| This
page was updated on
10/04/2008
|
| Welcome to the
"wings" page for my Skybolt construction. This is
where all the woodworking is. You gotta like spruce, mahogany,
sawdust, and epoxy glue to enjoy this!
Smooth Landings,
Capt Al Click
on the images to enlarge them. Click on the 'Back' button to
make them small again. |
|
Spruce
Ribs |
|
| 8/15/04- I did my assembly of the rib sticks and
gussets in my air-conditioned hobby shop in the house. For
cutting and beveling sticks, I just set up the little 4" table
saw from Harbor Freight and my cheapy sander on the back of my
pickup truck. For some reason, my wife doesn't like sawdust in
the house. |
 |
| There's over 1400 gussets, so I made
patterns and stacked the 1/16" plywood 16 high and cut them out
on my band saw. Just make sure you have the stacks securely
taped together. |
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| That's all the top rib sticks numbered
and organized in zip-lock bags, ready to put into the jig. |
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| The nose ribs are all cut on a band saw
out of 1/4" ply. |
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| The jigs are built. Be
careful! Double-check your full-size rib plans
dimensions. My plans had stretched an 1/8" between spars,
throwing the dimensions off. I had to re-draw the plans to
make the jigs accurate. |
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| The first top rib sticks are in the jig
ready to have the gussets glued and weighted down. |
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| I had the local steel yard cut 40
2"x2" steel weights for me and I use all of them when
gluing gussets on 2 ribs at a time. Make sure that you put a
THIN layer of T-88 glue on both surfaces. I bought a box of
1000 popsicle sticks at the craft store that work well.
Sometimes I used flux brushes which I buy by the box. |
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| Gently pop the rib out of the jig and
glue gussets to the back side. If I was building jigs again, I
would make them out of Starboard since epoxy doesn't stick to it. |
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| This rib is getting sheeted on both
sides. I completely coated the inside surfaces with thin epoxy
before closing it up. |
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| 10/15/04- That's a complete stack of ribs for the
lower and upper wings. |
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