The slow moving progress of the
project began 
to speed up!
I made the vertical jig by taking 5/8" particle board and
laying out the cross-section of the fuselage on it (2'2"
by 2'1"). I then bored 3/4" holes at the corners with
a Forstner bit and 
carefully cut along
the intersecting centerlines. When I settled the jig into place
it became very apparent that the only holes needed were the ones
for the top (now bottom) longerons. (see
the photo to the right)
I cut the top sides of the jig back to 25 1/4" centered
and fit it between the fuselage sides. Perfect fit! The darn
thing squared up the sides beautifully! Everything, that is,
except the aft half that 
splayed
out a little too much. The high tech answer? Why, simply tie
the silly thing together with string until we can get the tubes
tacked in! Hey, this is a biplane, not the space shuttle! (Actually, in the picture, that's exactly what
we were saying while laughing at the idea.) The irony was not lost on me that this is exactly
what we do to turkey legs.
Began work on the cross tubes
when I suddenly discovered that I had laid out everything between
stations one and two incorrectly. So, everything came off the
jig while I fixed that. 
As
long as I had the jig cleared, I double checked the remainder
of the layout only to find that everything else was fine. A nice
comfort factor.
After fitting the fuselage sides
back on the jig and realigning 
everything,
I was ready to start cutting tubes again. By this time, Mitch
and Dale stopped by to see how things were 
going.
Mitch was anxious to try his hand at fuselage work and ended
up cutting just about every tube needed in the center of the
fuselage. What a deal! We also spent some time letting him weld
a bit, but not on the aircraft! That's mine to mess up! Turns
out he's a natural at it all. He should really build an aircraft
- something with two sets of wings maybe....and it should start
with an "H".......hint, hint.
The following week, I came out and tacked everything up. Now I'm ready to close the tail and nose on her! The plan is to get the fuselage off the jig before the snow flies!
.
| RETURN TO LOGS PAGE |