It's starting to look like a wing!  After a lot of time spent on the spars, I finally started putting things together.  I had a bit of a set back when I realized I had cut my rear spars short.  So I scarfed 6" onto the ends of each spar.  Not a big deal; I had done scarf joints building boats long ago. 

Hear is the spar (top piece) and the piece I am adding.  It took about an hour to prep each piece using a hand plane; old school!

Checking the fit; it needed just a little more work to get it right.

 
I glued the joint with T88 epoxy and left the space heater on over night to cure.

One spar trimmed and the other one ready to cut.  I did some testing on the cut off piece and every break I made in the wood fractured some place other than the scarf joint.  Very pleased with the outcome.

 

As I said ..... old school and loving every minute of it.

Finished spars ready to go.  Next, make a couple of stands for the table and start fitting ribs.

And so it begins!

New Years Day 2010!  This is a piece of spruce about 1/4" thick that I am using to mock up the wing tip bow.  I wanted to do this before continuing to make sure the lengths of my spars were close.  Turns out they look about right.  Now for more ribs .....

My next step was to procure the compression strut fittings for the wing.  These pieces look like little flying saucers.   Well, these are available from Wag Aero for about $20 each.  The wing needs 16 of these so the price would be about $325 or so with shipping.  Well, I am way to cheap to go that rout.  So, I thought about some alternate ways to make the struts.  The struts are also used to secure the drag and anti drag wires that crisscross the wing.  I did attempt to make my own die and punch and had pretty good luck but without a lathe, it was not going to happen.  So, out to the Wag Builders yahoo to see how to do this with out spending so much $$$.  another builder sent me pictures of a die and punch he made and the finished fittings.  so, after an exchange of emails. he graciously agreed to lend me the tooling so I could make my own.  So, off the the local steel supplier for some 18g mild steel and to Sears for a hole saw and I was ready to go.  How much is all this costing?  The steel was about $10, and the hole saw was $16.  Shipping the die both ways about $28 so less than $60 for everything.  Not bad.  Yes I did save a bunch of money but it did take me about a week (maybe 20 hours) to make them.  I decided to make two sets since I was set up so I made a total of 34 of the fittings.  Second wing some day???  Another project???  Who knows.  So my cost was about   $2 each.  So it cost me $60 to make about $750 worth of parts.  Not abad savings and I learned a lot.  Now for some pictures.

Here is the hole saw being used to cut the disks.  The center hole was than dtilled out to 3/8" to fit the tooling.

Here is a picture of the borrowed punch and die.  Thanks Keith!

I used a press to form the parts with the die.  The edges tended to curl up some as I applied pressure so I used a wooden block and hammer to flatten things a couple of times during the forming process.  

Removing he punch shows the formed piece.

I told you it looked like a little flying saucer. 

Here are all the formed pieces before drilling.  The die has guied holes for the drilling.  I wound up having to drill the holes than ream them a little oversize so they would fit the lift strut attach fittings but I think that will work out just fine.  I reamed then to .261 for a 1/4" bolt.  Normally I would not want this large a hole but the bolts are in compression not shear so I think it will be ok.  The holes for the bolts in the spars will be about .252 for the 1/4" bolts so things should be snug. 

This picture shows the guide holes nicely for the drilling.

Lots of finished fittings!  Each hole had to be de-burred and all the edges had to be sanded.  These did take a lot of time but most of it was during two snow days from work so it was like free money!  Love working in the snowy mountains and living in the dry desert!!!  

This is the finished product with the nipple for the drag wire in place.  All in all, I am very happy with the outcome and savings.  I also learned a lot and that is the name of the game.  My next step will be to put the ribs onto the wing spars and weld up the compression struts and start bolting things in place.

Again, a LONG time between updates.  I have been working a bunch lately but had to take some time off at the beginning of the school year due to work load (paying work load that is).  So, what have I been doing?  I finished the spars; all cut, surfaced, and plywood glued on the ends (twice!).  I also have finished the wing attach fittings and made a set of compression strut fittings.  Does not sound like much.  Well, like many steps, these took a lot longer than I thought and I had to rework the ends of the front spars.  Lets run through this with pictures.

First, the spars with the plywood plates being glued on the attach ends.  DO NOT glue all the plywood reinforcements on before sliding the ribs on as they will not fit over the ply.  No, I did not make that mistake. 
  

Next, time to make the attach fittings and the doublers that are welded together for each spar.  First, I rough cut the pieces of .090 4130.  This took a long time using my angle grinder.  Then, I tack weld them all together into a single stack.  I do this so that I cn drills all the holes at once to make sure they are all the same.

The above picture shows the pieces drilled after welding.  Next, I separated them and finished the shapes with my grinder and belt sander.  That took a lot of time.

Nest, making the doubler that gores between the two pieces of steel on each side of the spars.  This "U" channel is very difficult to make exact so I made them out of two pieces and welded together.  I saw this method on the EAA "Hints for Home Builders".  Check it out if you have not seen them; great help.

 

This picture shows the two halves with a spacer and bolt holding them together.  The spacer is precisely ground to the exact inside dimension of the fitting.  Side note:  this is when I discovered that the plywood glued to the spars was '010 thicker than needed and my sparswere about .030 over.  Well, I found out that they would not fit the fuselage.  So, I had to remove the ply with my grinder and resurface by hand the spar to the correct thickness and glue on new plywood.  This took about a week to get right.  Now I know they will fit the fuselage.

 

This picture shows a test fit before welding the doubler together.  After welding, I made a jig to hokd the doubler in place with the two sides for welding.

 

The jig worked great.  The end burned but I cut it off as I did not need it after the first one was welded. 

Finished fittings. These took me about a month including the reworking of the spars.

All four finished and fitted to spars.  I'm not sure yet when I will drill the holes.

Fitting on the fuselage!  Success.  Next step, making the compression strut fittings.  Hint:  I did not want to spend $300 buying g the fittings so I made them my self. 
 

Finished plywood pieces.

Using the planer to make the cap strips.  This took a long time so I wound up buying about half the strips for about $50!

Lots of cutting on the band saw!

Strips ready to glue, top caps bent and ready.

Gluing the first rib, very big step.  Lots to repeat, 26 for both wings plus about the same false ribs. 
Lots of little parts in the bins, already made.



 

I decided to move into the house, much cooler. 

OK, this turned out to be much better than the card table in the middle of the room.  Misty seemed to agree with her watchful gaze.

Three a day was the rate of production.  Each rib took about two hours with 4 hours drying time.  Do the math, long days!  Ann was with her Mom so I worked very long days.

Die springs finished! 
  
I won't go into too much detail but I have included some photos.  I have also included the final drawings for the struts.  I had a few changes like ........ well I had the slot on the inner tube going the wrong way (pointed out to me very kindly, thank you) and some minor dimension changes along with the actual length for my 2+2.

Below is the first fit of the struts. I raised up the wheels to get them 90 degrees to the floor to establish the strut length.  1/2" was latter subtracted to allow for load on the gear with the finished aircraft.


Next I cut the struts to the correct length and reinstalled.  I marked the inner hole location using the outer slot for a guide.  Then. driller hole and re assembled.  I then marked the inner slot and to took everything apart and cut the slot with a dremel. 

Next, compress the spring.....

and then put everything together and it all fit!!!

I know this is a bit brief but their are lots of ways to put this together and if you understand the plans than you will be able to build this using ways you are used to doing things.  After drilling a few holes in the tail feathers I forgot than it's on to the wings!

Die Springs ........ v2.0.   I spent some time over the past week or so making parts for my second set of die springs.  The first set I made are now cut into pieces to remove the springs.  Other than the spring removal issue, I also did not like the bushings as installed.  I will be increasing from a 7/16" tube to a 1/2" to give a thicker cross section.  I don't know if it matters but I feel better about the greater thickness.  Below are some pictures of the parts for the sliding collars.  I finished welding them today and am ready to drill the holes for the bolts.

Finished collars ready to drill.

Below is the drawing for the Die Springs I am building.  I am having some problems deciding if this design will work as the spring is not removable as shown  I drew the drawing below  from some other plans posted elsewhere that I simply re drew for clarity.  So, I am looking for a solution that will allow me to remove the spring.   I have tube one finished with the lower washer welded in place but I am thinking I may need to re do it in some manner to make the spring removable.  Any suggestions???

The tail is finished!  Well, it has been done since Thanksgiving but I haven't gotten around to updating my log; so her we go.  As you can see, I finished the elevators and have them installed.  The alignment of the two sides came out great and the hinge pins slip right into place.  How long did it take me to scratch build?  Well, I started back in May figuring out how to make the ribs and finished just after Thanksgiving.  There was a lot of tooling to make for the various parts and that did take a bunch of time.  All told I think about 200 hours was spent on everything.  Cost was much lower than any kit options.  I think I spent less than $300 on everything (excluding the jack screw and yoke).  I did make my own link assembly (included in the $300) for a considerable saving but very time consuming.  So, here we go with pictures............

Bending the trailing edge, very high tech and it worked just fine.  Second one came out just as good and a match.  This method was shown on one of the EAA tech tip videos.

Trailing edge # two.

Below, the two matching trailing edges.  Just take your time, go back and forth from the tree to the table and it won't take long at all; about an hour for both.

Next, fitting the ribs.  I am not showing a lot of pictures here as this is the same as the rudder.  Just remember, you need two that match.

 Here the spar is shown fit onto the trailing edge.

Ready for welding welding.......

Next came the control horns.  After trying to hand bend (hammer and heat) I decided to make a "V" block and use a press to make the 90 degree bend.  My block is a piece of maple cut with a v down the middle and a piece of angle iron glued in place.  I ground the bottom of the angle iron for a deeper v; angle iron is very round at the bottom. The shoe I used is simply a piece of 3/8" mild steel ground with a radius on the edge with the same hand held grinder I use for all my cutting.  The press is from Harbor Freight.  I had the press but needed a new jack; 6 ton for about $20.  The press worked just great and will be very handy for upcoming parts.

The Press from Harbor Freight

The "V" block, shoe, and material rough cut for the horns.

Next, welding the horns in place.  I tack welded them in place and finished them after I checked for fit on the completed stab.

Next, the hinges.  I again used the hinge jig drawings shown for the rudder. The only difference was I made them out of wood to make them more accurate.  Yes, they burned but I only need them once and they were easy to make.

Ready to weld .......

After test fitting and adjusting, the hinges were finish welded and the pins fit in place.

Here is the finished horn and hinge close up.

And the finished tail!

So what's next?  I think the over head trim system for the elevator and then the control sticks.  i am also thinking about finishing the landing gear ......GOT WHEELS!  Stay tuned.  I have taken a couple of months off for the holidays and work stuff but hope to be back at it soon.

And yes, it still fits in the garage!  With the tail removed I can even get my wife's car in so I don't have to scrape the windows.