Wing Jig or Cradle?
 

Hello,

While I am waiting on my wings I have read the plans and for the RV7 there are suggestions on a jig and a cradle. However I have seen lots of videos and pictures of people building them without the jig.
I am wondering if they are necessary with the prepunched kits of the -7. I only ask because there is sort of an advantage of being able to roll the wing stand around due to limited build space. If I put the a jig into the floor I won't be able to move the wing I am working on. I will be building one wing at the time.

I appreciate your comments...

Jig for me
 

Necessary? Maybe not but you need some way of holding the substructure till it's riveted and stable enough to be moved around. I've seen some built mobile jig. Best of both worlds. Holds the wing true and allows mobility.

I used two adjustable stands to keep twist out of the spars. I leveled each cross bar and tightened them in place. Even with the matched hole tooling there’s enough slop to introduce twist in those 9+ foot spars.

http://mykitlog.com/users/display_lo...150366&row=196

You will want to store the finished wings in the cradle as and when you have them done and can also move them around.

Really useful for little effort.

Yes I definitely want the cradle. I was asking if it would be enough to build a cradle that I can use while assembly as well, thus eliminating the jig. But I guess I need both... It is really just a space issue.

thanks for you input

If space is an issue, do like I am doing: Build the Flaps, Ailerons and tanks before you setup your wing jig. I decided to build my wings up to the point of needing them in jig. Then I stuck them on some J-hooks (for bicycles and such) on my walls up out of the way.

I moved on to building the flaps, then ailerons, and then the fuel tanks. This leaves my floor space in my shop totally open for doing this work, and I don't have my wings eating up valuable shop space sitting in a jig.

Once I get all those "components" built, I will move on the the last step: Jigging the wing and assembling it. This way all the shop space is dedicated to that task, and when its done, I'll store my wings in a cradle that has wheels on it (given to me by another builder!), so I can move them out of the way for storage.

You know what. that may be the best idea. Since I am waiting for the wings I wanted to build the jig / cradle and stuff but maybe Ill just hold on to the idea and do what you are suggesting. Any regrets building it in this order?

I can't take credit for the idea :-) I had some good suggestions from here on the forums.

I have zero regrets from building in this order. I actually prefer it. My expensive wing spars are safely tucked out of my workspace while I build the control surfaces and tanks, and I have way more room to work in.

There is absolutely zero dependancies on the control surfaces and tanks to the wings, until you start that final assembly stage. As I build them, I'll tuck them into the rafters for safe storage until I am ready to mount them on my finished wings.

I like the idea of building the tanks before the wings. I built the flaps and ailerons but thought you would need the wing in the jig to do the tanks in order for everything to line up - especially the z-brackets and such.

Can you detail how you did the tanks and still have everything line up?

I personally haven't gotten to the tanks...yet. I just finished up the flaps a few nights ago, and will start on the ailerons tonight. I hope to have them finished up in a couple of weeks, and then I'll start on the tanks.

I have read ahead in the plans to the tanks, but not dug deep. I *think* I could get a big chunk of them done without needing the wings in the jigs. I'll read through the tank sections of the plans and give it a second look.

However, the flaps and ailerons.... no issues with building them before jigging the wings.