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Tip: Wing jigs

T

TShort

Well Known Member
How about some helpful tips / tricks / suggestions and pictures for building wing jigs?
My kit should be here in a few days and I'm going thru the thought process of putting these up - would like to see what others have done and what works.

Thomas
 
I'm building in my garage and I put mine on casters so I could move it around as need be to make room for the car in the event of a severe storm, winter etc.
 
I did both wings at the same time in a 2 car garage. My jigs are posts to the ceiling on one end and half height on the other. It is totally rigid with the spars clamped on, yet doesn't interfere with the garage door. See details at my site.
 
Thanks for the link, Steve!

I was getting ready to link up the same page!

The jig worked out well for me. I am doing the tanks now and it is really working out well!

Lemme know if you have any questions!

;) CJ
 
Ditto, I was going to link to that same page, since I was the one that asked it in the first place...:eek::D

I think we should start refering the guys how to use the search facility first, then show the links..

Good info in that link, feel free to ask question over there to keep all the information together on the jigs...
 
Thanks - I followed that thread when it started. I was more looking for unique tricks that people might have used to make jigging easier, etc. that may not have been mentioned.

Thomas
 
There is a tip or two on my web site

Check out the "Things to Consider" section on my web site, there are some tips there.

I just screwed the 2x4's into the floor joists over head. No big deal. The trick is making sure everything is level. For that I used gravity as I've found it to be very consistent. Heck, every time I drop a tool, it hits the ground. Can't get any more consistent than that.
 
Hint for eliminating twist in wing spars while on fixture

One of the problems with wood fixtures is that over the time it takes to build the wings, your wood will dry out or swell with summer humidity. This could introduce twist into your wings. Although I live in a dry part of the country, I made sure I would be able to keep the wing spars without twist. Some people just use alum. sheet shims. I got the idea below from someone on this forum--CJ I think--and it works great.

What I did:
- I used 1x2 oak pieces to hold my spars (but angle iron would work just as well).
- One end got bolted in to the vertical posts. The other end was connected back to the posts at the diagonal (both above and below) with a piece of alum. strap (1/8" thick). Each of the aluminum straps was connected to the oak support with $1.00 turnbuckles from Lowes. Now, all I need to do if I discover any twist in the wing is adjust the turnbuckles on one or both ends of the spar. It allows you to adjust very precisely just by tigtening/loosening the turnbuckles as appropriate.

Sorry I can't post any pictures--I left my camera in my brother's truck after fishing last weekend. (20" trout on a 5-weight fly rod--doesn't get much better than that! :) )

Steve
 
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Sounds like you are on the right track, Steve!

I wouldn't worry about the wood warping. It shouldn't. Besides, you will be checking for trueness from time to time anyways. If you see any changes or ways to make things better, do them as needed.

A 20" fish on a 5# rod, pretty cool!

Here on Cape Cod we go for Striped Bass on 9' / 9wt's. Fish are as large as 28-32" in length and weigh in around 8-12 lbs.!

Publish those pics when you get the camera back!

:D CJ
 
alpinelakespilot2000 said:
One of the problems with wood fixtures is that over the time it takes to build the wings, your wood will dry out or swell with summer humidity. This could introduce twist into your wings.
Click to expand...

Good point. However...

I do live in a very humid part of the world, nothing like 96 degrees and 96 percent humidity for two or three months a year.

This really wasn't a problem for me as I have kept a dehumidifier running in my basement to keep my tools from rusting. Yes, it is that humid here.

When I built my wings I didn't clamp the bottom spar until I was ready to rivet the top skin in place. The match holes kept everything straight and square. One precaution I did take was to put a cleco in every other hole and when I riveted I tried to make sure there was either a cleco or rivet on both sides of the rivet I was about to drive.

Twist? Yep, I had some, about 1/2 a string width. ;) The plane will never notice it.
 
N941WR said:
When I built my wings I didn't clamp the bottom spar until I was ready to rivet the top skin in place. The match holes kept everything straight and square. One precaution I did take was to put a cleco in every other hole and when I riveted I tried to make sure there was either a cleco or rivet on both sides of the rivet I was about to drive.
QUOTE]

Bill--

Allowing the bottom spar to float seems like a good idea since the skins should square everything up. I think I'll try that too until the skins go on. Thanks for the tip.

Where you put a cleco in every other hole, is that where Van's suggests 1 cleco every 4 holes? I've wondered why the instructions said only 1 every 4: whether it was because Van's suspected we'd be running out of clecos if we did not or whether clecoing farther apart gave the skins some room to float or something???? Unless I hear otherwise, I'm going to try to use a cleco every other hole as I have up to this point.

Steve
Click to expand...
 
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alpinelakespilot2000 said:
Where you put a cleco in every other hole, is that where Van's suggests 1 cleco every 4 holes?
Click to expand...

Yep, that's exactly what I did. I had to buy a LOT of extra cleco's but that's a small price to pay. Remember that when you rivet, start in the middle of the sheet and move out towards the edges, per the instructions.

If you look at the pictures on my web site, there is a shot of the wing with a bunch of cleco's stuck in it.
 
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