Wing building form

[dust]

just a short note on the wing building forms. These forms get pretty heavy use over the building of two wings, for me, and have to be assembled in a variety of ways and releveled and bondoed in place many times.

 

When I looked at this I decided to make a minor change. I made 4 - 3" x 3" tongue and grooved 12 foot long birch plywood tees and increased the reverse template size by 2" per side and bottom.

 

I then cut notches into both the tees and the templates so that they snap together. (a double lap joint) A couple of screws countersunk at each juncture hold it all tight.

 

One of the tees was cut down to an 8 foot section and a 4 foot section with lower notches on the inboard root template and the next template.

 

Each time we have to reconfigure, it takes less than two minutes and the entire assembly is level and straight in all directions.

 

In the upright floor position we have two tees on the bottom and a long one on one side and a long and short one on the other side.

 

On the bench we remove the top and a side and have an additional set of notches on the now bottom of the jig and use it. When we flip the wing we just do it in reverse. When on the bench only 3 tees are used, except when leveling and flipping.

 

The tees are very accurate as I can cut very straight pieces on the table saw and when you take two very straight pieces and join them with a tongue and groove at a right angle, you get a darn straight tee, especially when it is supported in the jig.

 

Each 12' tee is made with an 8 foot piece and then a 4 foot piece with a groove and then a 4 foot and an 8 foot piece with a tongue, no need to form a joint at the ends, when the tongue is glued the edged can be just butt glued and lined up.

 

Does this make any sense, it is very simple, made complicated by the writing, thank you Nat for writing plans that don't read this way. (I guess illustrations and pictures help too)

[John Slade]

Yes, Mike. It makes sense to me. Anything that will firm up those damn wing jigs and save all the repeated measuring and fiddling can't hurt.