I have made up the centering rings on my ring cutting jig. I made up about 8 rings and 4 bulkheads and two coupler bulkheads for the electronics bay. I made them all out of 3/16th's inch plywood that I had left over from other projects. The fins were also made out of 1/4 inch plywood as well. I plan on vacuum bagging all the fins. Once I got the booster fin template for the fins I started cutting out the fins on the table saw for the rough shape. Using the jig saw I trimmed up the edges so they were close. Next I clamped all the fins together using scrap wood on the clamp surfaces to keep from marring the fins so I could sand them all at the same time. Using a borrowed belt sander with 80 grit paper and my vise (again notice the scrap wood in the vise to help not mar the fin material), I sanded all the sides rotating the set of fins for each angle so they would all be even. Then I did the same for the upper stage set of fins. Now all the fins are the same size and shape. Next with a suggestion from Jerry O'Sullivan I built a fin fence. This allows me to use my table saw to cut the fin bevels quickly. I first set the saw blade at a 45 degree angle. Next using the same thickness scrap wood and the fence jig, I used it to set the fence from the blade distance which ended up being set at 3/4 of an inch for 1/4 inch fins. Once this was set I was ready to go. Setting the fin flush on the table and clamping the fin to the fin jig (using scrap wood to prevent marring) I ran the fin through the saw, rotated the fin to the top position and that bevel and rotated to cut the other side bevel . Then I flipped the fin 180 degrees to cut the other three bevels on the other side and I was done. This process works very fast once you get the hang of it. Using a good fine tooth blade will give you very good results without having to even sand the edges. My edges came out great. I have tried the sanding jig and routing the bevels and I prefer the saw method over the others.
