Finally getting to the point where I can begin welding up something. I've been practicing for months. Took my work to the guys at the biplane forum and they said it looked good. Asked if I had done and test to take the weld joints to the point of failure. Well, this past weekend I did just that. Click here... to see the results.

October 6, 2007
     rudder pedals to the left... rudder pedals to the right
     sung to the tune of "Fins" by Jimmy Buffet

Anywho... studied the plans real hard... making sure to see everything that you need to see. There are several images of the rudder pedals that you need to study before barging ahead. Cross referencing one to the other... then it's always good to see a few photos of what some other builders have done. The Gallery on the biplane forum is a great resource for those photos. Quite a few builders are pretty far ahead and have pictures post that you can take a look see at.

OK... so I'm ready to layout the Rudder Pedals on the piece of MDF that I have. Got a few squares to use in laying it out. Got my tape measure and engineering ruler. (might as well try and make it as precise as you can.) Take your time laying it out. No sense in rushing it and making a mistake. (the basic philosophy of building your biplane... unrushed)

Make sure everything is square before you draw your first line. The rest of the drawing will be based off of that first line. Below is a shot of the drawing, from Steen, and the jig, for the Rudder Pedals. I only created one jig for all four pedals. The rear Rudder Pedal jig will be modified slightly from the front jig. Actually no change to the jig itself... just simply cut down the length of the tubing.

Steen's drawings for the Rudder Pedals...
Pretty self explanitory.

My drawing for the Rudder Pedals on MDF...
Made sure that two sides of the MDF were at 90 degrees to each other. Drew the tube for the bottom line and then went on from there.


Positioning blocks to hold tubes in place, aka the jig...
I've written this before.. but to make sure that the tubing was on center I made up a block that was the width of the tube, draw center lines on it and then center it over the lines I drew on the MDF. I'd screw the holding blocks down while I held the psuedo tube in place.

Cutting the .875 4130 tubing.
I found that the bandsaw is great for cutting out fittings... but when it comes to cutting out tubing it falls a little short. It's good for cutting the tubing close. I think I'll be heading out to get a small chop saw.


Close-up of bandsaw cutting tubing.


Dry run using rough-cut tubing.
Still need to cut angles, notches and cut to exact size.
Wanted to be sure that the tubing was close to size and not too short before proceeding along and cutting the 45's, notches and final trim to size.


Paper pattern for notching tubing.
There is a site on the internet that has this great program. Dial in the size tubing you'll be joining, wall thickness and angle of the two pieces, click and waaalaah... a paper pattern of how the tube needs to be notched. Was originally created for builders making bikes. Go to

Metal Geek if you want to check it out.


Drawing the shape of notch using a paper pattern.
You get the idea. Pretty simple to use. I found that if I copied the pattern into a word document I got the correct size. Copying it as a pdf or jpg didn't produce the correct size... it was either way too big or way too small. Try out a few different ways until you find the one that works for you. This is great for using on one tube running into one tube. Beyond that I'll be using another method that I'll explain later on... when I'm using it.


Filing notches into tube using a LARGE round file.
I tried grinding down the notches on the tubing but it left an angle on the wall of the tube that I had to file down. And it took a long time to just grind it down to a close size. Howard had given me a LARGE round file. I've used it a lot on making my "practice" tubing. Worked then so I figured it'd work now. Marked the pattern on the tube and went to town. Not real fast, not slow either. They all came out beautifully.


Final fitting. Close to welding these puppies up.
The picture here shows the tubes notched and 45's put on the verticals. I cut the 45's using my table saw. What a pain in the arse that is. I'll be looking for that small chopsaw soon. Or something to make cutting angles on tubing a little bit easier. Anywho... just about ready to weld these guys up. Still need to cut to size the 2" pieces that are 3/4's of the way up on the verticals. Then....

There's more... click here for page two.