Here's some non-RC model clamping being done with spring clothes pins.

And here's a tool borrowed from another hobby being pressed into service to take down a slightly oversized spar on a wing that is going to be sheeted. I don't want a bump at the spar location and this is the easiest way to take it down without risking damage to the ribs. The spars are spruce and the ribs are balsa.

Pete

Stradivari might have used something like a one-piece clothes peg - which you can still buy. No springs, just a forked stick. They're also handy for holding trailing edge sheets together, since you can vary the tension by simply pushing them on more or less.

Now, where does the motor go on that fiddle?

Geoff

Originally Posted by PeteSchug

Here's some non-RC model clamping being done with spring clothes pins.
Pete

I'm sure someone, somewhere, has a flying violin.

Originally Posted by rpd

I learned this one from Ray at Skybench aerotech. Ziplock bags filled with sand make great weights for holding down wing sheeting and other uses. They conform to whatever shape they are over and don't gouge balsa or foam like hard weights. You can make all different sizes and weights.

Ditto shot bags made from kids stretch socks and lead shot available from any sporting goods store that carries reloading supplies. Tie 'em off at the end with cable ties. You can stretch them to obscene lengths as necessary. Don't know how I ever managed to build a truly straight, "D" tube leading edge without 'em!

On second thought, maybe I didn't...

Originally Posted by Geoffinpdx

Stradivari might have used something like a one-piece clothes peg - which you can still buy. No springs, just a forked stick. They're also handy for holding trailing edge sheets together, since you can vary the tension by simply pushing them on more or less.

Now, where does the motor go on that fiddle?

Geoff

Actually I have some clamps that are wedge shaped openings that I use for gluing the bass bar. Just slide them into place and put some little wedges here and there until everything is just the way you want it. I have a picture someplace, but apparently not on this computer.

The motor is my right arm and unlike model aircraft I am out for decibels. I have a Yamaha Silent Violin for stealth work, playing late at night.

Off topic, but for the curious here are a couple of pictures of my first fiddle. I still haven't varnished it, partly because I play it all the time.

Pete

Very good, Pete! Funny how the volume of violins has increased over the centuries, whereas the volume of model airplanes has DEcreased in the century they've been around.

Beautiful, Pete. What scale is it, and are there plans available?

Originally Posted by Lnagel

Beautiful, Pete. What scale is it, and are there plans available?

It's full scale. Plans are available for many minor variants, and in many other sizes, all smaller. If you want larger the original designers made two variants called the Viola and the Violoncello. The Violon or as some call it, the bull fiddle is actually based on a different model.

I must warn you that "flying" it takes time to learn. Many hear the call, but few are chosen. (And I don't think I am among the chosen!)

Getting back on topic, I will point out that the little violin planes are really useful and can do jobs (due in part to their arc bottom) that cannot be done with the usual run of hobby planes and razor planes.

Actually money CAN buy these little planes, in fact it is essential. I show them because I find them really useful.

When it comes to adapting things found around the house I will mention that I am seventy-two and have been building (after a fashion) since I was five. (Jack Armstrong Flying Tiger via Wheaties box tops) In my earliest days I would borrow my father's Gillette blue blades and then put them back in the razor when I was done. None of my mother's various hair clips were safe either since ambroid was rather slow drying and I didn't have the patience to hold pieces in place until they were dry. My mother's sewing machine was pressed into service putting bullet holes in the wings of my Jack Armstrong planes and her collection of straight pins was never where she left them.

I won't even mention what acetone can do to the finish on a piano!

Pete

Originally Posted by PeteSchug

I must warn you that "flying" it takes time to learn. Many hear the call, but few are chosen. (And I don't think I am among the chosen!)

Actually, I've been flying these since I was about 8 years old but still haven't mastered it. Also all of mine have been ARFs.

So, from where does one obtain these planes and what is their price range?

Larry

Originally Posted by Lnagel

Actually, I've been flying these since I was about 8 years old but still haven't mastered it. Also all of mine have been ARFs.

So, from where does one obtain these planes and what is their price range?

Larry

I got the two small ones at:

http://www.metmusic.com/home.aspx

And the large one on eBay. Most likely all can be found on eBay, and I've seen some very ornate ones here and there.

I can't say I remember the prices. When I set out to make a fiddle I decided that I was going to buy everything I needed and not worry about the cost. A lot of tools can be made but I was already almost sixty when I started and I didn't want to waste time making tools. I just overloaded various pieces of plastic and never looked back. Bottom line, they are not inexpensive, but not outrageous considering the size of the market and quality of the item. (how's that for evading the issue?)

I use diamond hones to sharpen them. A 1200 grit credit card size one is all you need. Since I sharpen lots of tools I have a large 1200 grit plate and also an 8000 grit plate. I even use them to sharpen my kitchen knives!

I started lessons at 58. Never did get the hang of playing reels up tempo but other than that am satisfied with what I can do which includes playing in tune. (More than I can say about a lot of people who can play reels up tempo)

The fiddle is pretty nicely made and some of my airplanes have been also. What prompted me to make a fiddle was how short lived airplanes often are and how fiddles last for hundreds of years. I can guarantee none of my planes will last even one hundred years, but maybe my fiddle will.

Pete

Love the idea of making an instrument that will live on after me but the only one I can play is the didgeridoo, I tried making a fibreglass rams horn once using the lost foam method but my glassing skills weren't up to it and it sounded like a wet fart. I was given a double curved (think sax with two bends) ceramic one a few years ago that a friend made, loudest didge you ever heard and with a full 3/4 octave range - that's two more notes than a regular one. Beats Spinal Taps' amps going to 11 Didges are limited in their range, best to think of them as a percussive instrument.

More on topic, I use those little clip photo holders for soldering. They're a small metal base with a stiff braided wire sticking up with a clip at the end, they can be bent into position and will stay thereas long as needed.

Play your digeridoo, Blue,
play your digeridoo.
Keep playing 'til I shoot thro' Blue,
play your digerydoo.

Even a didgee can live after

If you build bicycles instead of violins - or even if you just maintain one - you might have a bike stand. I've found that they can be adapted to model aircraft use. The photos show mine clamping the bar from my incidence gauge, into which I have clamped a wing from my current build, a Grumman Goose.

Geoff

Fill a tin or a container with plasticine, push all your pin pointy ends into it and you will never have pins that get stuck into glued structures,the slight oil coating sees to that.

MY FINGERS! the rest I can either buy or manufacture or simply Sh!+ rig.