Whittle Your Own Airplane

"Wright1902Glider" wrote in message
...
That's funny. The front skids, landing skids, lower tail support, ribs,
and hip
cradle of my Wright machine are all made of ash.

Harry

Because of ash's good bendability, I presume.

Are the skids laminated?
--
Jim in NC

"Veeduber" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
Fellow came by the shop to borrow a Dutch Oven. He works at one of the
local
colleges and is a Boat Person rather than a Plane Person. Boat People
usually
takes their kitchen with him when they travel but he's taking a bunch of
college kids over to Death Valley to count pup fish and the best the
college
could do for chow and equipment was a couple of Sierra cups and some
outdated
MRE's.

I've known this guy maybe twenty years, figure it's safe to loan him a
Dutch
Oven. He's built a couple of boats, knows about wood. I helped him rig
an
aluminum mast, 'way back when sometime. He knows I fiddle with airplanes
but
thought they were always aluminum.

"I thought you only worked in aluminum,' he said. We were out behind the
shop.
Perplexed look on his face, inspecting an aileron that seemed to be
growing
plumes of wood shavings where the ribs attached to the spar. I found the
Dutch
Oven, not too rusty considering it hadn't been used in a year or more.
Took it
in the shop to clean it up. He wasn't leaving til the next day; there
would be
time to season the oven before he left.

I've been making some tail feathers. One set is all corners, simple and
quick
to build. The other is all curves. I had a bundle of pine strips, one
inch
wide but barely an eighth of an inch thick. When he arrived I'd been
scarfing
them into ten-foot strips. Being a Boat Person he knows about scarfing.

"What slope is that?"

I didn't know. I finished cleaning up the Dutch Oven, went in the house
for
some bacon grease, rubbed it down good. You can use vegetable oil if you
want.
When I came back out to the shop he'd found a yo-yo and was measuring the
scarfs.

"That's about sixteen to one," he sounded surprised. Boat people tend to
use
steep scarfs; eight to one; even six

Best I could do was shrug. I honestly had no idea what the slope was,
told him
so. For the second time.

"How can you be sure they'll match if you don't even know what slope
you're
using?"

He sounded kind of stern. I just looked at him. College teacher. Boat
person. He'd figure it out. I waited, kept looking at him.

"Oh!" You could almost see the light bulb go on over his head.

(So long as you cut all of your scarfs using the same set-up, they'll
match.
It doesn't really matter what the angle is.)

The big disk sander was still set up for scarfing. I'd clamped a piece of
2x4
to the table, cocked it around so it formed a very flat angle relative to
the
disk then simply shoved the strips into the gap like sharpening a pencil.
Full
depth, the disk cut a taper about two inches long. The strips are about a
sixty-fourth shy of an eighth, which was how the set-up came out. I
found
some scrap, squared them on the bandsaw, let him scarf them then put them
together to see how they fit. Nice.

Scarf joint is a special case of end-grain gluing. For full strength
across
the joint you need a lot of surface which dictates a nice flat angle.
Producing that angle by sanding presents you with something of a problem..
You
need to get the sanding residue out of the fibers. I coat it with glue
then
scrape it off with a single edged razor blade, then apply fresh glue.
Seems to
work okay, which is good because most of the strips had three splices -
four
pieces of wood. That's the reality of Building On The Cheap, using
whatever
wood is locally available.

I showed him a couple that were already glued, showing off a bit by tying
one
in a knot. They were glued with an epoxy because it's less viscous than
most
of my other glues and epoxy doesn't need a lot of pressure to make a good
joint. To turn short strips into long ones, I taped them to a work bench.
There was a small strip of waxed paper under the glued area but the
alignment
was strictly by eye, sighting down the strip until they aligned then
holding it
in place by taping it to the bench. This leaves the scarf free to lift
up,
apply the glue and check the wet-out. Then another piece of waxed paper
went
over the top followed by a steel plate to provide some weight. Clean-up
is
with a razor after which one edge gets trued up. They aren't perfectly
straight but for making bows, they don't have to be. All you need is one
edge
that is reasonably true. That will be the down-edge when I laminate the
curve,
which should take about fourteen of the strips and about two dozen
sewer-pipe
clamps, plus a couple of real clamps to secure the laminated bow to the
blocks
that make up the curves. Once the bow is cured it will be carved to its
final
shape. Any irregularities in the strips will vanish during the carving.

Out back of the shop I dug around, found the trivet and some fire irons,
showed
him a Squaw Wood kit and explained how to use it, loaned him a pair of
heavy
leather gloves. He kept looking at the aileron with its little tufts of
wood
shavings fluttering in the breeze.

I explained that they were errors. Those particular blocks had shown a
gap
when fitted in place. I didn't want to make up new blocks so I installed
them
square then filled the gap with wood shavings coated with glue on both
sides.
Once the glue is cured I'll sand off the curls. I also pointed out an
error he
hadn't seen, where the disk sander got away from me and gouged a rib.

"How did you keep it in place?" he asked, which was a good question. The
rib
is curved and less than a quarter of an inch thick.

"Clothes pins. Put some waxed paper over the glue." If I couldn't grab
it
with clothes pins I'd of had to use rubber bands or something like that.
Once
the glue had cured I sanded the patch smooth.

"Does it effect the strength?"

"Not there. This all gets covered with cloth; it has to be smooth. Worse
case
load is a few pounds per inch of rib."

He had his nose right down into the thing now looking at the filleted
joints
and the scarfed doublers. And the struts.

"Are those what I think they are?" he pointed to a strut.

"Are you thinking bamboo?"

"Actually, I was thinking shish-ka-bob."

"You sound like my wife. No, those are Aviation Certified bamboo struts."

He gave me a look. I gave him a look. We both grinned.

All loaded up, he started his engine then ran the window down. "I hadn't
really thought about wood in the way you're using it there. What's the
trade-off compared to using aluiminum?" We've talked airplanes before.
He's
dead set against composites, having developed a major reaction to resin.
And
he's not much of a hand with metal. But he likes wood.

"Go play with your pup fish," I told him. "Give me a call when you get
back."
He didn't look too happy with that. "It's not a trivial subject. The
biggest
airplane ever built was made out of wood."

"The Spruce Goose! Up in Long Beach, by the Queen Mary." He'd just
remembered
it was made of wood. His eyes didn't spin around like pin-wheels but they
were
jumping around a lot. You could almost hear the ideas bumping into each
other.

"Up in Oregon, now. And it's mostly birch." I thumped the roof of his
car to
let him know he could take it away. "Call me. I'll show you how to rivet
then
show you how to make a proper glue joint. Once you understand the
procedures
you'll see most of the trade-offs yourself."

"You know, glue provides a continuous bond where rivets only fasten things
together like sewing. Or nails. Or..."

Back in the shop the air compressor cycled on, reminding me I had things
to do.
But I'd lit his fire and he was enjoying the glow. You could hear the
whirr
of his gears. Any minute now I expected to see smoke coming out his ears.
I
thumped the roof again, harder. "Pup fish. Go count some."

He drove off and I went back to work. That aileron really did look like
hell.
I found the drill motor and knocked the curls off the thing. If the
professor
builds an airplane I have a hunch it won't need any gap-fillers.

Cleaning up the aileron, I got to thinking about what he said, about never
having thought of wood as an aviation material. Without really meaning
to, we
fall prey to our prejudices. But given just a glimpse of wood's
versatility
the professor immediately began to see it's advantages. I wonder how many
of
us don a pair of blinders when we look at airplanes?

According to data from the Census of 2000 the median income in the United
States was $27,800. With approximately 135 million wage earners that
means
about 67 million of them are earning LESS than twenty-seven eight. During
that
same period one of the so-called Leaders of Sport Aviation referred to a
$20,000 airplane kit as "inexpensive" and a $25,000 Lycoming as
"affordable."

Kind of makes you wonder who he's talking about. Certainly not any of the
sixty-seven million poor *******s pulling down that median wage. Or less.
Median means middle, you know. 'Average' is what the bean counters like
to
talk about. Average wage, you get to include Billy Gates, the head of the
Stock Exchange, those Enron execs and all of our millionaire Congressmen.
Average income in America is pretty high. But if you plan the future of
American aviation on the Average Income you've just guaranteed the end of
General Aviation as we know it. Come to think of it, I've got a hunch
someone
already has.

Wood isn't very expensive. Yet. While we're all sitting around with our
thumb
up our ass waiting for the bean counters to deliver another unworkable
bureaucratic solution to our steadily dwindling numbers, maybe we should
be
teaching folks how to whittle their own airplanes.

-R.S.Hoover

"Nordica Design" wrote in message
...


I suppose you intended to comment about some part of the message
below, however I don't see the point in just resending someone elses
message, saying nothing.
--

..
--
Cheers,
Jonathan Lowe
whatever at antispam dot net
No email address given because of spam.
Antispam trap in place


"Veeduber" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
Fellow came by the shop to borrow a Dutch Oven. He works at one
of the
local
colleges and is a Boat Person rather than a Plane Person. Boat
People
usually
takes their kitchen with him when they travel but he's taking a
bunch of
college kids over to Death Valley to count pup fish and the best
the
college
could do for chow and equipment was a couple of Sierra cups and
some
outdated
MRE's.

I've known this guy maybe twenty years, figure it's safe to loan
him a
Dutch
Oven. He's built a couple of boats, knows about wood. I helped
him rig
an
aluminum mast, 'way back when sometime. He knows I fiddle with
airplanes
but
thought they were always aluminum.

"I thought you only worked in aluminum,' he said. We were out
behind the
shop.
Perplexed look on his face, inspecting an aileron that seemed to
be
growing
plumes of wood shavings where the ribs attached to the spar. I
found the
Dutch
Oven, not too rusty considering it hadn't been used in a year or
more.
Took it
in the shop to clean it up. He wasn't leaving til the next day;
there
would be
time to season the oven before he left.

I've been making some tail feathers. One set is all corners,
simple and
quick
to build. The other is all curves. I had a bundle of pine
strips, one
inch
wide but barely an eighth of an inch thick. When he arrived I'd
been
scarfing
them into ten-foot strips. Being a Boat Person he knows about
scarfing.

"What slope is that?"

I didn't know. I finished cleaning up the Dutch Oven, went in
the house
for
some bacon grease, rubbed it down good. You can use vegetable
oil if you
want.
When I came back out to the shop he'd found a yo-yo and was
measuring the
scarfs.

"That's about sixteen to one," he sounded surprised. Boat people
tend to
use
steep scarfs; eight to one; even six

Best I could do was shrug. I honestly had no idea what the slope
was,
told him
so. For the second time.

"How can you be sure they'll match if you don't even know what
slope
you're
using?"

He sounded kind of stern. I just looked at him. College
teacher. Boat
person. He'd figure it out. I waited, kept looking at him.

"Oh!" You could almost see the light bulb go on over his head.

(So long as you cut all of your scarfs using the same set-up,
they'll
match.
It doesn't really matter what the angle is.)

The big disk sander was still set up for scarfing. I'd clamped a
piece of
2x4
to the table, cocked it around so it formed a very flat angle
relative to
the
disk then simply shoved the strips into the gap like sharpening a
pencil.
Full
depth, the disk cut a taper about two inches long. The strips
are about a
sixty-fourth shy of an eighth, which was how the set-up came out.
I
found
some scrap, squared them on the bandsaw, let him scarf them then
put them
together to see how they fit. Nice.

Scarf joint is a special case of end-grain gluing. For full
strength
across
the joint you need a lot of surface which dictates a nice flat
angle.
Producing that angle by sanding presents you with something of a
problem..
You
need to get the sanding residue out of the fibers. I coat it
with glue
then
scrape it off with a single edged razor blade, then apply fresh
glue.
Seems to
work okay, which is good because most of the strips had three
splices -
four
pieces of wood. That's the reality of Building On The Cheap,
using
whatever
wood is locally available.

I showed him a couple that were already glued, showing off a bit
by tying
one
in a knot. They were glued with an epoxy because it's less
viscous than
most
of my other glues and epoxy doesn't need a lot of pressure to
make a good
joint. To turn short strips into long ones, I taped them to a
work bench.
There was a small strip of waxed paper under the glued area but
the
alignment
was strictly by eye, sighting down the strip until they aligned
then
holding it
in place by taping it to the bench. This leaves the scarf free
to lift
up,
apply the glue and check the wet-out. Then another piece of
waxed paper
went
over the top followed by a steel plate to provide some weight.
Clean-up
is
with a razor after which one edge gets trued up. They aren't
perfectly
straight but for making bows, they don't have to be. All you
need is one
edge
that is reasonably true. That will be the down-edge when I
laminate the
curve,
which should take about fourteen of the strips and about two
dozen
sewer-pipe
clamps, plus a couple of real clamps to secure the laminated bow
to the
blocks
that make up the curves. Once the bow is cured it will be carved
to its
final
shape. Any irregularities in the strips will vanish during the
carving.

Out back of the shop I dug around, found the trivet and some fire
irons,
showed
him a Squaw Wood kit and explained how to use it, loaned him a
pair of
heavy
leather gloves. He kept looking at the aileron with its little
tufts of
wood
shavings fluttering in the breeze.

I explained that they were errors. Those particular blocks had
shown a
gap
when fitted in place. I didn't want to make up new blocks so I
installed
them
square then filled the gap with wood shavings coated with glue on
both
sides.
Once the glue is cured I'll sand off the curls. I also pointed
out an
error he
hadn't seen, where the disk sander got away from me and gouged a
rib.

"How did you keep it in place?" he asked, which was a good
question. The
rib
is curved and less than a quarter of an inch thick.

"Clothes pins. Put some waxed paper over the glue." If I
couldn't grab
it
with clothes pins I'd of had to use rubber bands or something
like that.
Once
the glue had cured I sanded the patch smooth.

"Does it effect the strength?"

"Not there. This all gets covered with cloth; it has to be
smooth. Worse
case
load is a few pounds per inch of rib."

He had his nose right down into the thing now looking at the
filleted
joints
and the scarfed doublers. And the struts.

"Are those what I think they are?" he pointed to a strut.

"Are you thinking bamboo?"

"Actually, I was thinking shish-ka-bob."

"You sound like my wife. No, those are Aviation Certified bamboo
struts."

He gave me a look. I gave him a look. We both grinned.

All loaded up, he started his engine then ran the window down.
"I hadn't
really thought about wood in the way you're using it there.
What's the
trade-off compared to using aluiminum?" We've talked airplanes
before.
He's
dead set against composites, having developed a major reaction to
resin.
And
he's not much of a hand with metal. But he likes wood.

"Go play with your pup fish," I told him. "Give me a call when
you get
back."
He didn't look too happy with that. "It's not a trivial subject.
The
biggest
airplane ever built was made out of wood."

"The Spruce Goose! Up in Long Beach, by the Queen Mary." He'd
just
remembered
it was made of wood. His eyes didn't spin around like pin-wheels
but they
were
jumping around a lot. You could almost hear the ideas bumping
into each
other.

"Up in Oregon, now. And it's mostly birch." I thumped the roof
of his
car to
let him know he could take it away. "Call me. I'll show you how
to rivet
then
show you how to make a proper glue joint. Once you understand
the
procedures
you'll see most of the trade-offs yourself."

"You know, glue provides a continuous bond where rivets only
fasten things
together like sewing. Or nails. Or..."

Back in the shop the air compressor cycled on, reminding me I had
things
to do.
But I'd lit his fire and he was enjoying the glow. You could
hear the
whirr
of his gears. Any minute now I expected to see smoke coming out
his ears.
I
thumped the roof again, harder. "Pup fish. Go count some."

He drove off and I went back to work. That aileron really did
look like
hell.
I found the drill motor and knocked the curls off the thing. If
the
professor
builds an airplane I have a hunch it won't need any gap-fillers.

Cleaning up the aileron, I got to thinking about what he said,
about never
having thought of wood as an aviation material. Without really
meaning
to, we
fall prey to our prejudices. But given just a glimpse of wood's
versatility
the professor immediately began to see it's advantages. I wonder
how many
of
us don a pair of blinders when we look at airplanes?

According to data from the Census of 2000 the median income in
the United
States was $27,800. With approximately 135 million wage earners
that
means
about 67 million of them are earning LESS than twenty-seven
eight. During
that
same period one of the so-called Leaders of Sport Aviation
referred to a
$20,000 airplane kit as "inexpensive" and a $25,000 Lycoming as
"affordable."

Kind of makes you wonder who he's talking about. Certainly not
any of the
sixty-seven million poor *******s pulling down that median wage.
Or less.
Median means middle, you know. 'Average' is what the bean
counters like
to
talk about. Average wage, you get to include Billy Gates, the
head of the
Stock Exchange, those Enron execs and all of our millionaire
Congressmen.
Average income in America is pretty high. But if you plan the
future of
American aviation on the Average Income you've just guaranteed
the end of
General Aviation as we know it. Come to think of it, I've got a
hunch
someone
already has.

Wood isn't very expensive. Yet. While we're all sitting around
with our
thumb
up our ass waiting for the bean counters to deliver another
unworkable
bureaucratic solution to our steadily dwindling numbers, maybe we
should
be
teaching folks how to whittle their own airplanes.

-R.S.Hoover

And your point of keeping the whole message intact and resending is?????

Model Flyer wrote:
"Nordica Design" wrote in message
...


I suppose you intended to comment about some part of the message
below, however I don't see the point in just resending someone elses
message, saying nothing.
--

.
--
Cheers,
Jonathan Lowe
whatever at antispam dot net
No email address given because of spam.
Antispam trap in place



"Veeduber" a écrit dans le message de news:
...

Fellow came by the shop to borrow a Dutch Oven. He works at one

of the

local

colleges and is a Boat Person rather than a Plane Person. Boat

People


***SNIP***

"Jerry Springer" wrote in message
nk.net...
And your point of keeping the whole message intact and resending
is?????


I did hope that if the whole message was included you may make the
comment you intended.
--

..
--
Cheers,
Jonathan Lowe
whatever at antispam dot net
No email address given because of spam.
Antispam trap in place


Model Flyer wrote:
"Nordica Design" wrote in message
...


I suppose you intended to comment about some part of the message
below, however I don't see the point in just resending someone
elses
message, saying nothing.
--

.
--
Cheers,
Jonathan Lowe
whatever at antispam dot net
No email address given because of spam.
Antispam trap in place



"Veeduber" a écrit dans le message de news:
...

Fellow came by the shop to borrow a Dutch Oven. He works at one

of the

local

colleges and is a Boat Person rather than a Plane Person. Boat

People


***SNIP***