Mantua, New Jersey
Original Site:
September 2004
E-mail: usav8or@yahoo.com
December 7, 2007 Give it legs...
and it doesn't need to be
as heavy.
While waiting for the stream-lined tubing, for the landing
gear, I'm keeping busy with making the flooring
and seat back tabs.
Decided to make them similar to Scott (Skybolt540 on the
biplane fourm.) They are slightly modified from a plain
old tab... they have two legs/ears that bend down giving
the tabs more support. (I always thought that the tabs
looked a little lacking in support.) Since these have
that additional support I've decided to reduce the thickness
of the 4130 from .o40 to .o32. I'll be using these thinner
tabs in all areas except where someone would be stepping
directly on or near the tab. In the cockpit of a biplane...
that isn't many areas.
Drew the tab, with ears, in CAD and printed out one pattern.
I thought it might be a good idea, and faster, if I printed
out the one and made a metal pattern from it from which
I could trace the pattern onto the piece of .o32 metal and
go from there. I made two tabs in about an hour and a half.
So much for good ideas.
OK... so it's day two of making tabs for
the floors... decided to try something different; decided
to print out a paper pattern for each of the tabs and so
I did.
Sprayed an area of the .o32 4130 metal with glue and attached
the patterns, I had cut, to the metal. Boelubed up the blade
on the bandsaw and cut all 35 out. Took them to the grinder
to grind down to the right size and shape. C-clamped each
onto the drill press and drilled the hole. Clamped each
one into a bending block and wacked it a few times to put
the 90 degree bend in it for one leg them turned it around
and did likewise for the other leg.
A little over five hours and I had 35 tabs; enough for the
flooring and some for the chair backs. Still need to cut
additional for the chair backs and I'll need to cut a few
tabs out of .o40 for those areas I had mentioned about previously.
Here's the sequence I went through. A special note. Before bending, in a bending block, slit the pattern with an exacto knife so that when you put the first bend in it, it won't move the pattern out of line for your second bend.
You'll see in one of the photos where the pattern is split while still glued to the tab.
After putting both bends in the tabs I took them back to the grinder to round off the front corners.
Drew the tab, with ears, in CAD and printed out one pattern.
I thought it might be a good idea, and faster, if I printed
out the one and made a metal pattern from it from which
I could trace the pattern onto the piece of .o32 metal and
go from there. I made two tabs in about an hour and a half.
So much for good ideas.
A little over five hours and I had 35 tabs; enough for the
flooring and some for the chair backs. Still need to cut
additional for the chair backs and I'll need to cut a few
tabs out of .o40 for those areas I had mentioned about previously.
