Leo's new toy

Remember Christmas morning? Waiting to unwrap those toys under the tree. It was magical, just think of the fun you were going to have with that new bicycle, model airplane, or science kit. Now it's different. Instead of cool toys, we get pajamas, or a tie. Makes you long for the good ol' days.

So, since our manly needs aren't being met by the packages under the tree, we have reverted to making our toys (sometimes). It's actually quite rewarding. We take a piece of scrap, a saw, and a vice, and voila, a cool new toy!

Leo needs a pipe flatner/bender (I am sure there is a more official name). The drawing below shows an example of what he needs it for. The pipe shown has to be attached at each end with a bolt, at a specific angle. So it must be flattened, bent, and drilled. Okay, drilling can be done with one of the six drill presses we have, but we don't have a flattener/bender thingy. 

This is one of those parts that is easy to draw, but hard to make (unless you have the right toy tool).

Leo saw this article written by Tony Bingelis, and her went to work.

The tool is simply a stout pair of angle iron, cut and bent to the shape shown, and inserted in a vice. This one is for symmetric flattening/bending.

 This one is for asymmetric flattening/bending.

And her is a little better photo from a different angle.

I thought it would be fun to wrap it up in a brightly colored package and put Leo's name on it. Hey, how long until April 1st?

Tool Time

I thought it would be good to take a look around the glider project and see what kind of tools it takes to build an airplane:

Table saw

Radial arm saw, one of two.

Bench grinder and small sheet metal brake, for small quick jobs.

Large sheet metal brake with shear and slip roll, for larger or more complicated jobs.

Drill press, three of six, were rich! Why six? Because six were donated, and they can be used for so many things. Drilling holes, taping threads, sanding (with disks or drums). In fact, if multiple parts are needed, an assembly line can be set up with each drill press loaded with a different tool, then the parts can be drilled, sanded, etc; with out changing tools, simply by moving the piece from one drill press to the next!

Compound miter saw

12 inch x 6.9 inch planer, very good (fast) for reducing a thick board to a thin board.

Router with bench-top stand

Jig saw

Oscillating sander (concave curves) and disc sander (straight and convex curves)

Band saw. 

Mark, thanks for showing us how to tweek a plywood widget

Paul standing next to a turret sander. Turret sander? the thing his hand is setting on is the "turret". It is four sided and can be easily rotated to select any one of four different tools. Thus, multiple tools can be switched rapidly for parts that require many different operations. 

6 1/8 inch jointer/planer

Jointer/planer, close up view

Did you recognize any of the above tools? Maybe? Probably?

Think about this. If you are familiar with these tools, you can build an airplane! Maybe you are familiar with some of these tools, but not all. Never fear. Most of us are (or have been) in that same situation. We will never know EVERYTHING we need to know when we start a project. But, and I emphasize the BUT, if we have the desire, and some basic skills, we can develop the other skills needed to accomplish the tasks (yes, this applies to other things in life besides building airplanes). If you use any tools on a regular or semi-regular basis, then you have developed the necessary hand-to-eye coordination that will be used when learning how to use other tools. An old boss (Ken) once told me something that I have never forgotten.

"We don't wait to start a trip to New York City until all the traffic lights are green [that would never happen]. We start driving and when we come to the first red-light, we deal with it. The same with each red light we encounter. Eventually, we reach our destination"

Thank you, Ken.

So it is with any project. Don't be timid. Yes, we must plan, but we don't wait for all the lights to turn green.

If you live in the area, come and join us as we build an airplane, especially if you are considering building your own airplane. We have fun and fellowship, and learn about lots of interesting aviation stuff.

Aileron Ribs

I like the following series of photos because it helps to understand the engineering process. First, you start with a design, in this case a drawing of an aileron rib.

Then you build it, but how? Do you take all of those measurements and put them on each rib? Heavens no. that would take forever, which BTW is a very long time, and we would like to speed things up a bit. So, Leo took the drawing and glued it to a piece of aviation plywood, then cut it out. Much faster, but if he did that for each one it would take a little less than forever. 

So, he used the first rib as a templete to make the others. Hmm, now you're talking speed. 

 This is rib number two, which looks a lot like rib number one except it doesn't have the paper drawing attached.

Reminds me of the story about rabbits, start with two, then . . . 

 Can you see the differences?

Look careful, see any other differences?

Occasionally the design requires some deviations. As we get farther along on the aileron assembly you will see why these differences are so important.

Wassat?

Cool looking doodad . . .

Micarta sleeve bearing

This is a bearing for an aileron. It is a simple structure that provides rotation (sleeve bearing), and reinforcement for the tube that rotates inside. The micarta is attached somewhere on an aileron, and our best guess so far is shown below.

As the aileron is raised or lowered it turns on a tube that rotates inside the micarta.

BTW, what is micarta? It is cloth (linen, canvas, paper, fiberglass, carbon fiber, or other fabric) that is in a thermoset plastic. George Westinghouse started using phenolic resin as the thermoset plastic in 1910. So, it seems that this was the beginnings of what we now know as fiberglass.

So, now we have a new word. Wonder where we can use it? 

"Hey Honey, have you seen my high voltage micarta?"  

"They plates are flimsy, they should have made them out of micarta."

"Hey honey, when you are at the grocery store, could you pick up some half inch high pressure thermoset micarta?"

Yeah, we'll have lots of fun with this word. . . .

P.S. It is pronounced my-carta, not me-carta. I just noticed my voice synthesizer butchered it, ha.