I'm building a G&P Sales F18 pusher with detachable wings. In addition to the main plug in spar, it uses two wing alignment dowels per wing. I am looking for help in marking the fuselage for drilling the holes for the dowels so I get the wing incidence correct. Any help with proven techniques would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan Mueller

Dan,
I haven't built your palne. What I try to do is use an extra long 1/4 drill bit or the same size bit as the dowels. When I'm building the fuse I look to see how I can use the long drill bit. In the case of a Four Star I do not put in the landing gear plate or the lower nose planking until I've put the wing in place and used the fuselage bulkhead dowel holes for a guide to drill into the wing leading edge.

You can also do the same thing with a stubby pencil to mark the wing leading edge if it is not possible to use a long drill.

Anyway just a thought.
John

A "trick" that I have used several times with excellent results. Install the dowels in the wing, BUT DO NOT ROUND THEM OFF, leave them flat. Take a #2 pencil and heavily blacken the ends of the dowels (Old fashioned carbon paper also works VERY WELL), and put the wing in position and push forward to mark the location of the dowels on the fuselage. Then drill with the appropriate size drill. Then you can round the end of the dowels.

I am not familiar with this kit, but have an idea which may work. If the wing is drilled first for the alignment dowel, do not install the dowel but buy a "dowel center" in the size you need at the local lumberyard or hardware store. This little device costs a buck or less - has a small flange which fits in the dowel hole and a sharp centering point. Simply line up the wing properly and push into the fuse - the dowel centre will leave an impression point in the fuse side which is the exact centre of the dowel hole in the wing. Finishing carpenters use these devices to mate pieces together for dowelling glue joints.

Hi all.

Sorry I haven't responded sooner. I'm now ready to setup my wings and install the dowels. I want to thank all of you for your great ideas!

Regards,
Dan

This an old post but I did a search to see what others had to say. I have a couple of those dowel centers that I bought years ago and have used on several planes. Didn't realize they were available at hardware stores. Anyway I building a Vagabond with a tapered wing and couldn't get them to give a good mark so I came up with another trick. A pencil is larger than 1/4" so I put one in a drill and wrapped coarse sandpaper around it and ran the drill at high speed until I had the diameter down to 1/4". I was then able to insert the pencil through the holes and mark the fuselage plywood.

This may be an old thread, but for future reference, here's a great way to do it...

Drill the 1/4" hole in either the Wing or the Fuse (Which one is determined by which is easier to do the next part with)

Drill the other hole (Let's say that the second hole is in the Fuse) close to where it is needed by using any of the previous methods - then enlarge the hole.

Now drill a 1/4" hole in a piece of plywood (Aprox 1" x 1")

Put the wing in place, adjust the incidence, and place the plywood plate over the dowel and glue it to the inside of the fuse.

MinnFlyer,

That's how I do it.

Don

MinnFlyer,

I was thinking almost the same thing some time back. I'm building a pattern plane that I want to be dead on with the surfaces. I wasn't thinking exactly what you showed, but I think I'll use your method now. You can't loose doing it this way.

Harry Higley describes several interesting variations of this technique in his fantastic book "Mostly Mounting". This book is a goldmine of techniques that propose specific, often creative solutions to a lot of the classic tough spots in airplane construction which the kit instructions often gloss over.

Wing mounts, hinging, servo mounts, engine mounts, it's all there.

- Norm