on my 1st Tiger 60 kit, the fuse sides were warped and the resulting fuselage came out with a crooked front end.
I packed it up and returned the fuse to Carl Goldburg and they promptly sent another kit to me. This kit had the exact same bow in the fuse sides as the first kit.
Following the instructions of using rubber bands to assemble the fuselage and then applying glue to the seems wasnt going to pull the fuselage straight.
SOOO after much staring at the situation I came up with something that gave me a reasonably straight fuselage.

I cut out a 1/4" hardwood template of the front of the fuselage. This template matched the inside shape of the fuse.
I could see that by putting this form into the fuse and clamping from the outside it pulled the sides into alignment with the back half of the fuse.
(the back half of the fuse has enough parts that fit together that it does pull itself into alignment. My problem is from the back of the wing saddle forward.)
I then cut this template into sections to fit around the bulkhead pieces. I also cut the section in the wing are in two so I could still remove it after the fuse was glued up.

By clamping the template into the fuse everything is held in alignment while I add the glue. (actually, I applied the titebond glue and THEN clamped everything up)

It seemed to work well. when I pick up the fuse from the rear and sight down the sides the front is symetrical, Much better than the first attempt.

I'm glad Carl Goldburg replaced the kit but I'm not happy with the quality.. The instructions are poor.
If I see another tiger kit at the field you can be shure I'll be looking at the nose of it to see if its crooked!
I'll be interested in seeing how my next kit goes together. It wont be a goldburg kit...

Steve

Pictures!

Welcome to the world of kit building. You came up with a good solution to get your fuselage straightened out.

I've had to deal with situations like this before - stuff like fuselage sides of different hardness of balsa or sides that don't pull together evenly and want to build in a warp. Each kit seems to require its own approach to fix. At least todays kits and instructions are generally of a higher quality that they used to be 35+ years ago when I started building.

Hogflyer

As frustrating as it was to deal with the bend in the wood it was that much more gratifying to come up with a working solution!
I wanted to post my solution as it may help someone else in the same situation.

steve

It sure does look nasty in that first pic, was tight bond the only glue you used on it?

I used 30 min. epoxy on the Firewall and the wing mounting blocks, everything else is titebond II.
The first picture is what it looked like with no glue. on the first kit I was able to straighten it somewhat but I didnt like it so CarlGoldburg suggested sending back to them.
There is just not enough horizontal surface in the front half of the kit to hold things in alignment for set up...

Why do you ask about the titebond II? I like the time it gives me, especially in this instance where I had to keep checking alighnment as it set up...


Steve

I was just wondering, I haven't built an RC kit yet. I have done a couple estes/guillows but not an RC. I use titebond on other stuff I work on, that is what I used on my Field box and the company my mother works for is the parent company for titebond. I think.

Hi Steve, I'm building the Tiger 2 kit and am running into a similar problem, although I don't think it's as severe. I like your idea of the jig and clamps to keep things straight. From the pictures you posted it looks like you glued up the tail section first, then used the jig and clamps on the front - wing saddle forward. I would like to know since I may be placing a call to Goldberg myself []

You are correct.
The tail section came together nice. I used titebong II and masking tape as a clamp, stretched tight over all the joints to pull them together.
then I built up the front end in stages. I glued in the bulkheads (is that a boating term?) 1st, with the jig/form I made placed inside the fuse and clamped from the outside. I could see that the clamping action against the jig pulled the fuse straight so the bulkheads were in the right position. then when that dried I started adding the horizontal "sheeting" ie. the nose spreader, the bottom of the nose where the front wheel comes through and the cockpit floor. Had to leave part of the cockpit out to drill the bolt holes in the wings. when all this dried over night I removed the 1/4" hardwood jig I had made and the fuse looks nice and straight. Sight down each side from the rear and both sides look even....

I can post more pics of the process if you would like???

Goldburg was great for replacing the whole kit when I sent in my crooked fuse but they didnt offer any help as far as assembly...

I'll build the 2nd wing from the extra kit and design my own fuselage to get a whole new plane! I'll use the plans to match the size and position of all the critical areas but I think I will change the turtle deck to be rounded over like a 4* and not boxed like the Tiger!!


Steve