Latest Work Completed Mantua, New Jersey
Original Site:
September 2004
E-mail: usav8or@yahoo.com
90% completed...
and what feels like 90% to go
That saying about having 90% of your plane finished with
90% still to go applies to each step of the building process, not just for the finished product.
These ribs are never going to be finished. I've put 12 hours on "finishing" the ribs since
the last drop of glue was smeared onto the last rib that needed glueing up. I figure I still have another 4 or 5 hours still to do with working on the trailing edges.
I left the TE (trailing edge) of the ribs raw/unfinished. I figured once I had them glued up and pretty close to being finished I'd make a jig for each rib type. The jig
would "lock" the ribs into the same position. I have a few pieces of plexiglass that I'll be using to make the jigs.
I have an idea or two of how I'll make these jigs. I'll let you know what I do and how it turns out.
May 31, 2007
Finished with all the wing ribs ! NOT !
I was working hard at getting all the final trimming of the ribs finished tonight. Made a few plexi patterns for the nose blocks and trailing edges of the tip ribs.
Pretty basic but they worked at keeping the shape consistent for all like pieces.
Worked a good two hours on it. Stepped back and admired my work. While standing there looking at all those hours, happy with completing the first item on my sequence list, something just didn't seem right.
I picked up the ribs I had just worked on... no, they look perfectly fine. Hmmmmmm... what was out of place ? Why this feeling of something being out of sorts ? Then, out of the corner of my eye I caught something.
There wasn't any movement, it was barely perceptible. Only to this trained eye, of 333.4 hours building ribs, could I have picked up on this.
THERE, hanging on the wall, were about two dozen ribs that STILL needed to have their tail ends trimmed ! I was right ! I'm NeverGoingToGetTheseRibsFinished !
Looks like another hour or two this weekend. Fingers crossed hoping nothing else appears out of the corner of my eye. I'm getting closer to finishing that second 90%.
And here I thought that this was going to be a banner day.
tomorrow... tomorrow... there's always tomorrow... it's only a day away... (what's that? tomorrow never comes? damn !)
Finished up the trimming of the ribs. (sounds like a broken record doesn't it)
Short story just as short. Finished the trimming and went to double check the spacing of the main ribs spars compared to the tip rib spars. Lower Tip Ribs are dead
on. Checked the Upper Tip Ribs.... they must be about 3/16 of an inch off. ARRRRGH ! Unbelieveable ! I actually saw the other day that I didn't lengthen the space
on the Upper Tip Rib plans but thought, at the time, that it wasn't necessary. WRONG !
Didn't learn from the first time and modified these two ribs like I did the first two tip ribs that I made with the wrong spacing.. They'd look ok and be ok and be acceptable. I'm not building this plane for "acceptable." I need to purchased
the wood for the center section still... wood for the two tip ribs will be in with that order. They'll be made right the first time. Well... not the first or second time, but
they'll be made without modifications. Another lesson re-learned. I've been learning a lot lately. I just need to remember what I've learned. Maybe I'd stop making these mistakes.
I was going to mark the Sequence page with an "F." NOT for the quality of work I did but to mark it as Finished since in reality I did complete all ribs. Who'd I be kidding ? I'll just wait until the final trimming is completed on that
last Upper Tip Rib before marking it down as Finished on the Sequence page.
Another two weeks before they're completed ? I'll practice welding while I'm wating on the wood.
Nothing out of the ordinary today. Same schtick that I've done many times in the past; cutting and fitting capstrips, glueing up and weighting down gussets. I could do it with my eyes closed. Felt good to be back working with the
wood though. Comfortable.
I hate to say it... (not really) but tomorrow does indeed look like the day when all the wing ribs are finished. Time to celebrate !
July 2, 2007 Should I... could I.... ?
I'm almost afraid to say it. Can I go out on a limb and say that tonight I placed the last piece in the last wing rib, marking the first
real mile stone in building the Skybolt ?
Has this moment actually arrived ? I've said it before and there has always been the infamous 90% done 90% to go even on one piece of the Skybolt puzzle such as this.
The next time I go down to the workbench I'm gonna say it'll just be a matter of trimming off the excess glue and overhanging gussets. There I said it.
Yes !... I can finally say I'm finished building the wing ribs ! Now, it's just a matter of sealing them from the elements. I'll apply the L-26 sheathing resin during the times I need to fill in with something to keep me busy.
Do ya think I should pinch myself to see if I'm dreaming ? I can't believe that I'm finally finished building the ribs.
July 3, 2007 yep, they're done!
Went down to the workshop to take a looksee and yep, they're finished ! Spent about a half hour sanding and cleaning up the over hang of gussets and excess glue
on both nose blocks. Nice to see that I've put the building of wing ribs behind me.
I wasn't dreaming after all.
January 3, 2010 Modifications...
Mean More work... on the ribs.
Yeahhhhp... the never ending rib building... is still never ending.
Ahhhhhhhhh... A hole needs to be made in the rib at station 2 1/4" (for a tube to pass through,) which means that 1. you need to coat the inside of the 1/16" ply that covers that area, or 2. put balsa filler in there. Number 2 also prevents any dirt, bugs or whathaveyou getting in there. Well, I don't want any whathaveyous getting in there and messing things up. Why I didn't think of this back in July 2007 mystifies me.
In any event, I want it now and now I need to 1. modify the existing ribs or 2. make two new ones. Me being the resourceful, if not forgetful, person that I am, decided to modify the existing. I tried that "heat the knife and soften the glue trick." I took it a step further and used a burnishing tool that I got when I use to carve decoys (for burning the feathers.) BRILLIANT ! I thought.
A half hour later and I'm not thinking "BRILLIANT !" any longer. The forgetfulness that I mentioned earlier was alluding to me thinking I'll take a shortcut, thus saving time, which in the end has never worked for me. I don't know if it was a half hour or forty-five mintues before I decided to hang that "drill" up and start to make new ones. (probably an hour)
After realizing, what I knew all along, that I need to make new ones... I was now looking at the time that I needed to cut all the pieces for two ribs. This meant routing out the nose pieces, cutting all the capstrips and now cutting out the balsa fillers. 3 hours later and I have both nose rib pieces routed and trimmed, and the capstrips and balsa fillers cut for one rib. I wanted to glue these up and say that I had a rib almost finished but better judgement somehow grabbed hold of my senses. The thought occured that tomorrow I could use these as patterns and save myself a few hours of fitting up new pieces. (why that has never occured before escapes me to this day) I'll wait to glue one side of the first rib up tomorrow.
January 5, 2010 More work...
Means More modifying... on the ribs.
Mom, mom, mommy, ma, mom, mom, ma, ma, mommy, mommy... (alluding my alliteration to Stewy on Family Guy)
Yeah... cut 'em... haven't glued 'em.
The second set of balsa fillers and capstrips for the other rib at station 2 1/4 were cut tonight. Glue-up next time.
Maybe... yeah... maybe I'll order the material for the upper wing center section... tonight... tomorrow... hmmm... gotta do it soon. Yes... the life of a biplane builder, or at least one of them.
Hesitation on buying that material for the Upper Wing Center Section is tied in with the "unknown" again. Just like me thinking I'll take a shortcut, thus saving time, which in the end has never worked for me. Me thinking that hesitating will keep me from screwing up something... hesitation has only... slowed the process of building. Once I get into it... piece of cake. A lot of learning... but a piece of cake. yeah... a piece of cake... piece of cake.
February 28, 2010 Yeah...
it ain't so.
Close... but no cigar.
Yeah... cut 'em, the 1/4" capstrips, and balsa fillers... just got the mahogany ply to finish them.
I had enough mahogany plywood to finish these two ribs, but they had a little water damage; just some surface discoloration. Ah... you don't think after all this time and expense I'm going to cut a corner and use this ply. Not on your life.
After a "life time" of figuring out what plywood and sitka spruce I needed for the Upper Wing Center Section, I finally placed that order... and the 2' x 4' ply mahogany ply was waiting to ride on that shipment, thus the forever and a day wait to finish up these two ribs.
Glued up the first side yesterday. Second side today.
I sheathed the entire side of the ribs instead of doing it in three pieces like I did the last time. Having done it like this, I needed to cut the openings out for the forward and rear spars. That probably took 1.3 of the 1.5hrs I spent on it today.
Don't forget to open up the back spar opening for the additional space you need for the spar blocks, like I did the first time.
March 8, 2010 Yeah...
its going slow.
Just not sure what's getting in the way of me putting time in on the biplane. Close to an hour and a half each way to work isn't helping much. Yeah... makin' it an excuse.
First side of the second rib laid up and glued. Second side... tomorrow ?
Like I said earlier... better slow, than no. Let's keep it to at least slow.
Hey, didja ever think of... Fraktal Geometri, Third Level Parallel Universes, Worm Holes and vertical time...
Some deep stuff there... I'd better stick to makin' biplanes. (maybe)
March 9, 2010 Getting out of that routine...
or is that, getting into that routine
Ahhhhhh... home late tonight. Plans of working on the plane start drifting to that part of the brain where things are forgotten about... other things "more pressing" pushing there. Notice the quotes. What the hell can be more pressing than working on your biplane, huh ?
The clock is looking like 9:15PM. And it's looking like I'm not going to work on the biplane AGAIN tonight. Okay... I worked on it last night. This week wasn't a total loss.
That reasoning isn't cutting it... kinda getting old.
I walk the pup and twenty minutes later I'm back. Okay, now it's time for some of my time. Some of my time spent being productive.
Its now a little after 11PM. Yesterday's rib was taken off of the jig and flipped. Glue was mixed, balsa inserts were glued and inserted. Glue applied to the cap strips and the final piece of mahogany ply was laid-up and weighted.
You get into that routine and you don't want to get out of it. And that routine can either be working towards getting that beautiful biplane of yours finished, or that routine can be plopping your butt on the couch and watching some tv.
Which one is it ?... Your choice.
April 17, 2010 Mindless work...
Mind will wander
Hmmm... ??? yeah... Hmmmm... ???
Put in a nice bit of time on the build today. Mindless work... allows the mind to wander. Which lead me to think that the build, the biplane, allows us to connect to the past.
I'm not just talking the connection with old biplanes, which it indeed allows us to do, it allows one to connect with their past. Suppose that any extended period of time, when the mind can drift, there's no telling where it will go.
Okay, back to the build. Needed to cut the holes in the lower butt ribs and cut them down to size.
Took the Dremel tool to cut a lot of that hole out of one of the ribs then filed it down to the correct shape. Next on the agenda was to tackle the shaping of the outside of the rib. I had only rough cut it to the outside shape. I still needed to trim it to the correct shape. Rasp/smooth file/hit it with a bit of sandpaper worked with all the other ribs, might as well use that technique here too.
Finished shaping the outside of the first, then the second... stopped short of cutting out the holes on the second, and final rib. Tomorrow...
Biplanes, watches, bikes, photos, letters... all portals to other times.
April 18, 2010 A few days...
and it's yours
Thinking... "Need to keep this head of steam going." as I'm eating dinner watching the "Bourne Identity" (great movie! I've seen it several times... great book too!). A few weeks ago it would have been... "Wow... the Bourne Ultimatum is on next!"
Tonight...
Figured I'd get the front and back spar openings cut and filed on the last butt rib and then start to cut down the vertical cap strips for the inner and outer ribs for the Upper Wing Center Section and then call it a night. Uhhhhh... the spar openings on the butt rib took one point three hours.
This butt rib was slightly different from the last butt rib in that I glued the second side on before cutting out the opening on the first side. How much more time did that add to the "build"?? Not sure, but it added something.
As a note on filing the plywood. You need to make a cut mark on the outside edge of your ply. If you don't, the file (aka you) is going to nick pieces out of the plywood as you file.
They say "Do it for 21 days and it's yours." Make that... "Do it for a few days" when it comes to buidling a biplane. Actually... "Do it for 3, 4, or 5 years and it's yours."
Note: Above Turtle photo credited to friggy_30 and Fraktal credited to Wanderlinse on Flickr.