I guess that I owe some people an apology, it's been a few days since I posted here. I do apologize to those following this thread. This past week was pretty hectic for me at work, and until I can figure out how to put my son through Veterinary School by building RC airplanes I got to take care of work first
. Although I was busy at work, I did have a little time to work on the plane here an there. The biggest thing that I didn't have time for was to keep up the posts here. So let's fix that now. As it stands right now, I've completed the wing. Well, at least to the point where it needs to be sanded but I won't do that tell later on in the build. I usually try to do all the sanding at one time, unless I need to sand something off while building to get ready for something else.
Alright, back to the build. With the 2 wing halves joined the next step in the instructions is finish out the sheeting by applying the sheeting to the top part of the wing. Before you do that, this is your last chance to double check all the joints in the wing. Take a little bit of time to inspect everything to make sure you have a good joint. If you see any joints that a bit iffy or don't look quite right to you, use your glue to run a small fillet of glue along that joint. This will ensure that the joint is nice and strong. Better safe than sorry if you ask me.
Once I'm satisfied with all the joints I glued into place the WS-T2 pieces. I know that I'm starting to sound like a broken record here, but it's worth saying again-- “Measure twice, cut once.” This advice never gets old. Double check that the sheeting fits BEFORE you put the glue on. If the fit is a little bit off, use a sanding block to trim it to size. Once your happy with the fit go ahead and glue it into place (Pictures #1, #2, and #3). Just like the bottom sheeting I wasn't at all happy with the way that WS-T1 fit (picture #4), I just can't bring myself to lay huge bead of glue in there to fill a gap. Nope, nope, nope. I'm not going to do it. So, like the bottom sheeting I beveled the edge of the sheeting so that it fit properly against the leading edge. And also like the bottom sheeting, there is now a gap at the back of the sheet. This is easily taken care of by cutting a strip of balsa from the scrap wood and gluing it to our sheeting. (pictures #5 - #9). Once the sheeting is in place I used pins and weight bags to keep it all secure while the glue dried. Picture #11 shows the sheeting all in place and ready to move on.
Pictures
1. The first WS-T2 sheet in place.
2. Test fitting the WS-T2.
3. Gluing the WS-T2 in place.
4. Test fit of the WS-T1 against the leading edge.
5. Beveling the edge of the sheeting in order to get a better fit with the leading edge
6. Finished sanding the bevel.
7. Test fitting the sheeting in place, measure the gap in order to cut scrap wood to fit.
8. Cutting a piece of scrap wood to add to our sheeting.
9.Gluing an addition strip of wood to our sheeting.
10. Glue set to dry
11. Sheeting finished
Until next time
Ken