Sorry if it seems like I took a break from building, but until I can figure out how to get paid for building airplanes I still have to work occasionally!! Plus as I said in a post 2 nights ago, I took a break to watch baseball. But because of the publicity this thread seems to be getting (and some good attention that it may get later. No details yet, but we'll tell you if we can get it worked out) I'm going to be squeezing in building here and there as I can do it. Even if I only get 10-15 minutes at a time I'll try to get something done on it.

Before I start posting today's info I just wanted to ask if anybody it working on a covering design. Seebee1, Bubbagates, and myself are all pretty excited about the thought of having the readers come up with his covering design!!!!

Part of the purpose for me doing this thread is to help new builders learn to build, or help those who aren't builders to become builders. So when I have tips or tricks that I use, I'll put them out here. The first 2 tips are 90° building brackets, and weight bags.

90° building brackets
These can be used for either the magnetic building system that I use or for a regular system that uses pins. One of the most important “tricks” for building a good plane is to build it straight. And one way to make sure it builds straight is to make sure that things that are supposed to be square really are 90°. When you build a wing the ribs are almost always placed at 90° to the building board. Usually when I build a wing I put in place all of the ribs before I start gluing them in place. This way I can make sure everything is where it's supposed to be before I start putting glue on it (this is just like reading the instruction manual that I mentioned earlier. Surprises aren't a good thing when you are building a plane). So in order to lay out the wing I needed a way of holding the ribs in place while I'm laying up the wing, and also something to hold the ribs in place while the glue dries. So I came up with these 90° brackets.

The brackets are made from extruded aluminum. You can pick it up at Lowe's/Home Depot/hardware store. The aluminum shapes that are available are great for a lot different things in this hobby. I've used them for things ranging from these brackets all the way to making sanding bars. Check them out and see if you can't come up with some ideas of your own. Anyway, back to the discussion at hand, the aluminum I used for these brackets is 1” angle aluminum. I then cut that into 1” lengths. I then drilled a small hole on one side of the bracket. This hole only needs to be big enough for the shaft of a thumbtack to go through it. After I was done cutting and drilling the brackets I went back with my dremel to remove any burrs that were on the edges, and I also had to remove burrs from around the hole I drilled. One final step is more for you piece of mind than anything else, use a square to check each bracket to make sure that it's actually 90°. If it's not it's better to throw it out than try to correct it.

Once you have all of your brackets done they're ready to use. I used thumbtacks with the bigger heads on them to hold them in place before I went magnetic (you can get the pins at Office Depot/Staple/Office Max/Wal-mart). Place a bracket on each side of a rib (you'll probably come up with a lot of other uses for these once you get going) and put a thumbtack (I use a latch magnet on top of each bracket to hold it in place) through each hole to secure it in place. Actually pinning a bracket in place and getting it in the CORRECT place takes a little bit of practice, so you may want to practice up with scrap wood before you start on an actual plane you are building. The best practice would be to draw a straight line and using a scrap piece of sheet balsa practice putting down the brackets (on each side of the balsa) so that the sheet is exactly on the line you drew and it stays there and at a 90° when you let go of it. Once you can do that you're ready to start building

Weight bags
I couldn't even start listing all of the uses for these. The list would just be too long. I've seen other people use a lot of different things for weight, all the way from rocks in an old sock all the way to sand in a ziplock bag. I started off using sand in an old sock, but that didn't last too long. The sand worked it's way out of the weave of the fabric and there was sand all over my building board. I then tried sand in ziplock bags. This was a bit better until the bags got small holes in them and once again there was sand all over my building board. So I had to come up with something better. I had a bunch of the camoflage material around (I cut up my old army uniforms), so I decided to make them out of that. I used BB's for the weight in them. I make 2 different sizes of bags, 3 lbs and 1 lbs. The 3 lbs bag is 5” square and 4” square. I'm no seamstress with a sewing machine, but with a little practice I was able to do the work that didn't look all too bad. For those that don't have access to a sewing machine there is an alternative that you can do, just don't laugh too hard when I tell you. Use an office stapler. Just a regular old stapler that you have on your desk right now. Cut your material and close it up by stapling the sides shut. It may not be pretty, but it will work and do the job!!. The only problem with using BB's is you have to be careful when using a magnetic building system like I do. I was using the bags and my magnets started disappearing. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I turned a bag over and found the magnets sticking to the underside of the bag!!!

Tools
A couple of quick notes on tools. I have 2 small X-acto rulers that I picked up at a LHS. There 2 tools are totally awesome. They get more use than just about anything else I have. While you don't have to have the rules from X-acto you will need at least a small square. You will need it so that you can check that parts are sitting square (yes, you are using the brackets we just built, but it never hurts to double check). The smaller the better so that you can get in between those ribs and other cramped spaces. A great source for small rulers would be [link=http://www.micromark.com]Micro Mark[/link] . They are also a great source for all sorts of tools for hobbyists. I have to warn you though. Be aware that repeated viewing of MicroMark's catalog or website can result in empty wallet syndrome!!!! They are a really great company. Check them out.

Well, that's enough for this post (like I said above, post sizes are dictated by how many pictures I can post). I'll post the next post this afternoon as soon as I can write it up.



Pictures
1. X-acto 90° square/ruler. See text.
2. Weight bags. 1 lb bag on left and 3 lb bag on right.
3.Weight bags in use. Holding down ribs until glue dries.
4. 90° bracket made from extruded aluminum shapes
5. 90° bracket.
6. 90° bracket showing drilled hole for pin.
7. Double checking 90° angle before putting second bracket in place.
8. 2 brackets used opposite of each other in order to keep rib at 90° angle.
9. Another view of brackets in use.
10.Closer view of brackets
11. Yet another view.



Until next time

Ken