I always make patterns. It serves to make sure the finished parts are all identical, and I work out production methods while doing the patterns.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Just a bit more Rib work
The last regular rib is setting up on the jig. Starting work on the tip ribs.
Upper left hand corner is the nose blocks for the tip ribs. Directly below that are the end blocks for the tip ribs. On the right side is a leading edge rib that goes between the last full size, regular, rib and the tip rib. The darker plywood is the patterns for the parts.
I always make patterns. It serves to make sure the finished parts are all identical, and I work out production methods while doing the patterns.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
I always make patterns. It serves to make sure the finished parts are all identical, and I work out production methods while doing the patterns.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Mile Post -- Almost
What makes these two ribs special is that they are the last two "regular" ribs!! :) Once these are complete the jig needs to be re-configured to fabricate the two "tip" ribs. And ribs will be done.
It will be time to schedule the "varnishing" party. All of the ribs need to be given a coat of high quality spar varnish. My EAA technical adviser has requested an invitation to the varnishing event. Coming soon.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Gussets
I managed some unexpected shop time this morning. What with the situation with my Dad and all the social events surrounding the holidays shop time is somewhat limited. I am not complaining. I enjoy this time of year.
I determined that I didn't have enough of the standard gussets to complete the eight ribs I have yet to build. So, after finishing up a couple of ribs in the jig, I devoted some time to cutting more gussets.
The process is simple in the extreme:
First cut 1" wide strips. The Ryobi table saw works very well for this kind of thing. Eight 1" strips rendered about 240 gussets.
And then cut the strips into 2" gussets. It actually takes two hands, but I had to hold the camera in the other hand. I cut two strips at a time. I tried four, but found it too difficult to control.
In order to get this done I had to do some minor reconfiguration of the workspace. Just one of the disadvantages of a small shop is that the space has to be set up for each different operation. In this case it just required moving the stack of ribs from the Ryobi table saw over to the Rockwell, which normally serves as the "desk" on which I keep the plans.
This is what the ribs look like so far in one big stack:
There will be twelve more ribs added to this stack before the job of fabricating ribs is all done. There are eight more of the standard ribs to be built, with two still on the jig, and two tip ribs.
Some more thinking...there is a marked difference between how the English identify themselves, and how we, especially males, here in the USA identify ourselves. In Great Britain, it is all about "who you are". Who were your parents, what schools you went to, etc. In the US, we identify with what we do. When two people, especially guys, meet, the first question is usually, "What do you do?". Meaning, what do you do for a living?
Not long ago I would have answered that question with, "My company provides management and engineering to water utilities". That was not only what I did for a living, building that company was my primary "doing" thing.
Having turned over day-to-day affairs of that company to somebody else (I am still a shareholder and board member) I am now the general manager of a water district. I take that job very seriously and work at it in a diligent and professional manner. But it is not the primary focus of what I do.
Today, if you ask me what I do, I will tell you that I am building an airplane.
I determined that I didn't have enough of the standard gussets to complete the eight ribs I have yet to build. So, after finishing up a couple of ribs in the jig, I devoted some time to cutting more gussets.
The process is simple in the extreme:
In order to get this done I had to do some minor reconfiguration of the workspace. Just one of the disadvantages of a small shop is that the space has to be set up for each different operation. In this case it just required moving the stack of ribs from the Ryobi table saw over to the Rockwell, which normally serves as the "desk" on which I keep the plans.
This is what the ribs look like so far in one big stack:
Some more thinking...there is a marked difference between how the English identify themselves, and how we, especially males, here in the USA identify ourselves. In Great Britain, it is all about "who you are". Who were your parents, what schools you went to, etc. In the US, we identify with what we do. When two people, especially guys, meet, the first question is usually, "What do you do?". Meaning, what do you do for a living?
Not long ago I would have answered that question with, "My company provides management and engineering to water utilities". That was not only what I did for a living, building that company was my primary "doing" thing.
Having turned over day-to-day affairs of that company to somebody else (I am still a shareholder and board member) I am now the general manager of a water district. I take that job very seriously and work at it in a diligent and professional manner. But it is not the primary focus of what I do.
Today, if you ask me what I do, I will tell you that I am building an airplane.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
More "Rag and Tube"
The friend of mine who expressed some lack of understanding of how a steel tube fuselage worked still had some trouble figuring it out from the photo of Mike Finney's airplane. So I am going to try again.
This photo is of another Wag-a-Bond Traveler, this one being built by Gil Devault. Gil is another "internet acquaintance" whose advice has been invaluable to me.
You can see that the basic fuselage shape is formed by a frame of welded steel tubes. Pretty basic. The frame is covered by dacron fabric, not unlike the balsa and tissue models most of us built as kids.
You no longer see this construction as often in factory produced aircraft (exceptions = cub-a-likes such as the CubCrafters, and other aircraft built to be light and strong such as the Aviat Husky, Maule and some others) because the construction requires a lot of highly skilled labor. Aluminum monocoque construction is much more common as it is better suited to assembly line methods.
But if you want a strong, yet light, airplane, rag and tube is the way to go. That is why bush pilots like rag and tube.
For us homebuilders, rag and tube is almost always a plans-built, rather than a kit, undertaking. Even the few kits out there are not much more than a set of plans and bundle of 4130 steel tubes.For those who want a cruiser, the all-aluminum kits are a good choice. They are typically faster airplanes of more modern design and faster and easier to build. But for those of us who want a "low and slow" short, rough field airplane, the extra time to build rag and tube is worth it.
This photo is of another Wag-a-Bond Traveler, this one being built by Gil Devault. Gil is another "internet acquaintance" whose advice has been invaluable to me.
You no longer see this construction as often in factory produced aircraft (exceptions = cub-a-likes such as the CubCrafters, and other aircraft built to be light and strong such as the Aviat Husky, Maule and some others) because the construction requires a lot of highly skilled labor. Aluminum monocoque construction is much more common as it is better suited to assembly line methods.
But if you want a strong, yet light, airplane, rag and tube is the way to go. That is why bush pilots like rag and tube.
For us homebuilders, rag and tube is almost always a plans-built, rather than a kit, undertaking. Even the few kits out there are not much more than a set of plans and bundle of 4130 steel tubes.For those who want a cruiser, the all-aluminum kits are a good choice. They are typically faster airplanes of more modern design and faster and easier to build. But for those of us who want a "low and slow" short, rough field airplane, the extra time to build rag and tube is worth it.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Thoughts
EAA Chapter 406 (Bremerton, WA) has placed a link to this blog on their web site. I have been getting an astounding number of "hits" on this blog.
The interest being shown is humbling, and underscores the need for me to be very careful in my processes and procedures. I actually appreciate that, as it is a motivator to do the very best work I can while using the best materials and practices.
The interest keeps me motivated, too. I am much more likely to get off my back side and get some work done if I know there are folks looking into this blog to see what I have done lately, other than watch TV.
In case there are those who haven't picked up on it, this is my very first airplane build. I am learning as I go. If you have comments, rather than clutter up the blog, send them to my email address at rhearn4@yahoo.com. Some folks already provide comments on my Facebook page, on the WagBuilders Yahoo group, and on the Cessna 150/152 Club forum.
I joined The Biplane Forum a few days ago. This seems like a terrific group of people and has tremendous resources for anyone building a rag and tube airplane. I here there is a rag and tube forum. I haven't checked into that yet, but I will soon.
The interest being shown is humbling, and underscores the need for me to be very careful in my processes and procedures. I actually appreciate that, as it is a motivator to do the very best work I can while using the best materials and practices.
The interest keeps me motivated, too. I am much more likely to get off my back side and get some work done if I know there are folks looking into this blog to see what I have done lately, other than watch TV.
In case there are those who haven't picked up on it, this is my very first airplane build. I am learning as I go. If you have comments, rather than clutter up the blog, send them to my email address at rhearn4@yahoo.com. Some folks already provide comments on my Facebook page, on the WagBuilders Yahoo group, and on the Cessna 150/152 Club forum.
I joined The Biplane Forum a few days ago. This seems like a terrific group of people and has tremendous resources for anyone building a rag and tube airplane. I here there is a rag and tube forum. I haven't checked into that yet, but I will soon.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Compressor
I had the opportunity to spend some time in the shop today. Shop time has been a little scarce this week. My 90-year-old dad has been having some health issues and that has been occupying my attention. As well it should.
In addition to finishing up the cutting and fitting on one rib and gluing up gussets on that rib, and the flip side of another, I spent some time working on this old compressor.
I picked the thing up at a garage sale for ten bucks more to help a friend than a desire to have the thing. But I figured that since I had it I may as well see if I could make it work. So I went through the electrics to make sure the basic connections were all there, dusted off the sawdust, and plugged it in.
By golly it fired up and built up pressure. In fact it runs very smooth and built up to 20 psi in a very short period of time. I shut it off at 20 psi. I will do a pressure test on another day when I can put it out somewhere where I can cower behind some kind of protection until the little safety valve trips.
If all goes well, I will use it for small jobs around the shop. It is a small unit. The whole thing only stands about 30" tall. I would call that about a 1-1/2 cubic-foot tank, maybe. I couldn't find any brand names or data tags, even on the motor. So no idea who built it or how old it might be.
The power plug needs replacing, too. It works, but it is pretty rugged and could short out a little too easily for my comfort.
In addition to finishing up the cutting and fitting on one rib and gluing up gussets on that rib, and the flip side of another, I spent some time working on this old compressor.
By golly it fired up and built up pressure. In fact it runs very smooth and built up to 20 psi in a very short period of time. I shut it off at 20 psi. I will do a pressure test on another day when I can put it out somewhere where I can cower behind some kind of protection until the little safety valve trips.
If all goes well, I will use it for small jobs around the shop. It is a small unit. The whole thing only stands about 30" tall. I would call that about a 1-1/2 cubic-foot tank, maybe. I couldn't find any brand names or data tags, even on the motor. So no idea who built it or how old it might be.
The power plug needs replacing, too. It works, but it is pretty rugged and could short out a little too easily for my comfort.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Consequences
I am not sure how I am going to explain this, but I will give it a shot. First, if one is going to deviate from the published plans, one had better pay extremely close attention to those plans.
The above photo shows plans for part of the wing, the leading edge at the top. Look closely and you will see a penciled-in label "6A" near the leading edge. Recall that I am replacing the leading edge ribs with full length ribs. Wag Aero numbered the full length ribs, but not the leading edge ribs. I assigned identifiers to the leading edge ribs by adding an "A" to the number for the full length rib next to each leading edge rib. Therefore, the part identified, in pencil, on the drawing as "6A" is the leading edge rib next to full length rib "6".
Note that rib 6A, if extended the full width of the wing, intersects parts identified as details illustrated elsewhere, such as "ZN A70". That designator describes a particular location on the drawings. Don't worry about understanding the system. All you need to know is that the parts illustrated in those zones are the lift strut attach brackets. The parts identified with the number "2" in the diamond-shaped box are 3/32" plywood pads laminated to the spar.
The location where the spar passes through the rib typically looks like this:
The "L5A" written on the rib indicates that this rib replaces the leading edge rib next to the full length rib number 5 on the left wing.
There are a couple of places where a rib intersects the spar where there is a pad or another part attached to the spar. Those parts and pads typically stick out a maximum of 1/4". In those places the verticals next to the spar are doubled so that one of them can be trimmed to clear the part or pad.
However, in the case of the lift strut attachments, the total dimension for the plywood pad and the lift strut attach bracket is 13/32". Carving out that much from two verticals (1/2") would not leave much "meat" with which to attach the rib to the spar.
So, for rib 6A, I have tripled the verticals at the spars. Thusly:
Note that I removed the cams and replaced them, temporarily, with plywood blocks. The cams will be re-installed once the two ribs (6A right and 6A left) have been completed. The same treatment will be applied to the rear spar.
I shudder to think of the work involved had I not taken a close look at the plans before building the 6A ribs.
Will this work? I don't know. We will find out when it comes time to attach the ribs to the spars.
Note that rib 6A, if extended the full width of the wing, intersects parts identified as details illustrated elsewhere, such as "ZN A70". That designator describes a particular location on the drawings. Don't worry about understanding the system. All you need to know is that the parts illustrated in those zones are the lift strut attach brackets. The parts identified with the number "2" in the diamond-shaped box are 3/32" plywood pads laminated to the spar.
The location where the spar passes through the rib typically looks like this:
The "L5A" written on the rib indicates that this rib replaces the leading edge rib next to the full length rib number 5 on the left wing.
There are a couple of places where a rib intersects the spar where there is a pad or another part attached to the spar. Those parts and pads typically stick out a maximum of 1/4". In those places the verticals next to the spar are doubled so that one of them can be trimmed to clear the part or pad.
However, in the case of the lift strut attachments, the total dimension for the plywood pad and the lift strut attach bracket is 13/32". Carving out that much from two verticals (1/2") would not leave much "meat" with which to attach the rib to the spar.
So, for rib 6A, I have tripled the verticals at the spars. Thusly:
I shudder to think of the work involved had I not taken a close look at the plans before building the 6A ribs.
Will this work? I don't know. We will find out when it comes time to attach the ribs to the spars.
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