VincentJ

Started to glue up all the ribs on the right wing panel.

Photo #3 - You can see in ribs 3-5 that I added a section of 1/8" lite ply to stiffen the side of each balsa rib for additional support to the wing tube.

Note: Rib #1 has not been glued into place as of yet. Because of the 1/2" wing dihedral, this rib will have to be glued in at a slight angle. I will slip the wing on the wing tube and get it close to the side of the fuselage to get the angle perfect later.

VincentJ

Boy is it ever cold here in NH. Temps started at -5 degrees this morning and I think we had a high of 0 degrees, but work continues on the wing in my warm workshop. Currently I am cutting and fitting shear webs to the front of the spars, I'll have pictures of them when completed.

Photo 1 Since the spacing of the ribs have changed, I made new notches in the trailing edge.

Photo 3 I like to run the spars long as well as the leading and trailing edges instead of cutting them to exact lengths. You can also see how much I've shortened the wing.

Photo 6 I capped the end of the wing tube sleeve by epoxying a piece of 1/8" lite ply, this will prevent the aluminum wing tube from going beyond the end of the sleeve.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Looking good Vincent! Now don't feel you need to share the cold and snow we'll let you keep it!

Hydro Junkie

Now don't be that way, OKC. We got hit with snow this past Sunday as well for our first "White Christmas" in over a decade. Last time we had snow in Seattle was six years ago so, for us, it's been a bit of a tough go. There's so many here that have never driven in snow that the tow trucks have been going nonstop for most of the week

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Yesterday morning we actually got a slight dusting, I was surprised. It was just enough to highlight but not cover the grass or as my NYC bride says: "We got 5 flakes!".

VincentJ

There, now I've got a good fit... Now I very rarely use CA, but after butting the rib against the side of the fuse, I put one drop of CA on the wing tube sleeve and spars to make sure the rib position didn't move while I slid the wing off.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

If this cold spell keeps up you will have all your projects done in no time at all.

Trax540

My Feedback: (1)

Very nice work on your build Vincent!
I just started my Tiger 60 kit so im following along. However im not heavily modifying the build such as you are.

I did notice as I was building the Tail and Rudder that some of the balsa supplied in kit was mismatched size, not all my 3/8x1/2 sticks were not good cuts unfortunately

VincentJ

Mike, you're right the frigid cold has me spending a lot of my time in my workshop where I find peace and solitude these days. Having two builds going at the same time has kept me quite busy!

Trax540, welcome! I know what you mean about the quality of the different types of wood found in the kit. I found the quality of Balsa used for ribs were excellent as well as the laser cutting. I'm not happy with the fit of the tabbed joints on the fuselage, but I'm sure that you have noticed that as well. But, with all of these negatives, the outcome will still produce a very nice model that flies extremely well. In my case, because I've changed some of the dimensions of this plane much of the wood supplied was not usable, that may be a good thing... So, what are some of the specifics for your build? What engine do you plan to use? Feel free to post some pictures of your progress.

Has anyone else noticed the slowness on this site these past few days?

Trax540

My Feedback: (1)

I ordered a RCGF 15cc BM for my Tiger
Tryin to stray from nitro and get into gas. Getting tough to find it locally, Otherwise i have to order 4 gal. at a time.

Thus far I have built the Elevator and Stab, and started the Fin and Rudder.
I didnt like the open dowel on the Elevator so i used to dremel to sink the dowel joiner and then encased it with balsa. I'll contour that to match the rest of the Elevator. I'll upload a couple picks when i get a chance.

As far as the slowness of the site. Im having mega trouble just opening pics. Sometimes they load. Other times i have to reload page then open pic, quite annoying

VincentJ

Sounds like you have accomplished a lot! I would recommend wrapping the dowel joiner joint with fiberglass tape, this will give you more strength. I've had several Tigers, and I've used the dowel to join the elevator halves together and they never failed so rest assured that they are designed with enough strength.

Here are the completed shear webs that I've been working on. I didn't use the supplied balsa because they didn't extend from the bottom of the spar to the top as I wanted.

TomCrump

Nice work on the wing.

I've used dowels as joiners on both gas and glow powered 1/4 scale models. As you said, once glassed, the installation works well.

Leroy Gardner

Well I see you got some company which I know you like, this build isn't going to last long at the rate your going, there's not a lot to this plane for all the fun you'll get with it, have at it, I'll be watching.

Leroy

VincentJ

I'll be going back to work soon, so things will slow down Leroy, but you're right in that this is a quick build. I still have the cowl project one that I'm not looking forward to starting. I'm used to buying my cowls from Fiberglass Specialties and not accustomed to making my own...

The temperatures here are still brutally cold, I find myself gravitating close to the fire every morning with my cup of coffee as I re-light the wood stove. With temperatures dropping below -15 degrees (and that's without wind chill) it's downright painful to go outside. I'm thankful to have my stove because I imagine people are spending a small fortune on oil to heat their homes!

So my plans for today will be to set the wing incidence on the right wing panel so I can locate the exact positions of the wing anti-rotation pins. Once I have that done I'll start sheeting the wing. I'l be sheeting the entire wing using 1/16" stock. So stay tuned pictures will follow as work progresses.

One final note; I wish all of you a Happy New Year! May this year bring you all good health, happiness and a clean build table for you to start building your own projects!!!!

RICKSTUBBZ

Are you building the wing flat (no dihedral)? If you said and I missed it..sorry

-15°... I can't even imagine what that feels like. 8° is the coldest I have ever experienced.

VincentJ

Rick yes it's pretty cold here and remember that straight temp without the wind chill factor!
I took out most of the dihedral from the wing except for 1/2" per wing panel, that's measured from the work table to the bottom of the last wing rib.

Got any early start this morning, and as soon as I entered my workshop I immediately spotted an error I had made last night on my wing panel. Yesterday I had cut and fit all of the rails for the right aileron servo and epoxied them into place, I ended the day with the epoxy curing overnight. I thought today's agenda would be to set the wing incidence and sheet the wing. Here's the error, I epoxied the rails to the top of the wing instead of the bottom! So needless to say I had to make more rails and epoxy them again only in the bottom of the wing, and no I didn't remove the top rails!

Once I had corrected my error I began the task of setting the wing incidence. Setting or checking your wing's incidence is really very easy to do provided that you have an incidence meter and a accurate level. My incidence meter is manufactured by Robarts, and I like it a lot. I prefer the model that I have over the digital model they make because I don't have to worry about dead batteries.

Photo 1- 2 Step one involves leveling the fuselage on my work table and I made sure that it wouldn't move by clamping it into position. Note: You will have to locate the plane's datum line for the plane to be accurately leveled, you can find this information on your plans. In this case, the datum line and the platform are parallel to one another so it was a convenient place for the level!
,
Photo 3- 4 Step two. Slip the wing on the wing tube and set the incidence meter on the wings leading and trailing edges. I like to keep the meter as close to the fuselage as possible. With the wing on the wing tube the wing can now be pivoted until the needle on the meter shows zero incidence.

The wing's anti-rotation pin holes and wing bolt hole can now be drilled being assured that they will be in the correct position locking the wing in place with the correct incidence... more pics to follow.

VincentJ

Photo 1 Anti-rotation pins in place, one as shown near the trailing edge and the other towards the leading edge. These have been epoxied with the wing in place to ensure perfect alignment when the wing is removed.

Photo 2 Inside of the fuselage showing the wing bolt .

thailazer

Looking good, and those errors do happen. I've been working on a CraftAir Mystique and got up one morning to see that I did a nice job putting in the servo trays in the wings, only to realize they were not the same bay in each wing! Not a big deal, but I was telling a club member I am renaming it from Mystique to Mystake! Sometimes we are just too close to our work.

VincentJ

Thanks thailazer, very funny story. Great re-name for the plane! We all make mistakes but I still can't believe that I did it...Oh well, live and learn!

Trax540

My Feedback: (1)

Ran into an issue on my plans.
Im getting ready to start the wing panels, And i noticed when i split the plans and put the halves together the right panel is roughly 3/32" bigger from LE to TE. The plans match up perfect all the way from LE to Dihedral joiner, but from that point to the TE line everything is off 3/32-1/8"

That is going to be an issue in keeping that panel lined up , and I dont know that i trust just building it matched up to left panel and not referencing the plan lines when pinning.
I dont think its from expansion as i know sometimes they can shrink or w/e. Dont you think it would have done that Uniformly and not only match 1/2 the panel.
Any ideas?

VincentJ

Hmmm, I haven't checked mine and for me it isn't a concern because of the slide on wings, but for you that can present a problem when the wing halves are joined together.

First make sure the plans are laying perfectly flat on your work table, folded plans can cause issues. I'm going to assume though that they are laying flat. If you've identified that the discrepancy in measurement lays between the Joiner and the Trailing Edge (TE) you need to determine which half of the plans are the correct dimension, the long one or the short one. To solve that issue I would resort to the Balsa wing ribs. Free all of them from their sheets and stack them and make them all uniform as I did with mine, then use the ribs to determine which half of the plans (right or left panel) are the correct length. As long as the ribs stay square and plumb you shouldn't have a problem, yes the ribs will extend off of the short panel plans 3/32" but that shouldn't prevent you from building two identical wing halves.

I've heard of some builders that will use only one panel of plans, then flip the plans over and build the second wing panel from the reverse side of the plans ensuring a perfect match. To me though I think that it would be difficult to see unless you had a light table to work off of. I suppose that you could also slice the plans with a straight edge and tape them back together making the corrected adjustments for the measurements. If it were me though I would build off of the incorrect width plan half and let the rib length be my guide.

As a builder you did your job of verifying that the plan halves were incorrect. Many of us would have just assumed the plans were correct and would have to deal with the consequences later, good catch!

Trax540

My Feedback: (1)

I started punching out all the Ribs last night, Unfortunately i had 2 or 3 that was such rock hard balsa the lasercutter didnt make it even 1/2 way through. So it took awhile to get those cut out even with a brand new blade.
I'll probably replace those with new ribs =/
Going to get it all laid out on the table and see how I can get it build as straight as possible using your suggestions.

I also was replacing the Spars that were sent because they are as crooked as a politician. However i brain farted and ripped 1/2 inchers instead of 3/8 so ill remake those today.

VincentJ

Trax540, it amazes me that there isn't any type of consistency with this kit anymore. One person will have good balsa another won't etc. It's sad, I'm sure if Carl Goldberg were alive he would be very upset what has become of this and other kits... If I can help just ask!

Thought I would show you more or less how the wing will get secured to the fuselage and how I am going to make the electrical connection to the aileron servos. With the inside of the fuselage being so tight on space, I thought that connecting the ailerons on the outside of the fuselage would make the job a piece of cake at the field. So as it stands, the only thing that I have to remove the canopy for is to attach the wings.

VincentJ

Getting ready to start sheeting the wing, but not before I glue in additional Balsa blocking for the hinges. The blocking gives me an additional 1/4" thickness at the trailing edge for the hinges to really grab hold. I'm using 5 hinges per wing panel, one more that indicated on the plans. I'm also running the blocking the full width of the bay, in other words from one rib to the next. Doing this affords me the opportunity to place additional hinges in the future should one break or need replacement.

With every thread that I write, I try to give a few tips on how I build, things that I hope may help you... so here's my tip for the day.

In Photo#1 I'm holding the blocking that is ready to be glued in place, but to make the blocking fit better I have slightly chamfered the inside edges of the blocking. When the ribs were glued into place, there is always a bit of glue that dries in the corners making a small radius, by chamfering the blocking it will accommodate this radius allowing the blocking to fit tighter giving you a stronger glue joint.

A. J. Clark

Looking very good Vincent. Very nice build thread. I've been following it . Thanks for the description of how to do the wing and line it up with the fuse. I'm building a plane from plans that was designed years ago . It's a mid wing with the wing built right through the fuse and is not detachable. I want to use a wing tube to be detachable. Which I haven't done before. Your write up will be very helpful. I noticed the nice nut that's used to hold the wing on . Is there a place to get those? I haven't been able to find any. Thanks