I'm about a dozen hours into building a set of S1-S wings from plans. I've got a few notes for other people, and a few questions:
1 - I've seen comments about Aviat's plans being mis-sized. I took my copy of them to a local blueprint shop, and we pulled numbers from the wing rib plans, and found that they were printed at half the original scale. On some blueprints, this is obvious, and on others (like the gusset plans) there is no visible scale. It cost me about $1.50 per sheet to reprint at full size, and I was out of their shop in under 10 minutes.
2 - There are no distances marked from the wing chord line. I found this confusing, until I remembered that they are symmetrical wings.
3 - Some measurements on 1-437 are off.
Right now, my biggest question is whether it's better to build from the depicted plans, or from measurements shown on the plans. The plans have a few places where measurements are off by as much as an 1/8" from what I can measure. Most of the measurements are dead on, but the occasional one isn't. Is it better to use my full sized drawn plans as truth (currently I've glued them down to ply as a jig base), or make up a rib jig from scratch that fits the measurements more closely? Will I run into problems fitting the spars if I work from the drawn plans? If so, what dimensions are critical in the spar mounting areas?
Secondly, does anyone have cap strip bending tips? A friend recommended that I follow http://www.finewoodworking.com/membership/pdf/17882/011233068.pdf for building my press, with the inlay area fitting my cap strips. That looks like I'd get a great result, but it also looks like a decent amount of work. Any suggestions or opinions?
Finally, the factory plans don't call for mitering the diagonal 1/4"x1/4" parts into the cap strip / upright corners of the wing ribs. Is this an oversight? If it isn't, is it worth going to the effort of doing it, or will the gusset and glue provide enough strength?
I'm strongly considering getting the nose blocks and gussets laser cut by a local shop. They say that if I can get them full sized scans (in an image format or pdf) they can easily cut them out of ply. Has anyone done this, and if so, are there any gotchas?
1 - I've seen comments about Aviat's plans being mis-sized. I took my copy of them to a local blueprint shop, and we pulled numbers from the wing rib plans, and found that they were printed at half the original scale. On some blueprints, this is obvious, and on others (like the gusset plans) there is no visible scale. It cost me about $1.50 per sheet to reprint at full size, and I was out of their shop in under 10 minutes.
2 - There are no distances marked from the wing chord line. I found this confusing, until I remembered that they are symmetrical wings.
3 - Some measurements on 1-437 are off.
Right now, my biggest question is whether it's better to build from the depicted plans, or from measurements shown on the plans. The plans have a few places where measurements are off by as much as an 1/8" from what I can measure. Most of the measurements are dead on, but the occasional one isn't. Is it better to use my full sized drawn plans as truth (currently I've glued them down to ply as a jig base), or make up a rib jig from scratch that fits the measurements more closely? Will I run into problems fitting the spars if I work from the drawn plans? If so, what dimensions are critical in the spar mounting areas?
Secondly, does anyone have cap strip bending tips? A friend recommended that I follow http://www.finewoodworking.com/membership/pdf/17882/011233068.pdf for building my press, with the inlay area fitting my cap strips. That looks like I'd get a great result, but it also looks like a decent amount of work. Any suggestions or opinions?
Finally, the factory plans don't call for mitering the diagonal 1/4"x1/4" parts into the cap strip / upright corners of the wing ribs. Is this an oversight? If it isn't, is it worth going to the effort of doing it, or will the gusset and glue provide enough strength?
I'm strongly considering getting the nose blocks and gussets laser cut by a local shop. They say that if I can get them full sized scans (in an image format or pdf) they can easily cut them out of ply. Has anyone done this, and if so, are there any gotchas?
