Tag: Nose Ribs

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Nose ribs glued

Got the nose ribs glued in place, clamped, and taped to keep them stable. As I write this, I remember my earlier idea to cut another nose rib from slightly thicker plywood to use in the center of the span where the 1/32 plywood will have a butt joint. Oh well. I don’t think I did that on the other wing, so I’ll just have to get a look at that to see what I did there.

I did take a quick look at what I’d need to do to get started on the aileron, but didn’t really have time to spread the plans out and re-familiarize myself with that area. I’m kind of debating the order in which I’ll do the steps to complete this wing. I’m itching to tackle the aileron, but the more I think about it the more I think that would best be done later on. I think probably the best idea will be to wrap the nose with plywood and finish out that in order to protect the nose ribs. Once that’s done I think I’ll move on to mounting the wingtip, as it will be better to get that in and completely blocked in and reinforced before cutting out the aileron. Then there’s the wing walk to deal with. The plywood wing walk support pieces FFP packed in this kit are nowhere near correct, so I’ll probably just end up making new ones — unless I take a page from a guy who’s building a Tiger Moth and just make a new cantilevered wing walk from a sandwich of wood and carbon fiber.

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Wing down, new bandsaw blades

Wednesday afternoon I went over and worked with Stu to get the wing down off the rack and onto the bench. I grabbed the nose ribs and, since they weren’t cut out for the false spars, took them home with me. Before I did, I carefully marked where they need to be notched.

Stu has gotten out of the cabinet business and has sold off much of his wood shop equipment. The thickness planer, jointer, band saw, edge banding machine, and some other stuff is gone. Wait — the band saw is gone? Crap, if I’d known I’d have bought it from him on condition that I could leave it where it was. Oh well. I have one at home, a cheap little 10″ tabletop model.

While cutting the notches in the nose ribs, it was immediately apparent that the saw blade was toast. I’d wanted to replace it anyway, as it’s a 1/4″ wide blade and not really great for keeping a straight line. I removed and measured it, then tossed that and the equally worn out metal blade I had for it that couldn’t make it through 1/8″ 6061. I ordered a 62″ x 3/8″ x 6 TPI wood blade, a 10 TPI wood blade, and a 1/2″ wide 24 tooth metal cutting blade.

A few days’ delay was inserted here, while dealing with another issue unrelated to the airplane..

The blades arrived over the past few days. I put the 6-tooth wood cutting blade on and got the saw adjusted’ it works great. I can cut a 1/16 slice off the end of a 2×2. I think I still need to get the saw table squared up a little better with the blade before trying to do any re-sawing, but it’s close enough for the time being. The metal cutting blade slides through that 6061 like butter, so I’ll be able to finish off the AL fittings for the wing and get the tubing cut for the bushings. Then I can order the bolts I need and get the fittings installed.