Prepare parts for wing assembly:
- Carefully remove balsa wing ribs from sheets – especially the smaller, more fragile ribs W8 – W10. Slicing through the retaining tabs with an Exacto[SUP]®[/SUP] knife or single edge razor blade is recommended, over forcibly “punching them out.” (There may also be later benefits of saving at least one of the scrap “cut-sheet” material pieces for use as patterning templates, as may later be needed. (See “General Wing Assembly”, Step #17 as a potential example.)
- Similarly, cut retaining tabs in ply parts to remove these parts from the cut-sheets. Servo cut-outs in W4 and W7 intentionally have thicker retaining tabs that are harder to cut through. This is intended as a reminder to the builder so that the cut-out in W4 is not accidentally removed until after general construction and sheeting of the wing is completed – and in most cases, will be removed only if flaps are employed. (see picture below)
- Remove the 1/4" diameter circular material remaining within the cutouts for the rods of the wing jig to pass through. It is recommended to save the balsa circles to use as convenient spacers between the plywood Washout Jigs, as detailed in the following section.
- Remove balsa shear webs from sheets. Any remaining material from retaining tabs on shear webs may need to be removed with a quick swipe with sanding block – just enough to “true” the edge, without risk of altering the angles. This ensures direct wood-to-wood contact along the entire edge surface when gluing.
- Please note that W10a and SW9a are used exclusively for the clipped-wing version. Similarly, W10 and SW9 are used exclusively for the full-scale wing. (The appropriate wing tip blocks also come pre-cut and included for either desired version; as well as “Galloping Ghost”-style wing-tip strakes for the race-modified version – these can be sanded down for “Stiletto,” or similar racers.)
Note differences in thickness of the retaining tabs between these two cut-outs.
Shear webs removed from cut-sheets. Note that there are 3 sets: 1 for each wing panel, and a third set to be used as temporary rear rib "spacers" for quick and accurate alignment of ribs on the jig. (Saved 1/4" circular balsa material is visible, as well.)
Last edited by Iron Dog; 02-28-2015 at 01:23 AM.