Progress Update

There have been a few significant changes to what I'm doing with the project.

First, a friend of mine found a small crack and knot in one of the main spars (front spars on the top wing). Long story short, I ordered a new pair of blanks from Wicks. Haven't opened the box yet, but they're sitting in the garage.

Second, I decided that the workmanship on most of my ribs is lousy—airworthy, but ugly. Instead of having to make excuses to the FAA examiner when he looks at my project before covering, I decided I would rebuild the ribs and that from here on out I would set a new standard and do my best on everything. More than just staying together in flight, I want the workmanship to be my best.

Lucky for you, I have started a YouTube channel dedicated to aviation (called Aviation Fanatic) and am documenting my Super Baby Great Lakes build there, so you can see more info in what's involved. It looks like I'm on track for having all the ribs done in a total of 6-8 weeks—that should be within the next 2-3 weeks. I will continue to use this blog to document the build, too, so check both here and on the YouTube channel to get maximum info.

I plan on ordering the wing assembly kit next Monday (December 15th). So, immediately upon completing the ribs, I can begin wing assembly.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy the videos.

Jay

Woodwork on the Wings is Done!

Well, after loads of procrastinating—and just doing other stuff—I've been going gangbusters on the plane over the past month or so. I've completed the butt ribs (the innermost ribs on all four wings that go near the fuselage on the lower wing and near each other on the upper wing), the ailerons, and some other tweaks on the upper wing ribs.

I am not completely done with these wood pieces. There are some things that will need to be hand fit after I get the hardware and begin assembling the wings. However, I've done as much as I can do at this point.

After sitting for over a year, the epoxy was bad (its shelf life is one year), so I had to buy another epoxy kit (about $60). If you build your own plane, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to finish the wing(s) in a year and avoid wasting sixty bucks on another quart of epoxy.

Next will be to purchase the hardware kits for assembling the wings. There is one main one and a few small ones. The total cost will be in the neighborhood of $1,500.

One of the upper wing butt ribs. I put epoxy on the 1/4" x 3/4" piece,
then just worked my way along, nailing and bending it as I went.

A closeup of the nailing on a butt rib.

The instructions suggested adding a brace between these
two pieces of wood to keep them standing perpendicular
to the plywood, but I didn't find that was necessary. You
can see the lines for the spars I drew on the plywood.
I cut these openings out with a chisel. During final
assembly, I will probably need to enlarge them slightly
to make room for the brackets that hold the wing to
the fuselage.

To speed along this process, I started a bunch of nails, then
worked my way along, pressing the stick in flush and
pounding that nail in, then moving to the next one.

Here's one aileron. The sheet of plans for the ailerons is complicated.
I think I got it right, though. After you're done, it doesn't seem so bad.
I'll add the butt ribs onto the ailerons after I get the hardware, as I'll
need to cut a hole in them for the "spigot." I don't even know what
is, but the plans reference it. I'm sure it will become clear after I get
the hardware (I think it must have to do with the hinge and tube that
rotates the ailerons). The wood kit didn't include 1/4" x 1/4" triangular
stock for the bracing in the corners where the rib is on either side of
the spar, but square stock should work just fine, and I had plenty
left over from the wing ribs. You can see these on the three ribs
along the aileron spar in this picture.

My pile of parts. This is all the ribs and the two ailerons.

Upper Wing Ribs Done

Although not a huge deal, I consider this a sort of landmark. The ribs for the upper wing are done (14 of them). Although not quite perfect, I'm satisfied with how they turned out, considering I've never done this before. Here are some pics:

About Constructing a Rib

Moon, gluing the gussets on a mostly-finished rib.

Resin, hardener, disposable glue brushes, Popsicle sticks for mixing the epoxy, and measuring and metering devices.

I suck 10 milliliters of resin out of its container and deposit it into the graduated cylinder. Then I pour 1 milliliter of hardener in on top of it. I use the Popsicle stick to mix the two together. Then, I just dip the brush into the graduated cylinder and spread the glue on the joints.

10 milliliters of resin. It looks like a bit more than that due to surface tension. Now, I'll add a milliliter of hardener.

All the pieces of a rib, ready to be glued up.

Adding the tiny nails after gluing to hold the gussets in place while the epoxy cures.

When I first build a rib, I use nails to hold the gussets in place while the epoxy cures. When I glue the gussets on the other side of the rib, after removing it from the jig a day after building it, I place the jig (with a new rib in it) on top of it overnight. The weight from the jig provides plenty of pressure to give good joints.

Rib Number One

After what seems like a long while and lots of waiting, I finally glued up the first rib. I cut out all the pieces of wood for all 28 ribs before starting. I'm hoping to build one rib per day until they're all complete. The epoxy has to set up for about 24 hours, so one a day is all I can do, since I built only one jig.

Cutting 1/4" x 1/4" spruce with my miter saw.

A pile of pieces with a bronze Lie Nielsen block plane in the background.

Some parts in a baggie with the jig underneath.

I clamped this piece of scrap wood to the table on my oscillating belt sander to use as a fence to create steep angles on the cap strips where they meet at the trailing edge of the rib.

Cap strips, ready to go.

Stage one of cutting out the rib leading edges from plywood.

Cutting out the jig for creating the leading edges.

I'm using feeler gauges both in front of and behind scrap blocks made from the spars (.035" and .010") to create a little space where the spars will go. This is because the upper wings are swept slightly, but the ribs run parallel to the slipstream, so there needs to be a little wiggle room for the angle when I slip the ribs over the spars.

Rib number one glued up. I'll glue the gussets to the other side when I remove the rib from the jig tomorrow evening. The epoxy is not at all what I expected. It was white and runny. Doesn't seem right, but that's what Aircraft Spruce sent me and I think I mixed it right. Hopefully, the rib won't fall to pieces when I remove it from the jig tomorrow. I bought a small graduated cylinder to mix up the epoxy. It's a 25ml cylinder and I chopped it in half since I don't need all that capacity and want easier access for stirring and dipping my disposable glue brush. It worked okay as a container for mixing the epoxy, except it was a bit messy pouring the epoxy into the cylinder. Maybe I'll come up with a neater way to pour it in.

Let the building begin!

Today, my first kit arrived—3 weeks and twelve-hundred dollars later! I believe this kit contains all the wood necessary to build both the upper and lower wings. I'm going to need some luck figuring out what all the pieces are for. The spars are obvious. I think I know which pieces are the spars for the ailerons. I've got an idea which pieces to use for all the rib bracing. However, there are lots of other pieces and several sheets of plywood. I hope the instructions and plans shed some light on what's what.

These are the four boxes that arrived today.

These are the contents of the four boxes:
plywood, epoxy, spars, and tons of smaller pieces of wood.

Building the wing rib jig

I'm currently building the jig for the wing ribs. It's simply 3/4" MDF with the paper template glued to it. The instructions said to glue the template to lighter MDF (or similar material), then shape it exactly to the drawing, then use that to draw an outline on heavier MDF. That didn't make sense to me, so I just stuck the paper directly on the heavier MDF. Instead of gluing pieces of wood to the jig, I'm using 1/4" x 1" steel pins, as epoxy won't stick to them. I saw this done by another builder and thought it made sense. The pins were expensive (I spent about $25 on them), but I think it's a nice solution. I still need to cut a few small pieces of spar to glue to the jig, but I don't have the 1st wood kit yet. After I attach those to the jig, it will be done, and I can begin to build ribs.

Drilling holes in the MDF to accept the alignment pins.

It was challenging getting the holes drilled perfectly. I had to re-do a couple,
but that shouldn't be a problem.

The drill press is essential for getting the pins perpendicular
to the MDF. A hand drill jig would work, too.

All holes drilled and all pins inserted. Just need to glue on spar fragments.
I'll add screws to them, too. Since the upper wing is swept, but the ribs are
parallel to the slipstream, there needs to be a little wiggle room where the
spars go through all the ribs. This space will be provided by 5-thousandths
and 35-thousandths shims on either side of the spar fragments. That way,
I can't get the pieces of wood too close to the spars when I build a rib.