It may appear that I haven’t been doing much. Whilst I have had a lot of travel for work and home…I have still be plugging away.
After completing the upper wing centre section, I have moved on to the Ribs for the wings. I was fortunate enough to find some complete, upper wing ribs, spare from a project around Cairns in Qld. Australia. They are in great condition and have never been used so that halved my workload! Onto building the wing ribs for the lower wing.
It took me a while to get the rib jigs sorted out. Turns out there are a couple of pages that had the included instructions that said to use the wrong jig number. Anyway, after some head scratching and swapping jigs, I found the right ones and got underway.
The process is pretty simple using the jigs. Layout some baking paper on the jig, load the mahogany ply cut out pieces that push out from the template…trim capstrip to size and glue!
I have a routine going that is largely a 48 hour cycle. Day one punch out pieces layout and cut capstrip. Morning of Day 2 – glue together. I can do a rib in about 40 minutes. Leave to dry 12 hours then break out of the jig. It is a little monotonous, but good watching the pile of finished ribs continue to grow.
I won’t post many of these photos as they are all the same!!
A Steen Skybolt 