Tip: Longeron Bending

I have learned so much from all those that have gone before me, thanks. Here is an idea that was born of frustration. Van's suggestion for bending the longerons just wasn't working for my situation, small vice and light work bench. I make my living designing and building scram jet engines so I've seen most of the state of the art manufacturing techniques. So what could I do in my garage?

I took what I already had and built a more solid method to bend my longerons. Basically it's two 2x6's, drywall screwed into a 2x4 that is screwed into the floor, and another 2x4 is screwed on top of the longeron. Then I did just like the plans, with all bending/hammering down in the direction of the desired bend. It only took a few minutes to build and with an electric screw gun, I could un-clamp as required to inspect/adjust the bends.

Sure hope this helps someone, seems pretty obvious, but, here it is:

Great idea. I didn't have a big vise either, but a trip to Harbor Freight and $60 took care of that, and I have found it useful for other things since.

I used the George Orndoff method from his video and it was actually very simple. It wasn't nearly as big a deal as I thought it was going to be.
There is always more than one way to a good solution. Using wood instead of a vice would also eliminate the chance of nicking the aluminum angle on the vice jaws.

Orndoff

I received my Orndoff video after I had already started my fuse and bent my longerons. I couldn't believe how much easier his method was than Vans instructions.

I also used a big vise I bought at Harbor Freight. I also picked up a set of their magnetic vise jaw guards. They worked good but I had to tape them in place with duct tape to keep them from sliding.

wingtime said:

I received my Orndoff video after I had already started my fuse and bent my longerons. I couldn't believe how much easier his method was than Vans instructions.

Click to expand...

My longerons are done, but I am curious, what is the Orndorff method?

I am lousy at explaining things. Maybe someone you know has the video you could look at. It does work very well. It is just a modified Van's way. You clamp both longerons together and bend taking measurements between the bent and unbent angle. When you get one bent to the dimensions just bend the other one and double the dimensions

no twisty

You just simply clamp the two longerons together. When you bend the curve they don't try to twist like when you bend one at a time.

data point

I just bent my longerons with the Orndorff method and it worked out great. No hammer at all. They only bend in one direction at a time, so it's easy to get the bend just right. Also, I made the "sharp downward bend" the same way George did and that was really easy to get right also.

Total time was about an hour and a half including drilling the canopy decks, lots of time was spent checking and rechecking the bends.

You can use little "C" clamps ($0.89 each at Menards) to hold the longerons together... If you put them on the right way you don't have to unclamp them to chck the bend against the paper template.

One good idea was to mark a series of lines every inch along the bend, and label them "1", "2", "3", etc. Then you can easily see where to add / subtract bend as you compare against the template or canopy deck.

I wish the F-779 was this simple...