Over the last week there has been a growing amount of online drama around the quality of parts produced by Vans using laser cutting processes. Although preliminary guidance has been given, I've decided to wait on performing the final few steps of closing up the rudder since those would make further inspections or repairs more difficult if needed. I will probably wait at least until after Oshkosh before I get back to working on the rudder, and there will hopefully be more finalized official guidance by then.
However, I have already looked very carefully under magnification at the rudder spar (the part of highest priority concern) and haven't been able to observe any cracking around the dimpled holes there yet. Unfortunately, I don't have photos to confirm whether or not the rudder spar originally came with blue vinyl plastic or not (which would indicate whether it was punched press and not laser cut). I'll also need to look more carefully at the other parts I've already built and moved to the hangar (wings, fuel tanks, ailerons, flaps, vertical stabilizer) to identify whether any of them have cracking.
I did use my 3D printer to produce bending templates that will eventually be used when I do finally curl the leading edges of the rudder in the future. The designs for these templates were available in the VAF forum and I just had to convert to STL and re-scale due to inches/millimeters differences.
The next part that I could work on will be horizontal stabilizer, so I got to work identifying all of the parts from my storage shelves and setting them out. Fortunately all of the h-stab parts except for one (HS-00916, stringer web) appear to be manufactured on punch press and not laser cut. That one laser-cut part does have some minor hole roughness, but I think I can clean it up with my deburring tool, plus it appears to be a part that is currently classified as a "third-priority concern" part.
What's next? Start prepping these h-stab parts, and maybe auditing some of the other parts that are on my shelves for laser-cut concerns. I will also need to begin packing for my trip to Oshkosh next week.