Lessons

A project of this nature will teach many lessons.  Every day involves some level of learning process.  And some days one re-learns lessons previously taught.

A lesson  re-learned yesterday is that almost all metal fabrication processes are best undertaken wearing a quality pair of leather gloves.

One of yesterday's tasks was re-sharpening my collection of tungstens for the TIG welder.  Any time the tungsten in use becomes contaminated, such as touching the work or the rod, or the point is misshapen, the tungsten must be re-sharpened.  This involves breaking off the contaminated end with a pair of pliers and using a dedicated grinding wheel to put on a point.  I keep a collection of sharpened tungstens so that when I do contaminate one I can just pull out another one and install it in the torch rather than pulling the one out, breaking it off, re-sharpening it and re-installing it.

I was busily breaking off the ends of the ten tungstens I use in rotation and, being in a hurry, did not take the second to put on my gloves.  Predictably I jammed the end of a tungsten into my thumb.  It was (and still is) quite painful and bled profusely.  

SAFETY FIRST!!

Speaking of tungstens, a lesson I learned a few weeks ago is to be inquisitive about how things are priced.  At my local welding supplies store thoreated tungstens are sold 2 for $4.98 or 10 for $8.95. Wow!

Progress!

Finally!  After several months of study, practice, equipment purchases I have actually completed a fitting.  I am quite excited.

This is an aileron hinge.  You have followed the fabrication of the parts, but now they are all welded together and primed ready for paint.  The welds are not as pretty as I could wish, reflecting the state of my skill.  But they are structurally solid, which is my primary concern.

Now I just need to make five more of these.

Snow Day

The weather around here was such that I did not want to make the 40 mile trip into work and then get stuck there.

So I had a chance to work on the airplane.  With one hold up.  The flow gauge on the regulator for the TIG would not budge.  In fact, my first attempt at welding almost ruined the piece because there was no gas.

I can hear some of you now.  "Serves you right buying that Chinese junk".  Well, have your laugh.  Eastwood is convinced it is the regulator.  And I challenge you to buy a regulator from ANYBODY, that isn't made in China.  The upshot, Eastwood is sending me a new regulator AND a new gas solenoid valve, "just in case".  Free of wampum!  Now that is customer service.

I improved the day by completing all the components for the first aileron hinge.  It is a lot of work, and there are a total of six of hinges.

Here are the components:

The main component (the tube) is not yet finished. The bushing near the end needs to be welded and then filed/ground down to 3/4" wide.  That won't happen until the new regulator gets here.  The end of the tube nearest the bushing needs to be trimmed and rounded.  These two items were left long to make the welding easier.

This represents about six hours of work.  I am hoping that having one hinge under my belt will speed the fabrication of the next five.

Heat

There has been some lack of progress following the failure of my shop heater.  I followed all the instructions in the owner's manual, and went through the troubleshooting guide, all to no avail.  I attempted to contact the manufacturer with the symptoms, with, to date, no response.

So yesterday I bit the bullet and bought a new heater.

It is slightly different than the old one and is working quite satisfactory.  In fact, about two hours into my projects today I had to shut it off. It was getting just a bit too toasty in the shop!

The old one is sitting forlornly behind the new one.  The old is quite a satisfactory little heater.  But if I can't fix it (and the owner's manual is quite emphatic about that) it is useless.  I bought an extended warranty for the new one.

Here is the project for today:

This is the fabrication jig for the the aileron hinges.  It needs one more small part, a support close to the 1/4" rod sticking up near the right end.  That part will be added after I have the component parts made so I know exactly where it needs to go.  The metal plate will protect the wood from the tack welding heat and provide a grounding plate.  I plan to do the tack welding with the TIG.

This jig will make sense once I have a completed hinge to show you.  Patience!

I worked on some practice pieces today as well.  The major lesson I learned is that I need to spend some time learning to control the TIG with the foot pedal.  Using a set amperage does not work when welding on small parts.

Pressing Matters

Some small progress got made in the last couple of days. 

First, a friend of mine welded up the SWAG Off Road press brake kit.  This is a high quality, very hefty product.  I am very impressed. 

Getting it home I couldn't wait to bend some metal and check out the results.  Which turned out somewhat disappointing.  On heavy gauge metal, like 1/8" and thicker, this thing is killer.  But the bend radius on lighter gauge metals (like .050") is far too generous.  Also, I couldn't bend a flange less than 3/4".  To do the fittings on the airplane I need to get down to 3/8".

After some soul searching, fussing, and inventing, I acquired various sizes of angle iron from 1" down to 3/8".  By stacking these in the female die of the press I was able to bend flanges down to 1/4" and achieve a reasonable bend radius with .050" 4130.

Here is the SWAG unit mounted in a Harbor Freight press:

And this shows, if you look closely, my modifications for lighter gauge metals.

I played with welding up my modification, but it works well loose.  I am not sure how well it work welded up.

I also considered grinding the taper on the male die to a sharper point.  But I am getting a good bend radius without taking that drastic step.

And here is the product of the day:

The wooden piece is the cutting template.  This part is the brace for the aileron hinge.  This is a great day for me.  I have not produced an airplane part since the end of August, the time (and money) being taken up figuring out how to bend up these parts without having to purchase a $2,500 press that would take up too much of my limited shop space.  The SWAG press works well, was a reasonable price, and takes up very little shop space.

Rough Roads

The EAA literature will tell you that many projects get stopped in their tracks by difficulties encountered by the builders.  This is especially true of plans-built projects as there are many more opportunities for problems and typically less support from the plans provider. 

I entered this project well aware of the problem and determined to slog through the difficult times. 

Well, I have been slogging through one of those times.  I have not completed an airplane part since August.  But work, and the expenditure of money, has continued.  The transition from the woodworking exercise of rib fabrication to the metal fabrication of the construction of the numerous fittings necessary to complete the wings has proved to be difficult, frustrating, and time consuming. 

The first difficulty was re-acquiring what welding skills I once had.  Only to learn that the skills I once possessed did not translate well to airplane construction.  My previous skills centered around fabricating tractor parts.  Welding heavy duty parts is actually a lot easier than welding the much lighter metals involved in airplane construction.  I am now reasonably confident in these skills.  But it took purchasing a lot of equipment (including both oxy/acetylene and TIG welding equipment) and a lot of practice.

Then I was stymied by difficulties encountered in bending metal fittings.  Perversely, while much of the welding is on thin gauge metal, an appreciable amount of the bending must be done on some heavier gauge metals.  I have solved the problem of bending small fittings from .060" to .090" 4130 steel.  But parts with dimensions greater than a couple of inches stopped me cold. 

My first attempts using the 18" bench top leaf brake that I own were total failures, despite the fact that the specs for the brake indicated it was up to the job.  Not even close.  I spent about a week fussing about the next step.  I contemplated purchasing the Harbor Freight floor model leaf bender.  Its specs were about the same as the little bench top model.  I was loath to spend the money for that brake only to find it was not up to the job, either.

But then I ran across a company called SWAG Off Road.  They manufacture a kit that converts the Harbor Freight hydraulic arbor press into a press brake.  This is a very impressive piece of equipment, so I sprang for the HF press and the SWAG kit.  While the hydraulic press is typical HF, but adequate for the job, the SWAG kit is very high quality.

Problem solved!  Not exactly.  The SWAG kit assembly requires welding.  I was not intimidated, what with my newly acquired welding skills.  But alas.  My welding equipment is sized for aviation welding.  Not the heavy gauge welding required to assemble this kit. I have been unable to get a puddle (welders will understand) going on any of the components.  The lightest components are fabricated from 1/4" 4130. 

At this moment I am awaiting the assistance of a friend with much heavier duty welding equipment than mine to complete the kit.  Until then, I am at a standstill.

I thank all of you who have been checking in from time to time only to see no progress.  Progress will continue in the very near future.

Just because some photos are better than none, here are some shots of my little shop as it looks today.

Slight Change

The airplane I am building is an almost exact copy of the Piper Vagabond with some changes to make it suitable for homebuilding.

When Piper designed the Vagabond they essentially took the Piper Cub, widened and shortened the fuselage, moved the back seat up beside the front seat, and shortened the wings slightly. 

I chose the Wag-a-Bond for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the Cub heritage.  A big driver for choosing the Wag-a-Bond over the Wag Aero Sport Trainer, which is an almost exact copy of the Piper Cub, was that I harbored a hope that my wonderful wife, who is very supportive of my aviation activities, would, herself, develop a love of flying in small aircraft. That has not happened and is not likely to happen. 

So I have re-evaluated the comprises I made in choosing the Wag-a-Bond.  The Vagabond, and the Wag-a-Bond are great airplanes. The main reason for choosing the Wag was the side-by-side seating. Getting in and out of the Cub back seat is a bit of a chore. My wife actually had the opportunity of flying in a friend's Cub and found entry and exit to be difficult.

However, by shortening the fuselage in designing the Vagabond, Piper changed the ground handling characteristics of the airplane from quite docile to what is usually described as "quick".  By shortening the wings the airplane was made faster, but changed the flight characteristics that make the Cub such a good low and slow airplane. The side-by-side seating, while friendlier, actually reduces the visibility for both the pilot and the passenger. 

The upshot is that I have decided to switch from building Wag Aero's Wag-a-Bond to their Sport Trainer (Cub-a-like).  Fortunately all the work I have done on the Wag-a-Bond translates directly to the Sport Trainer. I will not have to start all over.  Wag Aero, like the old Piper company, uses as many common components in it's aircraft as possible.

Another consideration is that the Sport Trainer fits more easily into the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) designation.  The effort necessary to maintain an LSA certificate is less than for the Private Pilot certificate, especially as it relates to the medical requirement.

The plans for the Sport Trainer are on their way.  After I build a couple more ribs and compression struts (longer wing) I will be off and running again.

 

Welding

So where has Reg been?  Reg has been off learning new skills.  Gas welding has come along, but it became apparent that I needed to add TIG (Tungston Inert Gas) welding to my bag of tricks.

After much research and agonizing I broke open the bank account and purchased a TIG welder.

The old timers, and those with deep pockets, will tell you that you MUST purchase a Miller, Lincoln or Hobart welder.  That the Chinese welders (which all the other brands are) are pure junk and not worth the price.

The folks who are actually using the Chinese units have a different perspective.  It is true that some, even many, of the Chinese welders are junk and should be avoided.  However, there are a handful of brands that are very decent units.   Some of the them are designed and engineered domestically and manufactured in China.

Eastwood is one such company.  Eastman has been around for a long time, and the reviews show very few units with problems and excellent customer service when one does develop  a problem.  Their welders come with a three-year warranty.

Obviously, the rub is price. A Miller unit with comparable capabilities and features to the Eastwood that I purchased raids the bank account for just shy of $2,000.  And that is with a one year warranty on the "the box" only.  My Eastwood was $900 (OK, $899.99) including shipping and that aforementioned three year warranty on all components.  The Miller may be a better machine, but it is not over twice as good. I prefer to buy "Made in the USA", but I am not going to cut off my nose to spite my face.

Surprisingly, I have read almost nothing but good reviews about the Harbor Freight TIG welder.  It doesn't have quite all the features of the Eastman, but it is even a few hundred dollars less.  So one can get into TIG relatively inexpensively.

So far the Eastwood has performed flawlessly. The only problems being due to my inexperience. I am constantly having to stop and regrind my tungsten due to touching either the work or the filler rod.

In addition to the welder, you will need a cart, a bottle of argon gas, and a good welding helmet. I bought the cart and a welding helmet from Harbor Freight.  The cart is completely satisfactory.  The helmet not so much.  Buried in the instruction manual it states that the helmet is not suited to TIG welding.  You would think they could put that on the box. All is not lost. It is suited to gas welding and the instant dark feature is pretty handy.  I purchased the argon bottle, filled with gas, from my local welding supply.

And thus started an extended period of practice. Which is why this blog has not been updated lately.  But I am back on track actually fabricating airplane parts.

Today I started the final welding on the compression struts.  The welds are not pretty, but they are structurally sound and getting prettier.

Here are the first four compression struts all welded up and ready to be primed and painted.  It takes about an hour to final weld each strut. Please do not blow this photo up and look closely at the welds. They are not exactly the "stack of dimes" appearance for which everyone strives.  But, as said before, they are structurally sound.

Once the remaining struts (8) are final welded and painted, it will be on to the next step.  Which is fabricating the aileron hinges.  Those will be a lot more complex than the compression struts.

First Compression Struts

Spent the afternoon fabricating and tack-welding the first four compression struts.

These are pretty simple parts, but they are the first metal parts I have fabricated in a long time.  I have been kind of reluctant to work on these.  They are not difficult, but my confidence in my abilities has been a bit low.  But these look great.

There are a total of 12 compression struts.  The remaining eight are of a somewhat different configuration.  Some of them are built from 5/8" tube instead of the 3/4".  The ends, which are Piper Cub parts and not easy to fabricate are sized for the 3/4".  I am thinking of fabricating short 3/4" transition pieces.  So far my attempts in that direction have not been particularly re-assuring.

Standard procedures requires a bird-beak transition in the larger tubing.  So far I haven't been very successful in figuring out how to cut the bird-beak. 

It will come.

COMPRESSION STRUT JIG

This project has been on the shelf for far too long.  This evening I finished up the jig for fabrication of the compression struts.  The compression struts are braces between the wing spars counteracting the pull of the drag wires.

The upright on the left has a rail on the bottom that runs in the groove, maintaining alignment between the uprights while allowing that one upright to be adjusted for length.  It is held in place with a C-clamp.

The components of the first strut are in place ready to be tack welded.  Actually, not.  They need to be cleaned up first. The metal on the jig will, hopefully, prevent me from setting the plywood on fire.  The middle brackets ensure that the tubing will not drop out while the tacking is under way.

Stuff

While the focus is on the interior of the Cessna 150, there is still some progress on the Wag. The materials and parts for the compression struts have arrived and I will start the jig for the struts in the very near future.

Side Track

The Wag-a-Bond is going on the shelf for a short period of time while I do some work on my Cessna 150.

Go to N8346J.blogspot.com link to go to that blog and follow that project.

I will be back here working on the "Wag" in a few weeks.

"Airline" Torch

Some time ago I scored a Harris 15-3 "airline" torch handle on eBay.  I got it for about 1/5th of retail for a new torch.  It was advertised "with box" and looks like it has never been used. The box was beyond salvation.

It took awhile to get all the rest of the pieces to turn the "handle" into a complete torch.  But here it is beside the Victor medium duty torch.

It is the torch on the left.  It is much lighter and works great on small items.  I made a few welds with it last night.  I am very pleased with the lightness and balance.  And, truth to tell, it is a higher quality tool than the Victor. 

Having said that, there are a few adventures in dealing with Harris.  Both Victor and Smith, the other two big torch manufacturers, have easy to figure out tip charts that help choose the tip for the application.  Not so Harris.  It is difficult to figure out what you need.  Complicated by the fact that, whereas Victor (at least) has just a handle and tips, the Harris has a handle, a mixer, a tip tube, and the tip, all that must be matched to the application.

Fortunately, there was someone at the Airgas franchise in Aberdeen, WA  knowledgeable and helpful regarding the Harris line.  He helped me determine what I needed, though it all had to be special ordered, and others at the shop had some difficulties when the one guy was on vacation. 

The Harris 15-3 torch (and other "airline" type torches) was, at one time, very popular with auto body shops.  However, with the way modern cars are built, the auto body shops do very little, if any, welding anymore.  What welding they may do is TIG. With that, the demand for this type of torch has dropped off.  It is now pretty much relegated to us airplane builders (and just the rag-and-tube folks at that) and the few hard core car builders. With the limited market one can hardly expect the local welding supply shop to have much in the way of supplies and accessories on the shelf.

And the welds?

Well, here is one.  It still leaves something to be desired, but that is not the torch's fault.  I am still working on getting a good rhythm in order to produce a nice even weld pattern.  However, though this weld is not as "pretty" as it could be, it is, structurally, a good weld.

I feel that just a bit more practice and I will be able to start on the real thing.

TESTING

It is important that welds be AT LEAST as strong as the joined metal.  In order to test that, the coupons are put into a vice and stressed until the joint fails.

OR NOT!!  The test successfully demonstrates that the weld joint is as strong as the steel. A little more practice so that the welds look pretty, and practice adding filler rod, and I will feel like I can start tackling the fittings.

One of my advisers pointed out that I need to be as comfortable as possible with my arms supported in order to produce nice even welds.  That advice helped quite a bit, though I am still working on ways to keep my arms supported while being able to move the torch along the weld.

SUCCESS!!

After burning, literally, through a bunch of sheet metal, I have gotten some decent welds.  Not perfect. Not things of beauty.  But good penetration and decent looking ridges.

All during my practice if I got a decent puddle, I promptly burned a hole in the coupon.  I either burned holes in a lot of metal, or had very poor welds with no penetration.

Today, there was breakthrough.  The furthest set of coupons was the first set that had good welds. However, if you look close, you can see that I had some blowouts while doing the tack welds at each end.  The weld itself is pretty consistent and has good penetration WITH NO HOLES!.

The middle set is another good weld.  Plus I managed to tack both ends while blowing a hole in only one end.

In the closest set of coupons I used a bit of RG-45 rod while doing the tacks.  NO HOLES!  And, a pretty good looking weld.  Not quite as good as I want to be before I start welding up fittings, but certainly a workable weld.

Getting here has been quite frustrating, but I am elated at the moment.

Now for a bit more practice!

Metal Work

Re-acquiring my welding skills is proving to be more difficult than I thought.  I figured a few practice welds and I would be back in the groove.  It is not working out that way.  I am making progress, but not as fast as I would like.

Here is the welding setup:

This view shows the tanks.  Well, almost.  The shorter acetylene tank is to the left of the oxygen tank. The stack of boxes in the background is waiting to be flattened and put in the recycle bin.


I had been struggling with cutting the practice coupons.  I tried putting a metal cutting wheel on my trim saw.  That did not work so well.  I think the trim saw simply turns to fast.  I found that the hack saw with a really fine tooth blade works pretty well. I also have a variable speed jig saw.  I put a fine tooth hack saw blade in that, and it works OK, too.  But it really isn't any faster, or any less effort, than the plain ole hack saw.




And then I ran across a tip on the EAA site relating to turning a table saw into a cut-off saw.

So I mounted the cut-off wheel in my ancient Craftsman (actually Rockwell) table saw. This works extremely well.  The board clamped to the miter gauge makes it easier to slit sheet steel.  As an aside, they don't make tools like this old table saw anymore.  At least, not at prices us mere mortals can afford.  It isn't very big.  The  table is 16" X 24".  I have a 5HP motor mounted on it.  The thing is very solid and makes nice cuts.  It takes two strong people to lift it, despite it being rather small. The tilt arbor has no detectable run-out and the gears on the adjustments are smooth with no backlash. Pretty amazing.

Speaking of things that work extremely well:

The little tool mounted in my vice is a simple press brake manufactured (in Canada) by Veritas Tools and marketed by Garrett-Wade.  It is held in the jaws by the tabs on top and strong magnets.

Simply slide in the stock and tighten down on the vice.  This is a piece of 16 gauge and required practically no effort at all.

The finished bend is great.  I was worried that without any adjustments the little brake would produce inappropriate bend radii.  As the photo shows, not at all.  This simple, high quality tool produces very nice bends.  The specs say it can bend up to 1/8".  I'm not sure I am ready to try that in my vice.  But the brake ought to work fine bending small parts out of .090 chrome-moly. And what's to loose for under thirty bucks!

Relearning Welding Session 1

I got the chance to do a bit welding practice last night.  I was hoping that it would be like riding a bicycle.  Not quite.

I managed to create pretty good, though not even puddles.  But the penetration was not good.  I think the material I am using for practice is too thick for the tip I am using.  So I will be getting some thinner material in the next day or two.

A note on the blog...if you are not familiar with the blog format, the latest post is always on top.  Don't neglect to go to "Older Posts" see earlier history. 

Rib Completion

I thank all you faithful readers for your patience while it looked like nothing much was happening.  Between some health issues and dealing with my aging parents not much got done in February.  But the project is back underway!

The ribs are done, done, done!  The final step was getting them varnished.  My EAA tech adviser showed up and we spent a delightful afternoon dip-varnishing the ribs.

They have now been moved up to the hangar.

Here is our hero (Me!  :)  ) with the ribs hanging to dry.  I have enjoyed fabricating the ribs, but I am glad that phase is over and it is time to move on to the next phase.

Which is...fabricating the metal fittings needed to build the wings.  I have acquired welding equipment and will have the welding corner set up very soon.  Then I will need to spend some time re-learning how to weld. 

Though I have received some pressure to consider TIG welding, I am passing on that for the moment.  Not only are good TIG welders expensive, I would have to completely re-wire my shop (garage) space to accommodate a TIG unit with an acceptable duty cycle. There are nice TIG welders that can operate on 110 volts, but their duty cycle is very short.  That would be frustrating when I get to building the fuselage.  In order to get an acceptable duty cycle I would need to purchase something other than a bottom-of-the-line welder ($$$$) and bring 220 volt power into the shop (more $$$$$).

So, at least for the time being, I am sticking with oxy-acetylene.  I have a Victor medium-duty torch for heavier (by aircraft standards) welding, such as cluster welds.  The Victor has a cutting attachment, which I needed.  I also have a Harris "airline" torch for working on the lighter gauge material. There is no cutting attachment available for the Harris torch.  I acquired the Harris torch on eBay for a very reasonable price and it will be ideal for working with the light gauge steel used in aircraft construction  However, the hose and tips had to be special ordered.  They are on their way.

I started off with the idea that I would order the "downstream" accessories for the Harris (hose, tips, tanks, etc.) ala carte.  In view of the need for a cutting torch, it proved less expensive to purchase a complete Victor "kit" and purchase the tips and hose for the Harris separately.  In pulling together the ala carte idea, the cost rapidly ran up to $500.  I was able to purchase a Victor kit that included the torch, cutting attachment, suitable tips, regulators, hose, goggles, and striker for under $300. 

Of course, by time I added tanks, a cart (you have to have a means of securing the tanks upright), acetylene, oxygen and the governor's share the whole bill took a major bite out $1,000.

The table you see in earlier photos is being converted to a welding bench by adding fire brick to the top.  I am also modifying my trim saw into a cut-off saw by replacing the wood cutting blade with an abrasive cut-off disk.  It should work fine and saves the cost of a cut-off saw.

I have a small supply of mild steel which I will cut into "coupons" on which to practice welding.  I will post the joys and sorrows of that task.

Arrangement

I spent some time today re-arranging the shop and getting setup for the varnishing party.

Here is the shop all set up, with a rib hanging from the drying line. 

Trough

February has been a difficult month for progress on the airplane.  Between family, ministry and work obligations there just hasn't been much shop time.

But I did get some time in to prepare the "trough".

The plan is to varnish the ribs by dipping them in the varnish in the above trough.  Some of you may recognize that this is the rib jig turned upside down.  With some modifications.  The rib jig did not have the end pieces.  The near end piece is not installed all the way to the end because spar varnish is expensive and I want the trough to be only as large as it needs to be.

The seams have been sealed with Titebond III.  I used that adhesive because it was handy and it will suffice to do the job.  The lighter patches are Durham's Water Putty covering over places where screws, as part of the rib jig, came all the way through.

Now I just need to find the time to re-arrange the shop and go shopping for the spar varnish. 

Ribs are Finished

Well, perhaps the title is a bit of a stretch. But rib fabrication is complete.  They still need to be varnished in order to be considered "complete".

This photograph illustrates the differences between a "standard" rib and a tip rib. The one in front is the tip rib.

The final tally?  Rib construction required (for me) 136 hours over seven months.  The cost in my cost sheet is a bit misleading.  I show $692.00.  But I have quite a bit of material left over.  Some of it will be useful later in the project, but I definitely over-estimated by maybe 10%, which isn't too bad.

I have a definite feeling of accomplishment.  There is a lot of work in building these ribs.  While it has been fun, it feels good to be done with it. 

Rib Home Stretch - Again

This is what the stack of full cross-section ribs looks like.  The foot-rule is there for scale.  There is something just over 1,000 gussets in this stack.

These have all been inventoried and tied to the drawings.  They are stacked in order with #1 Left on the bottom, then #1 Right and so forth.  One little task I do need to do is go through them all and make sure the tops and bottoms are smooth.  There are incidents where gussets or glue drops are "proud" of the capstrip.

The rib jig has been modified for fabrication of the two tip ribs, one for each wing.  These ribs have a somewhat narrower cross section than all the others.

Yes, I built this jig over the full size drawings supplied with the plans.  I figure this will work just fine for the two ribs.  I wouldn't do that for all the others.  If building wings again (not likely) I would use the same procedures I have used for all of these ribs.

The nose block and tail block are in place ready for the capstrip.

After an afternoon...

Side "A" of the first tip rib is all glued up.  Depending on the weather, Side "A" of the second tip rib and Side "B" of the first one will be glued up tomorrow afternoon.  The weather is a factor, because if good VFR conditions exist, I will go fly the C-150.  :)

At Work

Here I am working on the last two "regular" ribs.

Don't you just love the stacks of ribs?

They are now all glued up.  The next step will be to re-configure the rib jig for the tip ribs.

Premature Celebration

I completed the rib inventory...and came up two short.  It seems I skipped the 7A rib, one for each wing.   So I have another rib cooking in the jig, and another one to go.  I am glad I did the inventory before I started modifying the rib jig to do the tip ribs.

Not a lost day though...

Taken from a friend's Cub.  Anyone wonder why I love to fly in the Pacific Northwest.