Latest Work Completed Mantua, New Jersey
Original Site:
September 2004
E-mail: usav8or@yahoo.com
More... The Radical Radial Fuselage.
January 17, 2008 Taking it up a notch...
Seems like the more money you throw at something, the easier it gets. Or so it seems. Fought with the thought of buying the tube notcher all day today.
Weighing the arguments. Actually there were no good arguments against it.
I had a discussion on the forum with Dale, one of the guys on the forum putting one of those round engines on the front of his Skybolt, It went something like this:
Dale:If you had the jig tables set-up for your Skybolt fuse, and all the tubing, give me ten hours and I will have the Skybolt fuse (except for the cabane and gear) all tacked and ready for finish weld.
Me: In a few weeks I'll be doing just that... tacking the fuselage. If you can get that chapter written for the manual by then I'd much appreciate it.
Dale: LOL, I wasn't volunteering for that. Just stating the obvious.
Dale ended up writing a nice piece on using the Joint Jigger. Convincing enough that I put the money down on one today. It should be arriving in about a week. Another learning curve
I can write about.
You might recall that I wrote about the Joint Jigger about a year ago, saying how much of a waste of time and money it was... at least that is what I was told. Well, what Dale wrote and the experience I had
the other night "cutting" tubing, I decided that the $150.00 was worth a looksee.
January 24, 2007 Cuttin' tube...
more like cuttin' budda
As with anything new... we're hesitant to take the first step and get workin' on it, or whatever it is that's new. Over the years you learn that you've got to take that first step, be it this minute, in a day, a week, or years from now.
Awhile back I caught on to that game and with a few swift kicks to my own arse... I get on with it. The Joint Jigger, in point.
Got that beast of a tube holder yesterday. Nice looking, well worth the money spent even if it were to just sit on a shelf in my shop. But, NOT !
Again, that piece Dale wrote convinced me to go ahead and have a looksee. I didn't realize how right he was until I took that first cut with the hole saw using that Jigger. Yeah, I thought it would be a good thing to use once I got the knack of
it, but I figured it'd take awhile to understand it's nuances... learn it's ways.
Let me tell, you now, if I haven't told you yet. It doesn't get much easier than this for notching tubing.
I'm not going to go into detail on how
you go about doing it because the man himself wrote the "directions" and he's been using it for years. I'll be making a page up on it for ya'll to read (got Dale's permission to post it here.) That is, if you haven't joined the FREE biplane forum (which I highly suggest) where you can view it in their Builder's Manual.
Did I say it cut like budda... it cut like a hot knife goin' thru budda. Got a fuselage still to cut and weld ? Take Dale's advice and buy yourself that Joint Jigger... and read his article. I'm not one for doing a jigga-de-jig, but...
A few pictures for your viewing pleasure
My first cut using the Joint Jigger.
nice...
A different cut without the benefit of using the Joint Jigger.
Don't ask me what happened.