I did some additional work on the rib jig yesterday, including installing the main spar locating block and cleaning up a few nail points that were poking out the bottom. I cut a bunch of blocks to locate the outer shape of the ribs, but did not install them yet. I want to wait until I have some spruce stock to put in place, so I make sure it’s all in the right place. I really want these to turn out as close to perfectly consistent as possible. I had planned to use some pine cut down on the table saw to set up and test the jig, but it occurred to me that I had no way to know for sure my pine strips would be the exact same size as the capstrip stock supplied by Aircraft Spruce. So, it’s time to order some wood.
Started rib jig #1
I spent some time yesterday working on the first wing rib jig. The workbench needed a new top surface, so I picked up a sheet of 3/4″ MDF at Lowe’s. They were nice enough to cut it for me. I ended up with one piece 3′ x 8′ for the bench, and two 1′ x 4′ chunks for rib jigs. Nice how that worked out.
I marked a center line on the MDF and laid out the rib setup from Sheet #1 of the plans over it, then trimmed the paper to fit the jig. I hate cutting up plans, but there’s an extra copy of that page for this reason. I made all of the little chunks of plywood for the locating blocks, and cut a few small pieces of pine stock as needed. Then I cut out the places where I would need holes to accommodate clothespins, marked those on the MDF and cut them out with a scroll saw. I used some spray adhesive to stick the plans down to the MDF. So far so good.
Next I had to find some clear poly to cover the plans sheet. I finally remembered the nearly 4′ long bag in which the plans were shipped; it fit just fine. With that in place I started nailing the locating blocks in place over the plan sheet. I got most of them done before knocking off for the night. I still need to make one more plywood block for the main spar locator, and make the blocks for the top and bottom capstrips. I haven’t decided for sure how to do those. I had thought about using a couple pieces of pine bent to fit, but that seems like a great way to mess up the jig trying to get them perfectly in place, and the jig needs to be as close to perfect as I can make it. I’ll probably go with closely spaced pine blocks, nailed in place.