MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

Try laying a piece of sheetrock over your door. Hard and takes pins great.

GerKonig

Will do, it's a great idea (and cheap). The weight of the sheet rock will keep it flat against the door. Gravity is weak but wery persistent, and will keep the surface flat:-)


Gerry

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Another good material to put on top is called Homosote. It is a greay paper pulp material and accepts pins very well. I prefer it to sheet rock. I think Home depot has this as wel. If you ask I think they will cut it as well. I had them cut up a 4x8 sheet of 2" foam last week. Into 2'x4' pices for my current project. Good luck

Barticusmax

Celotex is good for pinning too, but lacks the weight of sheetrock. A little super 77 holds it down quite well though, I have an old hollow core door for big flat work that I lay on the table when needed.

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

I second the Homosote board, I have used it for years, it holds pins very well and the homosote keeps the pins at exactly the angle that you put them in. If you have a Menards locally they always have it in stock. When I tried to buy it at Homedepot the last time (although they did carry it at one time) I got a "Huh?" and was told that there was no such thing

Redwulf__34

I've never heard of it. How thick is it? I might try to google it. I could use something like that too.

sean

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

Usually it is found in the 1/2" size but I have purchased it in 3/4" before. Usually we use it as padding for concrete floors under carpet (basements, etc). Homasote is a brand name.

Here is thier web site: http://homesote.com/uses.html

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

I used to use a hollow door with a paper product (homosote) on top that you can stick pins into.. i still have that but made myself another building board. I bought two bathroom vanity cabinets and put a pine board on them.. On top of that bought a product from Graupner.. its a balsa building board that has lines on it.. makes it easy to get things aligned.. and you can use more than one to make it wider or longer.. or .. both. heres the info on the building board.

https://shop.graupner.de/webuerp/servlet/AI?ARTN=645

cocobear

My Feedback: (2)

I have always built on 1/2" blue Dow insulation board. I got tired of hole in my thumbs. Cheap and two board out of one sheeyt and if it gets nasty flip it.

Dave

vascrats

This past week I finally was able to dig into that big box of wood and start sorting through it. I went through the and labeled the the upper wing ribs and everything else that was identified in the manual and removed them from their sheets. Everything that was punched out was labeled. I tried to sort the basic building balsa into groups that made sense to me.

I did not do the lower wing ribs yet as they don't seem to be easily identified by the manual. Is the process of ID'ing these ribs as easy as punching them out and laying them over the template provided in the plans or are there other tips for this?

Another thing I am seeing is that the two pieces of balsa (1/4X3/8 and 1/4 sq.) that I picked out of the box to start building the upper wing were both warped somewhat. I did not check the entire box to see how many pieces were like this but both of the first pieces I pulled were warped. By warped I mean that they are bowed a bit (did not measure the degree yet). Is this something that is going to be a problem? I do not know if even if you can pin these pieces down flat and build if it could cause any distortion or wierdness once the wing panel is removed from the building board.

Thanks!
Phil

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

I doubt that your warped piece will effect the wing that much. If it is pinned down flat, once it is glued into place you should be fine. If you can try to substitute it out with a straighter one though and use that peice somewhere else. Replacing it is always an option as well for peice of mind.
Remember now is a good time to sort for lightness. You want all of the light sticks in the tail. I think these should be straight as well. It takes very little weight in the tail to add up to a whole bunch in the nose when you are finished.

caribefoto

My Feedback: (2)

Anytime I find a warped structural component I cut or buy a replacement. Somehow the misalignment has a way of persisting, or showing up in the final stages of construction. Why take a chance on a several hundred dollar model with bunches of man-hours in it for a $.76 stick of good quality balsa?.....................John

Prop Nut

My Feedback: (3)

I agree John, I "pinned" down a slightly warped trailing edge on my 1/3rd scale Sopwith Triplane.....darn thing is still warped after covering. My fault, I should have cut it out and glued in another piece. I am sometimes a bit impatient though.

vascrats

I sure hope your definition of problematically warped is different from what I am seeing. I would have to say at least %50 of the balsa strips have a slight amount of curve to them. Like I said, with this being my first build of this type I do not know what the tolerance for this type of thing would be. I took the following pics to see what you all think. If they look problematic to you all then I will need to call BUSA and let them know I got a problem.

GerKonig

The strips will always change shape if you let them loose. I rubber band them together (3 small rubber bands, one on each end, one in the middle) on top of a wodden yardstik. If you let a 1/4 x 1/4 loose, with the change in temperatura and humidity, I bet it will change it's shape:-) The strips are very elastic, flexible, you can bend then around curves, etc.

You can keep planks flat keeping the rubberband on them. Once you pin the wood, and then apply gluye they tend to keep their shape perfectly well. If there is a problem keeping the piece flat, get a new one at the hobby store... I had some planks look like a banana (laying flat). I just replaced those...

My 2 cents

Gerry

caribefoto

My Feedback: (2)

Hard to tell from the photo. A slight curvature in one direction can sometimes be counteracted by installing in a way that the warp has least effect on the structure, such as a longeron/stringer placed with the direction of the warp the same as the bend around the formers. A compound curved stick can almost always be a problem, especially as wing spars. ........John

bps

My Feedback: (3)

Looks like to me you have slight warping which is normal in a kit nowadays. When I build a kit I always separate the wood in terms of weight, size, warp and intended use. I will use the heavier wood for the wing spars and front of the fuse. Lighter wood for the tail and rear of fuse. I also try to ballance the wood and place equal weight wood on each side of the wing. In many years of building the lateral ballance of my wings have been very close, most not needing any weight to ballance at all. In most structures the wood warping can be set against another warped piece of wood just as others have suggested here. In my opinion if the wood is among the heaviest in the kit and it is warped in more than one direction, I would replace it. Your best bet is to select your own from the local hobby shop. That said BUSA has always been very good to me about replacing a defective piece of wood, but remember balsa quality is not what it used to be and never will be. Best of luck with your build, they make nice kits.
JEB

vascrats

Thanks for the input on the wood. I picked out the straightest pieces and actually began building [X(]. Things seemed to be going reasonably with the upper wing until I layed the aileron spar in place. The instructions say the aileron spar should sit flush on the building surface and be slightly above the rib ends to allow for the cap strip. Well, My W-7 rib is a reasonable amount ABOVE the aileron spar and all of the others except W-12 are about flush with it. I double checked the instructions and I do have the two spar strips raised 3/32 and the trailing edge flush with the building surface. I am pretty sure I have the ribs in the correct order as the decrease in size from W-3 down to W-12. I am using the correct 1/4 square for the middle spar. Have not figured out what the problem may be yet.

Another thing I saw is that if I have the ends of the W-12 rib raised 3/32 to allow for the cap strip, the notch does not fully sit down on the spar. Surprisingly the rib does sit lower than the aileron spar like the others should.

This is going to be a looong build...

Any input on my issues?

vascrats

I looked a bit closer at what I had going on this morning. The rib that is sticking up above the aileron spar is the W-7 rib that has been discovered to be slightly oversized anyway. Another thing I see is that it is not just the W-12 rib that does not seat fully on the 1/4 square spar at the rear notch if I shim up the back of the rib 3/32. They all realy seem to. This is the part that is going to be my problem with doing this big a build for my first. If the pieces do not go together exactly like the manual states then I get stuck as I am afraid to guess at which way would be the proper way to go.

It looks like if I can get the rear notch on the ribs to sit better on the 1/4 square (and not be solely concerned with the 3/32 gap on the bottom, it would at least split the 3/32 between the top and bottom of the wing (meaning I would have 3/64 on the top and 3/64 on the bottom) with the exception being the W-7 rib. I guess this would be better than having a 3/32 gap on the bottom and no gap for the cap strips on the top. Unfortunately I don't see any way to get the 3/32 they call for on both the bottom AND top.

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

If you can't get a thin piece of wood in between the bottom spar and the rib, take a little baking soda and push it in there. Smooth it out and make a nice fillet. Hit it with thin CA. Good to go. Baking Soda is also a CA "kicker" in case you didn't know.

vascrats

o.k., I feel a little bit better. I found Bruno Stachel's build thread where he describes the exact same thing I am seeing. Unfortunately he mentions he got past the issue but I did not see what exactly he did. I PM'd him for details on what he did. I hope he don't mind []

Bruno Stachel

My Feedback: (4)

Don't mind at all vascrats. Sorry I didn't jump in sooner.

I simply dry fitted each rib into place, and measured and marked each one 3/32" down from the top of the spar in question. Then I removed the rib and gradually sanded it down, from behind the aft spar notch to the end of the rib, until it fit against the spar with the required 3/32" inch clearnace. But now I may have to sand down the rear corner of the aft spar so it doesn't rise above the curve of the upper wing, and also allow the cap strip to sit flush. [&:]

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

I would not be too concerned about the spar bottoming out in the spar slot. The most important thing is to have your 3\32 spacing to accept your sheeting and cap strips. You will not be compromising the strength and if you are really concerned fill the gaps with Titebond or similar glue. It is acyually better to have the slots a little deep IMO.

vascrats

I hope everyone is doing well!

I am getting along with the upper wing. I am getting close to joining the upper wing panels.

I am at the point of hinging the ailerons. First of all, are people using the hinges that come with the kit or are they using something else/better?

Any tips on hinging the ailerons or joining the wing panels is welcome.

Thanks,
Phil

bps

My Feedback: (3)

Your building what is about my favorite WW1 subject. I have two more large scale planes before this one though. Thanks for the build thread, keep it going, and best wishes.