Roger is building this plane in a different order than I would, and it has its advantages and, I suppose, disadvantages. I would lay down the bottom sheeting, capstrips, and trailing edge, glue together, then put down the spar.....rib/web/rib/web....top spar.

As you can see, he is going bare bones; spars and ribs, everything else to follow. It is a little delicate for a while, we almost knocked off ribs ourselves before and after #1 cat did it for us. Rog the borg had left it out drying all night long, no problem. He was thinking, "i should put that away before I get my breakfast....nope, I'll get the bowl of oatmeal first." The cat saw an opportunity to teach him an important life lesson and jumped into that 10 second window. Some things you must do the instant you think of them. Great cat, only broke on rib and it was easily repairable.

The TOP sheeting went on next! That's fairly interesting! There was a slight bow up along the span at this point, but it flattened out as the other parts were attached.

The interesting and different trailing edge and leading edge photo tour will follow shortly.

Top sheeting attached, time to install the leading edge. Since it is a rather small piece, the borg held it down with a few short bits of double sticky tape to pre-shape. He got the angle at the rib junction first, rounded the top side a dash to help follow the curve of the sheeting, then shaped the bottom. It surprises me sometimes how slowly balsa will sand when you are trying to get it flush to the bottom of the ribs. He didn't want to have to sand it after it was attached, and I agreed. Weighed down and glued with Titebond and a couple drops of CA at the ribs to hold it till the titebond set.

Roger cut the trailing edge pieces ExACTly to length before we pre-glued them together. He is ending the sheeting on 1/2 of the 1/16 thick ribs, 1/32 inch target, because that is what the plan shows. Fat-fingered me will probably add another rib, but the challenge is who can build the lighter plane, the plans give us a 3.8 ounce total weight goal. I don't think either of us will get there.

The T.E. was then simply slipped on, weighed down to the flat table [with wax paper between table and probable glue flow] and micro-drop CA'ed to the ribs.

Next up: shear webs...........soonish.

I left as the T.E. was being attached. the borg pushed valiantly onward.

Roger cut and numbered the shearwebs so that he could quickly install them all and weigh it down before the glue set. With a toothpick, he applied a very thin bead of glue to the spars and pushed in the shearwebs, one after the next. A slight chill in the winter air kept the polyurethane from setting up very quickly. The first ones were barely bubbling up when he installed the last and he had plenty of time to weigh the entire thing down. He was thrilled when it was all totally flat after the glue cured.

The center dowel pin was then installed with its doublers on either side,

The bottom sheeting was attached with Gorilla on the ribs and CA soaked from the back of the spar. After that set up for a while, Rog painted a little very slightly thinned Titebond into the small gap at the L.E. and clamped. The L.E. is almost totally trapped inside the top and bottom sheeting, except for the leading mm or 1/16 inch.

If Flagstaff, AZ can dig out of last night's blizzard, the borg is off on the road for another 3 weeks. I hope he can make a little more progress on the plane while he is out there.

Bot
Interesting in your use of the Gorilla glue.
I see that I used too much when I tried it and it bubbled up too much to suit me.
Next time I will use much less.....that is, when I buy a new bottle of it.
Even storing it upside down as suggested didn't help. It still hardened up.

As to the weather....we had our usual fun here. Freezin' drizzle yesterday morning, turned to light snow an hour later,
then it cleared, the wind came up to 50+, then we had blowing dirt. Ah well, life in the Texas Panhandle.
It was 6 degrees this morning.
Gerald

This has become a good build log GD, thanks for showing all the steps and pics, I have to tackle one of these for my Dad in the new year so its a help. At least we know what is powering your and Rog's building energy, popcorn!

Gerald
Isn't that PU glue a bugger for going hard.. I seem to use a quarter of a bottle per year and have to buy a new bottle each year, in future I'll buy the little bottles.

I meant to get the beer and brandy into the pic with the popcorn. Heated air explosion popcorn powered plane. Started to wonder where you were hiding atmostever. This is such an elegant little plane, can't wait to see it fly, but it almost seems to take as long to build as a larger one. I will post some pics of the fuses we built, since they were so easy compared to the wing.

Very cool GD/Rog. Clarification, this panel is the center panel and the dowel is for mounting to the fuse?

Dang Mr. G, it's much warmer here. We woke up to a blistering 22°...I feel blessed .

Gotta watch it with the Gorilla Glue or any other type of polyurethane. It is 100% solids, which means that no solvents evaporate. The amount you put on is the amount that's there. It will weigh what it weighs in liquid form. I'm very sparing when I use it. It's the very best stuff to use for attaching upper sheeting, because the foaming forces glue into the wood, and it will bridge some gaps... not that I have any to bridge... I hope...

Jack

So Jack,

I'll be top sheeting my OlyIII soon, it has carbon capped spars. Would you use epoxy along the spar and then PU for the other wood/wood contact points?

Don

Don,

I'd use thick CA or PU to attach the sheet to the spar. The only reason I use epoxy there is to attach the CF to the spruce. Spruce and CA don't like each other much. Either CA or PU will be stronger than the balsa, and lighter than the epoxy, if used sparingly. I usually use thick CA there because it anchors the back edge of the sheeting while the rest of the glue between the ribs and sheeting sets up.

JW

Originally Posted by dwells

Very cool GD/Rog. Clarification, this panel is the center panel and the dowel is for mounting to the fuse?

Dang Mr. G, it's much warmer here. We woke up to a blistering 22°...I feel blessed .

Yep, just the center panel, 15 inch length. And to answer your question from a while back that I spaced out, here are a couple pics of the fuse. We are building to the plan; someday I would like to start pod and booming.

Originally Posted by schrederman

Don,

Spruce and CA don't like each other much.

JW

Thats odd, I've had the exact opposite results under load testing with thick CA, it holds the bond under loads when the 30 minute epoxy delaminates and the CF makes an audible cracking noise as it separates from the spruce spar.

To each their own, though.

That is very sweet GD! Nice forming on the fuse!

Thanks Jack, sounds like a plan. I'll use thick CA on the rear contact points and on the CF and relief groove and PU on the ribs...I may have gaps but I hope not . BTW, I haven't used thick CA so what's the working time?

Steve, I remember you telling me about your spar testing and I hope I have no delam issues. I did sand and clean the CF before epoxying them down to the spruce. Hopefully with sheeting that is applied well it will hold up .

Off the beaten path again...

Every Christmas I try to concoct a gift idea that is unique and sometimes a little on the dark side . This year it's an item that throws me back to high school when it was cool to carry a "blade". Although illegal in most states to carry, these handmade beauties can be owned in curio form. They're the real deal straight out of northern Italy. They're crafted by a little dude in Maniago named Frank Beltrame...he's one of the finest cutlers there. Please understand, I'm NOT soliciting these for sale, I just wanted to show you guys. I dress them up and seal them up in my own packaging so that they can be owned legally. Just something I thought had a very high cool factor . My sons are dying for one but let me see, what did I tell them, oh yeah, "wish in one hand and in the other and see which fills up first .

Don

Don,

Working time on thick CA is 20 seconds or so... or longer in cooler weather. I stack phone books on the sheeting and usually don't have voids. They conform well to the airfoil curve and give ample pressure.

JW