Get bent!

The next adventure in learning was how to roll and close the rudder leading edge. I bought both 7/8″ and 1″ dowels from Home Depot, not knowing which one would work better. As it turns out, the 1″ dowel is a better choice; following Van’s directions with a smaller diameter dowel leads to a rolled edge that has a lot of curvature toward the front edge, but not enough at the rear edge (next to the spar) to make closing a little easier. I tried moving the dowel a little closer to the spar, but it was tough to get it to stay there. Generally after a couple of bends on each side, the edge was ready for closure.