- Joined
- Sep 8, 2013
- Messages
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Hey folks, welcome back to a new installment of "What the heck is he doing now?" or "Is that thing really gonna fly"?!! As I stated in the last installment, this seemed like a logical place to split this build log up. As I also said, while the bottom wings are similar to the top, they do vary in important ways. For the most part they have the same ribs, spars, metal pieces and other parts. They differ some in planform ( the trailing edge is curved to meet the fuselage, more like the Waco biplanes), they also contain the control system for the ailerons (pretty important) , gonna need those ! During this build ( and this documentation) I will pretty much follow the format I have developed to date. I will attempt to extensively, and in detail, cover the first wing build (and it's differences from the top wings) . Then on the second wing , due to the necessarily repetitive nature of building of multiple similar parts , you can expect this to be less detailed. But I will provide plenty of "biplane porn" to highlight my screwups !!
Anyway, as I am finally catching up to my actual build progress, we'll start off slowly and see where this thing goes. As was the case on the top wings, the build always begins with building/assembling all the major components that make up a wing panel , and then assembling the parts into the wing itself. On wood wings and biplanes, this seems to be as much art as it is engineering. Or as a friend (also building a Classic, the one with the Verner ) admonished me, "Hell man, it's just blacksmithing, get on with it already !!".
So, let's get started. As promised, here are the pictures of the bottom wing build to date. As it is summer, and work keeps insisting on my attendance , progress has been slow. I am hoping to get enough done over the summer to position the build for suitable progress during actual build season ( read fall/winter).
And as always it starts with the spars. Only two left after this.
And the wing ribs. I made these over the winter last winter. Sort of a "just in time" style of inventory control.
Root end plywood doublers.
Beveling and tapering operation for the main spar.
test fitting the ribs to the spars to check for fit.
sweetening the spar pass throughs for fit. Lubrication here is "optional"! As always, your methods may very.
shop inspiration....
Next up, mucking about with metal wing fittings.
cheers, T
Anyway, as I am finally catching up to my actual build progress, we'll start off slowly and see where this thing goes. As was the case on the top wings, the build always begins with building/assembling all the major components that make up a wing panel , and then assembling the parts into the wing itself. On wood wings and biplanes, this seems to be as much art as it is engineering. Or as a friend (also building a Classic, the one with the Verner ) admonished me, "Hell man, it's just blacksmithing, get on with it already !!".
So, let's get started. As promised, here are the pictures of the bottom wing build to date. As it is summer, and work keeps insisting on my attendance , progress has been slow. I am hoping to get enough done over the summer to position the build for suitable progress during actual build season ( read fall/winter).
And as always it starts with the spars. Only two left after this. 
And the wing ribs. I made these over the winter last winter. Sort of a "just in time" style of inventory control.
Root end plywood doublers.
Beveling and tapering operation for the main spar.
test fitting the ribs to the spars to check for fit.
sweetening the spar pass throughs for fit. Lubrication here is "optional"! As always, your methods may very.
shop inspiration....Next up, mucking about with metal wing fittings.
cheers, T
