Post by ctdahle on Mar 25, 2006 19:14:42 GMT -7
One thing I have always struggled with is making sure that when I build a wing, both panels are identical mirror images of each other.
On the little Cub I've been working on, I tried something new. I had a scrap of straight, clean poplar about 2" square, so I made up a gauge stick.
I set up an indexing jig for the mitre gauge on my table saw. I used a thin kerf blade and cut a series of slots in the stick to match the rib spacing. I raised the blade just high enough to match the height of the ribs.
I threaded the ribs onto the spars and then used the gauge stick to line up all the ribs nice and square. The stick clamped all the ribs in place while the glue dried and then I used the same stick, swapped end for end to build the second panel.
In thinking about this, it really isn't necessary to use a stick that is the full length of a wing panel, although it was convenient on this little airplane. A stick long enough to line up 3-4 ribs would do the job if you were using CA or didn't mind waiting for the glue to dry.
I also used the table saw to precut all of my spar webs to the exact same size, based on my guage stick. If you do this, be careful because you have to remove the blade guard to rip such little pieces. (I have an old 8-1/2 Makita bench top saw, but one of the little saws from Micro Mark would be even better for this.)
On the little Cub I've been working on, I tried something new. I had a scrap of straight, clean poplar about 2" square, so I made up a gauge stick.
I set up an indexing jig for the mitre gauge on my table saw. I used a thin kerf blade and cut a series of slots in the stick to match the rib spacing. I raised the blade just high enough to match the height of the ribs.
I threaded the ribs onto the spars and then used the gauge stick to line up all the ribs nice and square. The stick clamped all the ribs in place while the glue dried and then I used the same stick, swapped end for end to build the second panel.
In thinking about this, it really isn't necessary to use a stick that is the full length of a wing panel, although it was convenient on this little airplane. A stick long enough to line up 3-4 ribs would do the job if you were using CA or didn't mind waiting for the glue to dry.
I also used the table saw to precut all of my spar webs to the exact same size, based on my guage stick. If you do this, be careful because you have to remove the blade guard to rip such little pieces. (I have an old 8-1/2 Makita bench top saw, but one of the little saws from Micro Mark would be even better for this.)