the hinge. I sawed very gently for quite some time and the trench turned into a cut. Eventually the saw blade came out the bottom of the wood and the rest was easy. Happy to say I was able to attain an absolutely perfect fit! The hinge fits so snugly that I actually had to tap it gently with a rubber mallet to push it through the slot.
I initially held the saber saw blade in my hand but this was very uncomfortable so I converted a piece of scrap into a quick and dirty handle in about five minutes. This made the job much easier.
The AN hardware fits very snugly but without issues. I put the bolts in just to make sure that they would go all the way through. They fit snug enough that I actually had to turn them in with a screw driver.
I think I should probably paint these hinges before putting them into the post for good. I was considering using POR 15. That stuff is amazing.
