Slow progress this weekend. The wife and I did not have much running around to do. We basically stayed home and did nothing. We were both just worn out I think. So I got next to nothing done yesterday. Sometimes that is good, you just got to chill out and rest.


I have started physical therapy for my back, it should help at some point.


In regards to the parallelograms jigs for doing wing and stab alignments. A base and 2 parallel runners would make aligning bi plane wings much easier. I did make a tripe to Lowes looking for CHEAP yardsticks to make them out of. Well I found them but they did not have perfectly straight edges, so i gave up on the immediately. Angle aluminum would work good but was way to spendy. But about a month ago someone tossed a 1" square piece of steel tubing in front of the parking spot. It has just been laying there in the grass and weeds. So when I got home I took a good look at it. It is straight, not yet rusted. In short it is perfect and free, so it is now in my patio area. I will measure out pieces and start hack sawing it. I will make a jig to drill all the holes exactly the same. Check alignment of my drill press and have at it. I will post some pics. But that is a next weekend project.




Now back to the bi plane.


I did get some small amount done today. I made and epoxied in the front mounting plates for the inter plane struts. Next I have to make the back plates. They are 1/16" birch ply. Will need some gussets and possibly reinforcement. Once the back plates are in then I will need the pair of parallelograms jigs to set the wings. Then I can start making the interplane struts. This way I should be able to get the struts almost dead on, or so I am hoping.


Pic 1 is the bottom wing. The mount plate is in the 4th rib bay from the ends and is positioned towards the top of the wing The outboard side is wider and is where the strut will attach. I think I am going to put the front leg of the strut real close to the spar as that is the strongest point. The back leg will mount real close to the T.E. stock.


The second pic is the top wing The mount plate is in the 3rd rib bay from the ends and is positioned towards the bottom of the wing. The strut mount point is the same as the bottom wing.


By offsetting 1 rib it makes the struts lean out wards a bit. I don't know if it will be enough to help stiffen the wing wings in side to side play, but I like the look.


Ken