National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

Rich,

The automatic punch will even punch through fabric to test tubing, but would only do it sparingly and on the bottom of tubing. Do not want to open up a hole for light to get into through the silver doped fabric.

Joe

The old formers and strings were showing there age, so I've been making new. A 2x4 sheet of 1/4" mahogany will do, but I hope to extend the baggage, hence the 4x4 sheet. I used both left and right sides to lay out the formers to use the new plywood efficiently, but used only one side to trace out the new formers. I was concerned there may be some differences between the left and right. Then match drilled for the new stringers and attach points.











nkh

New stringers being fit...



Some relief had to be done on the stringers...











All temporarily attached with rib stitch cord.



Still some fitting needs to be done...



nkh

Keep going! Middletown 2014 is not that far away!

I'm jealous Nate. At least you are getting to work on your bird. It's been weeks since I've pulled the hanger door open.

Looking good Nathan! Keep the photos coming (how come you can post photos and I can't ...must be doing something wrong ). Anyway, I've decided I'll have to make all new bulkheads for the Chief. Many look like they were deformed as the fabric was tightened, although they were most likely original.
On my L16 the bulkheads were reinforced by the previous owner by running a vertical 3/4 inch strip top to bottom to prevent crushing down.
Mike

Jeff, post a pic of your project. You're fairly close aren't you? Wings and fuselage about done?

Mike, check this post about the photos... http://www.joea.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5982
I'm putting some serious thought into adding strips to the backside of the formers. My old ones had a little bit of bow in them, but at the same time, I'm trying to save weight where ever possible.

nkh

still need to tape the fuselage. Engine/wings done.....just need time that my boy is occupying right now. No regrets, but wished I'd got done before he arrived. Kinda threw a kink in the paper work. WAIT....I'm not telling you anything you don't know.

Confession is good for the soul... After finding the crack in my right front spar, I got a new blank from ACSpruce and proceeded to mill it out. Well... I'm still trying to figure out how it happened, but I drilled the root fitting holes about 3/8" off...



The good news; now I have some extra 3/4" spruce laying around to rebuild the birdcage. This is normally a good place to recycle your old spars.



I made the bows that go between the spar carrythrough's first, but neglected to take any photos... So here is the process to match form the rear ramps...

First I screw the two halves together...



Then cut the notch for the aileron balance cable, using the drill press for the corners, table saw as a dato cut, then finished with the bandsaw.



Then cut out the shape leaving the pencil line and the tabs holding the two halves together.



Then sanded the ramps smooth, taking them to the pencil line.



Holding the halves with clamps, I finished the cut and sanded them smooth.





Now line them up with the hoops to make a match cut.



And match the angle, about 5*.



The resulting nice tight fit and a 1/4 setback for the skylight.



The cross members are a little proud so they can be formed to match the bows... Haven't figured how I'll do that yet...



And a little relief for that thing.... Honestly I don't know it's true purpose..





nkh

One tip to mention...

I made the bows that go fore/aft first and I think that's important because everything it scaled off them. I matched the two halve exactly like is shown above, but I made a critical error. I assumed the bolt holes were the same between left and right. They are NOT. Luckily it was only off by a 1/4 hole, so I enolgated the wood hole and trucked on. Live and learn.

nkh

Never mind.

Figured it out, but can't delete the post.