WACO NINE Rebirth

The Fun is in the Doin'

2011-12-23T04:48:00.001-08:00

If you've read my postings for a while you've probably noticed I'm not very orderly in working through the project from start to finish. I tend to work on what ever I have parts, materials, tools ,or ideas for at the time. When I helped my dad build the Fly Baby back in the 60s we were very methodical. Pete Bowers wrote the plans/manual as a set of step by step instructions. You start on page one of a chapter and just check off each task as you go. When every item is checked off you have an airplane, actually a very cool airplane.

As much fun as it was working with my dad on the magic of building that plane you would think I would be more orderly in my current projects. I'm not because what I learned from that process was that each little item was a project in and of it's self. Each had it's own knowledge required, it's own materials, tools and methods. To some extent it didn't matter so much the order things were done as it did that each was done.

By focusing on each small task, enjoying it, and taking pride and satisfaction in it's completion building an airplane is very easy, a lot of fun, and rewarding. Finishing and flying the airplane was great but just one more little task or adventure just as each flight in it has been since.

By enjoying each saw cut, each hole drilled, each tool made, each little assembly, each flight for all the joy it contains, the Fun really is in the Doin' Not Just in Being Done.

Merry Christmas and a Fun New Year!

Cable Splicing Clamp - Holding Plate

2011-12-22T22:00:00.001-08:00

The presser bar pushes the cable loop and thimble securely into this plate, which does the actual holding while the loose end of the cable is secured. It is made from a piece of 1/4" x 1" x 3" mild steel bar stock.

The hole Locations are transferred from the base plate with duplicating punches to assure the bolts will align well. The center hole is not drilled it is just a reference point. The 2 bolt holes are drilled with a #3 drill and tapped with a 1/4" - 28 UNF thread to accept the 1/4" bolts.

The opening in the center is to hold the loop of cable and the thimble so the hole is tapered to match the thimble. From the AN100 drawing the sides slope 1:3 so rather than move my nice square table, and have to realign it, I made a hardwood block 1" x 3". The plate is set on top of it and held with the wrench while drilling. The bolt is just there as a stop to keep the block of wood from sliding. Think of it as a bench dog. The holes are drilled through with a #2 (3/16) center drill. Before drilling at the angle I drilled with just the tip about 1/32" deep 5/16" apart. I chose the 3/16" drill because I plan to use this with 1/8" and 5/32" cable but this would allow up to 3/16" cable to set nicely in the round groove.

All of the cutting and drilling is done with the bottom side of the plate up (visible). The edge of all the cuts are more sharply visible on this side and the saw work is all being done by eye.

The entrance slot and the relief for the thimble are cut next without ant taper. This is just to get the shape. From the top side you can see the angle of the drilled holes better.

The band saw was used with the same 1:3 block to taper the thimble relief by placing the block next to the blade for good support. The saw is being used more like a powered file than as a saw. You just gently saw into the plate until the blade just kissed the cut edge.

I also tapered the entrance hole by turning the block 90 degrees to the blade and sawing along the edge of the cut. Again you could tilt the table but that would have taken longer then making the cuts. This came out really good and the cable fits perfectly.

The two 1/4" bolts were threaded down to 2-5/8" from the head. It doesn't show here but they were cut off to leave 1/4" of good threads to screw into the plate. The center bolt was threaded to give 1-1/2" of threads. The head will get cut of from it later.

Cable Splicing Clamp - Clamp Base

2011-12-21T22:00:00.001-08:00

This part is made from a piece of 1/2" x 1" x 3" mild steel bar stock from Tractor Supply. The 1/2" pivot hole is centered 3/8" from the edge. The two 1/4" holes for the slider bolts are 7/32" from the ends and 1/4" from the same side as the pivot hole.

To make sure the bolt heads don't catch on the vise in use the bolt heads are recessed into the base. An easy job with a milling machine. I created the same result with the band saw. You need a sharp blade and a guide to control the location of the cut and the keep the bar parallel to the blade. Just put on a noise cancelling head set and a good book because this needs to be done slowly. Forcing the bandsaw will cause the blade to wander. A careful cross cut and the ends are done.

The ends have a 1/4" radius and the big curve is just tangent to both ends and the middle of the bar. The shape was rough cut with the band saw. The final shaping was done with the belt sander and and a mill file. All the corners were softened. I think I'll grit blast all the parts when I'm done just to even up the finish. I don't think it will make sense to paint such a tool. I'll just need to keep it lightly oiled.

Splice Clamp Support Block

2011-12-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

When I grind with the belt sander I am careful to set the table and miter fence as square as I can get them. Then to minimize uneven grinding I make a couple passes and then rotate the part 180 degrees and make a couple passes. If you use light pressure you can do a very good job of it. The center for the pivot hole was then located on one end of the blocks.

Before drilling the hole down the split between the blocks I used the bandsaw to create a guide hole to help the drill go straight down the center. The saw cut was made about 1/32" deep.

The centers for the screw holes were laid out 1/4" from the ends and 3/16" from the sides. The blocks were then clamped together and the screw holes drilled with a #26 drill (tap drill size for 10-24 UNC threads). To control the drill better I like to mark the hole with a spring loaded prick punch and then improve the mark with a center punch (fits the drill better), and start the hole with a center drill. In this case I used a #2 (3/16) center drill. Once the holes were drilled through I drilled a clearance hole from the screw head side 9/16" into the block, a little past the center split.

The holes were tapped for 10-24 threads. By working in the same direction that the screws go, the clearance hole helps keep the tap going straight in. With the holes tapped the blocks were separated and the screw holes countersunk for the flat head set screws. I used stainless Allen head screws so I could torque them easier than Phillips or slotted screws. The screws are arranged so 2 install in opposite corners on each side.

With the blocks screwed together, the pivot hole was drilled. The hole was started with a #3 center drill ( 1/4") until it the hole edge was about 1/32" deep. It was then drilled through with a 1/4" drill following the saw cuts. Unless you own a drill vise or finger wrestle regularly with Superman, the wrench lets you get a good grip on the part being drilled.

The hole was then increased at the start with a #4 1/2 center drill (3/8") about 1/16" deep at the hole edge. The shape and short length of center drills minimize how much they can wander. The hole was then finished with a 25/64" drill to give clearance for the 3/8" bolt. The steel bushing from Lowe's is 3/8" ID x 1/2" OD x 1-1/2" long.I need 9/16" sticking out the end for the 1/2" support piece and washer between the parts.

The 1/2" hole for the bushing was drilled 15/16" deep after opening the start of the hole a little more with a #5 center drill (7/16").

To get this block to clamp the bushing the mating faces of the blocks were ground down until there was about .002" gap with the bushing installed in clean parts.

The screw holes and the busing interfere so a notch was filed in each side of the bushing the allow the screws to clear it.

The parts were then cleaned in MEK to get rid of cutting oil, etc. A little Krazy Glue was used on the bushing to secure it to the blocks. The screws were secured with Threadlocker and tightened to squeeze out the gap between the blocks. The edges of the block were then ground to remove the little bit of the screw heads sticking out past the edges.

Cable Splicing Clamp

2011-12-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

To form the looped end on the control cables using a 5 or 7 tuck splice method, or on bracing cables using the solder wrap method, the cable end must be held firmly while doing the work. To hold the cable end you need a Cable Splicing Clamp. The clamp is held in a vise while the other end of the cable is pulled snug during the splicing operations. The clamp at right is from a 1930s Nicholas-Beazley catalog K. The tab on the right is clamped in the vise and the wing nut on it is tightened to keep the clamp from rotating. The wing nut at the top is used to move the center slider to clamp the cable securely in the curved jaws. Back then a gallon of clear dope sold for $1.85.

This picture from "Aviation Mechanics Made Easy" Vol. 4 pg. 526 (c1942) shows a clamp in use on a control cable. It also shows the other tools needed to form the splice, a marlin spike, rawhide mallet, and wire cutters. You also need a hardwood block to pound against when tightening up the tucks.

This clamp is from a 1944 Supply Division catalog pg. 75. That same gallon of Berryloid dope was then $2.65 although a new Sensenich prop. for a J-3 was only $35.

The one I've decided to use as a model to make my own is one I borrowed from Rich Wilbur who is restoring 2 WACO NINEs. He made this one in A&P School so it seemed like something I should be able to copy. I've had this for a year but couldn't find a piece of 1" steel to make the holding block on the vise end. While making some tools for the Cessna 140 project I realized this block could be made from 1/2" x 1" mild steel like the clamp base piece. All I need to do is screw 2 pieces together to make a 1" block. In the end this is probably a better idea since it solves the problem of how to install the bushing which holds the block and clamp base together.

The 2 block halves were cut 1-1/2" long, ground smooth on one side, and squared up on the ends. The Base piece is also cut from 1/2" x 1" mild steel 3" long. The Jaw piece at the end is the same size but cut from 1/4" thick mild steel. The pivot bolt is 3/8" - 24 UNF x 3" long. The 2 Slider bolts are 1/4"-28 UNF with a grip length of 2-5/8". The threads need to bottom out in the Jaw plate. The ends get ground off smooth and staked in place.

The first part is the Knob for tightening the clamp to hold the cable. It's a round disc of steel 1/4" thick, 1" in diameter, with a 3/8" - 24 UNF threaded hole for the bolt, and knurled on the edge for a better grip. I started by drilling and tapping the hole in the end of a piece of 1/4" x 1" mild steel bar stock from Tractor Supply. It's easier to drill and tap the bar than the finished disk.

A 3/8" hole was drilled in a piece of oak to use as a pivot to grind a nice round end on the bar. The 1" end was then cut off the bar. By making 2 45 degree cuts and then a square cut across the bar the piece is close to the desired finished (round) shape.

By using the same process but with the board clamped in place and moved closer to the belt in small increments the knob was turned to a nice round shape. I have no way to knurl the knob so instead I used the band saw to cut into the edge of the knob about 1/32'' deep. Cuts were made dividing the edge into quarters, then eighths, and then 16ths. It makes a nice grip surface. The top and bottom edges were filed to soften the corners.

Elevators Tack Welded

2011-11-14T22:00:00.000-08:00

The elevators are tack welded. The finish welding will be done after the stabilizer is tacked together. There are some fittings, which hold wooden blocks for attaching fabric around the hinges, that still need to be added. I'd rather wait until I have the hinge attachments are on the stabilizer before before welding these fittings on the elevators.

Before I started welding these I took some time to review what information I could find on welding to see if there was something I should know. The things I found that I are useful are:

There is an online engineering course "Fundamentals of Gas Cutting & Welding" D06-002 for which you can download the course materials (pdf). It has some excellent explanations of the oxy-acetylene chemical reaction and other bits not covered in more how-to articles.

EAA Welding video While your there also get the EAA Welding Manual. It's mostly a reprint of the 1950 Navy Training Course NAVPERS 10322-A "Aircraft Welding", with some other interesting articles. My copy is almost as old as my copy of 10322-A.

Next is a great article by Budd Davisson "ZEN and the Art of the Weld Puddle" from EAA Experimenter, October 1993

The next is a series of 10 articles by Budd Davisson which started with the August 1987 issue of EAA Experimenter titled "Aircraft Welding and Steel Tube Fabrication". The last article was in the June 1988 issue. Reprints of articles can usually be gotten from EAA.

Bob Whittier had a good article on heat treating welds titled "the Welding's Done! Now What?" It was in the July 1999 issue of EAA Experimenter.

I have more when we get to gas welding aluminum.

Control Horn Assemblies

2011-10-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm back working on the planes I need to get the tail surfaces welded up. I've had the elevator setting in the jig for 2 years. It's time to move on. I also need to weld up the wing fittings. Getting the tail surfaces all welded should get my skills back to a level I'd be comfortable welding them. The first task was to weld the control horns together. The small vicegrips from Lowe's worked great to hold the shells together. I should have put bolts in the holes on the tabs. I ruined 2 clecos.

I also found I left to much of an edge to weld nicely. All the literature says to leave about 1 material thickness. I left about 1/16", 2 thicknesses, way to much. At times it would melt around the edge leaving a blobby look. I also found that that the tab ends were easier to weld with the center layer, of the 3 layers of metal, sticking out about 0.010". The weld puddle is easier to form because you can get more heat into the middle piece.

The fixture I used for fitting the tube to the horn is used to weld the horn to the tube. One thing I learned is don't form the end of the tube to fit the training edge tube until this assembly is welded. Things move a little and you want the horn square to the spar tube.

I now have 3 assemblies welded, 2 for the elevators and one for the rudder if I can't repair the existing rudder.

False Nose Ribs (P/N 362) For Rich Wilbur

2011-10-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Rich visited and we made him up a set of false nose ribs for his project. This brought up the issue of whether I would make part number 362 ribs for other Waco Nine or Ten/Straight Wing projects. The answer is yes. I would be happy to work with any owners to produce the parts as allowed under CFR 21.303 (b) (2) and FAA AC 20-62D. With planes like these about the only hope we have to Keep 'em Flying is Owner/Operator Produced Parts. The current cost for me to make these parts is $5.00 each.

Wing Details

2011-10-15T07:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't gotten anything done in months, but I did learn more about the wing construction. In June, on the way to the National Waco Club fly-in, I stopped in Zanesville, Ohio. Rich Wilbur purchased one of the WACO NINE projects owned by Tony and John Morozowsky. I had offered to help load the plane in Rich's trailer so I could meet him there to take pictures of whatever I could. Rich had plenty of help with him to load the trailer so I got a couple of hours to look at the wings.

The picture at the right shows something I did not pick up in the drawings. The wing walk seems a little narrow. To fix this they widened the braces and extended the plywood for the walk about 3/4" past the rib. It's not much but it has to help.

The trailing edge on the wings is done with a hard wire like in WWI. The drawings show nothing about how it was attached at the tip or the wing walk. They use a strip of copper at the end of each rib. The wire is soldered to the strip and it is nailed to the rib. They did the same at the last rib and then ran the wire in a groove in the tip bow for about 4 inches. The end of the wire then goes through a hole in the bow and gets bent back along the inside of the bow to lock it. It's simple and it looks like it works fine.

At the wing walk they used a piece of the steel aileron trailing edge material to solder the wire to and then soldered it to cooper strips for nailing it to the ribs.

Because the spars on the NINE are routed to reduce weight it was not clear how the ribs were attached. On the TEN the spars are solid spruce and the ribs are glued and nailed to the spars with 8 nails. Two nails go through each cap strip into the top and bottom of the spar. Two nails each then go through the vertical members of the ribs next to the spar. The only area for those nails is in the routed area of the spar on the NINE. Nothing is shown on the drawings about any of this. From the wings it was obvious. They used the same attachment as on the TEN with the addition of a piece of cap strip glued and nailed in place on the web of the spar. The joy of looking at factory woodwork has been finding so many little details which we don't have to reinvent.

Thanks to John, Tony, & Rich!

Jenny Control Stick Parts

2011-04-14T04:48:00.001-07:00

Yesterday John Gaertner and Jim Lachendro stopped buy to look at the airplane projects. I've been spending all my time lately on the Cessna 140 with vain hopes of flying it soon, soon is all relative. We went over to my brother-in-law's place where the fuselage is stored to look at it. John who's been making Jenny parts pointed out that the control stick castings were Jenny parts. I had assumed they used such parts to save money and because the planes they built before the NINE were made from surplus Jenny parts, but I've never spent any time researching Jennies. One of the parts just setting loosely in the fuselage was this Jenny casting which I don't think is used in the NINE. It was pretty dirty but with some Corrosion-X to loosen the bolts and some light cleaning it's now like new. . . There is some corrosion on the bottom of the mounting tabs where it was bolted to the plywood floor, but otherwise it's in excellent condition. One of the interesting things discovered after cleaning it was the stamps on the top of the one tab. They were probably done by an inspector or the person who machined the part. It would be amazing to find out who's stamps these were. The oiler had to soak in Corrosion-X all night to get it freed up. It now works almost like new. I'll soak it some more to treat the little bit of rust between the moving parts. It looks like it was nickel plated. Thanks for coming over guys, this was great fun, which is the point of such restoration projects after all.

100 False Ribs Done

2011-03-09T04:08:00.000-08:00

While I've been writing all this I've also been making ribs. After 100 ribs you get very good at it. That many ribs makes quite a stack of ribs.

Now that they're done I did one more experiment. I wanted to know if this would work with 2024-T3 aluminum instead of the 5052-H32 we first selected. The 2024-T3 is much stronger but also has more spring back and I didn't think we could form the channel walls square. The 2 ribs at the top are 2024 and the rib at the bottom is 5052. Clearly the form block needs more curve to allow for the spring back of 2024 but otherwise it works fine. It does take much more force to make the ribs. The channel on the right is 2024, again no problem with the shape. Also there is no evidence of cracking along the corner radius even looking with a 10x glass.

I'll give some thought to applying the same design process to making a form block for 2024-T3. I also want to do some load testing to see if there is any real advantage to using the stronger aluminum.

Forming The Ribs

2011-03-08T06:14:00.001-08:00

The process of forming the aluminum strips into ribs is fairly simple. You do need the fixture solidly clamped down.

With the roller down at the nose of the rib loosen the clamp and turn it to the side. Insert the tip of the strip into the notch and bend it back flat to the form block.

Position the clamp and tighten it down.

Brush oil on the strip and the roller. I'm using 5w30 motor oil but there are probably better oils to use.

I made wooden blocks to hold the strip from moving side to side. They have a notch band sawed into them to slide over the strip. The cut is deeper at the front than the back. Also the wood below the cut was sanded to curve the surface so it can wiggle as needed to clamp the strip centered on the form block.

The sides of the blocks are oiled. The blocks are clamped tight with a plastic clamp from Lowes. It flexes to work like a tight spring.

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The forming starts by lifting the handle and pressing the roller down into the strip while rolling toward the Trailing Edge.
After a few inches stop and roll back over the start to tighten it up. Then add a small plastic clamp to the end of the channel to keep it from lifting from the form block.
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After about 6 inches the roller stops. I believe the angle is off slightly. By holding the handle down and pushing it rolls on just fine. It doesn't form the channel as tight this way so you need to tip it back to the normal position and re-roll it. I also could have used a slightly longer form because with it tipped down it misses the last bit of the rib.

This last bit of the rib is finished when you re-roll with the handle in the up position so it's not a big deal. I've taken some pictures so when I get some time I'll see if the stopping problem can be fixed.

At this point the rib is formed. Wipe off the oil, remove the clamps. The roller needs to be wiped off before moving it back to the start. It picks up a lot of aluminum during the rolling. Cleaning it prevents galling during the rolling of the next part.

The channel is formed with a nice radius in each corner.
The bent end gets cut off leaving a 1/2" tab for nailing to the leading edge and you have a rib. Just 99 left to make. A few more hours work but very satisfying.

If you didn't see the video of this in the earlier post click here.

362 Rib Form Block

2011-03-08T05:09:00.000-08:00

The complicated part of this was not making the parts. First I needed to take what we learned from the first tools and us it to shape the tool so the parts came out to the correct shape in one rolling operation.
To do that I traced the tool and the formed part so I could re-draw them in the CAD system. I needed to look at the bend angle created in the part vs the angle in that segment of the form block. To do that I divided each curve into 3/8" segments and measured the change in angle from segment to segment on the block and the part. Then I plotted this data to get the relationship. I tried 1/4" segments first but the data just had to much noise to use it. Now all I had to do was take the WACO part drawing and divide the curve into 3/8" segments and measure the angle between each. By applying the relationship in the plotted data I could now draw the curve for the tool to form .025" 5052-H32 aluminum. OK, I could have just done this with calculus by developing the equation for each curve and calculating the first derivative, etc., etc. I'll leave that for someone who has used their calculus skills more recently than I have. I'll save that for a retirement project.
With our new drawing printed out to full scale it's just a matter of gluing it to the aluminum and rough cutting it out on the band saw. The shape was finished to the line on the belt sander and then hand filed smooth. The 1" grid lines are there to check that it really printed correctly to scale. Holes were then drilled to allow screwing this piece to some angle for clamping it in the vice. John milled a nice curved hole in his, I used the band saw so I needed a way to hold the curved strip of aluminum while forming the parts.

The holes were tapped to allow screws to be threaded into the holes.

Another scrap of 1" x 1/8" aluminum from our old Ultralight project and we have a nice base for clamping in the vice.

When I made the roller I left as much metal on the inner roller as I could. As a result it was easier to use the actual parts to determine the spacing between the rollers to get the desired angle. This was done by laying the parts over the drawing and measuring the distance. Clearly I could have done this in CAD but it took less time this way than booting the software.

All the parts to assemble the roller handle.

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The roller handle and form block assembled in the vice.
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Next we needed a clamp to hold the end of the aluminum strip. I had band sawed a slot into the form to hook the end of the strip, but the roller will pull the strip out of it without a clamp.
The first clamp I made was to long to turn side ways with the roller down, and too tall for the roller to pass over it to the start position. The shorter clamp works perfect. It has a heel on it to allow for the thickness of the aluminum strip.

The last change was to shorten the tip of the form block so the roller can move down far enough to make it easy to load the strip and clamp it. Also the area around the screw socket had to be filed and polished to stop it putting marks on the aluminum roller.

We're almost ready to form parts.

Adjustable Form Roller Design

2011-03-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

I had 3 variables I wanted to be able to adjust in my experiments with the Forming Roller. The first was the width of the gap for forming the walls of the channel. My belief was that making that gap exactly 3/8" + 2 times the .025" aluminum, i.e. a line to line fit would be to tight but how lose should it be. I could get John to turn it line to line and than keep re-turning the gap wider but it is very hard to get the roller re-chucked square and true. Also once you take off to much you can't put it back. The result was I wanted a roller made in 3 pieces, the outer walls and the inner roller. Then I could make it line to line and shim the walls out to add gap until I found what worked best.
The second thing I wanted to do was change the depth of the channel pocket to allow more wiping of the sides of the channel to assure square flat walls. This one I only needed to take down until it worked. A little over shoot on this was not likely to be a problem but it still meant re-chucking the roller.
The 3rd variable was the angle of the lead on the the roller walls. The 45 degree walls seemed to work but I wanted to be able to make them steeper if needed.
Oh yeah, John could and would be happy to turn the roller but I tend to work on this stuff in the evenings (after 12 hours in the shop) so I really wanted to make the parts my self. John lives about 30 miles from his shop and has a young family to occupy his evenings. I also had never gotten my lathe set up after building this house so all this had to be done from flat bar stock using a band saw to cut out circles, a belt sander to smooth and shape them and a drill press for the needed screw and bearing holes. Oh yeah I really wanted it all within a few thousandth of an inch square, smooth, round and concentric. What fun is life without a wish list. I bought some 3/16" x 3" wide steel from Lowes, some 1-1/8" diameter roller bearings from Tractor Supply, and a cheap hole saw, screws and a new tap from the hardware store. There was enough scrap from cutting the form from the 4" wide 3/8" aluminum to make the center roller from it. I probably would have liked a steel roller but that meant ordering bar stock from McMaster-Carr. If aluminum didn't work that would be my back up plan, you gotta have a plan.
The first step was to saw the 1-1/8 holes in the steel and the aluminum. There would be no way to hold the disk once it was cut out or to get it very square to the hole saw. Oh yeah did I mention I had to buy enough steel for about a dozen disks. I was just delighted it would work. The edges aren't square but we're putting a big chamfer on them anyway. I drew the circles the full 3" width of the metal and just don't worry about the little flat spots on 2 sides of the disks.
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To make the outside diameter concentric with the bearing hole I bolted a stack of 3 washers (AN970-4) that just happen to be 1-1/8" in diameter to a scrap of plywood. There is a little clearance between the hole and the washers so by clamping just one end of the wood to the belt sander table you can wiggle the other end closer to the belt. By pushing the disk against the washers while rotating it you can slowly sand it round while keeping the O.D concentric with the I.D. It gets hot so I would do one a little then do the other. Eventually all the bumps are worked out and the the 2 parts are round, concentric and the same diameter. You don't move the wood in at each step until no metal is being removed as you rotate the disk.
The same process was then used for the inner aluminum roller.

By tipping the table to 45 degrees and using the same process the edge of the outer walls we chamfered while keeping the chamfer concentric as well.

The surface finish is rough but the shape is spot on.

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A test fit and it looks like our roller. So now the ground surfaces need to be smoothed without losing our shape. Break out the 10" mill file. This works if you can turn the parts so we need a way to spin them. I had a rubber mandrel for a 1" sanding drum. To small to fit our 1-1/8" holes. I also had a rubber stopper on some 5 gallon water jugs I use in the field for measuring the permeability of soil (how fast water flows through the dirt). I had already drilled a 5/16 hole in the middle which fit the mandrel perfect and they were about 1" tall. So now I just needed to cut and sand one down to 1-1/8" just like I did the disks. Hey it worked on steel and aluminum why not rubber. We used to grind rubber parts at AC by freezing them so I knew it would work if I was careful not to overheat the rubber.

Voila! A mandrel to hold the parts in the drill press while lightly filing them smooth.

I know it looks nutty but it works and they came out great. Also all of this works if you need to change angles on the chamfers or the diameter of the inner roller without losing the concentricity of the parts. It was easier to file the outer disks with the chamfer turned out.

Now we just need to screw all this together and we'll have a roller. By using the mandrel to hold the parts concentric, and my father-in-law's machinist clamps to hold the stack tight, holes can be drilled through the stack. The holes have to be the diameter for tapping the holes. There are six holes. Three flat head screws from each side are tapped into the opposite side. Once the tap holes were drilled the parts were disassembled, marked for re-alignment and the clearance holes drilled & Countersunk.

The six hole were then tapped. One thing I would do different is to use the center roller as a guide to keep the tap square. One hole was off just a little from square making the screw a little tight. It worked but the problem could have been avoided.

The screws were a little long so I used a washer on each one as a guide to belt sand the screws to length. At this point there are no shims to make the clearance for the .025" aluminum so the washers worked perfect. As soon as the belt kisses all three you're done.

Shims were made from .020", .025", & .032" aluminum sheet. With a .025" shim on each side it's line to line. I started with .020" on one side and .032" on the other which give .002" clearance. I tried other combinations but that worked perfect, go figure.

The finished roller. The only other thing I did was to polish the working surfaces with crocus cloths, and then jewelers rouge on a pad with the Dremel tool while spinning the disks on the mandrel, nice finish.

On to the form block.

First Form Tools

2011-03-07T16:20:00.001-08:00

John Gaertner and I made 2 sets of tools. The first form block was made from a 3" wide piece of 3/8" aluminum and was a copy of the shape of Cliff's tool I photographed. We quickly found a couple things. First the inside curve, that the bottom roller follows to allow putting a load on the forming roller, must be a very smooth curve or the roller stops on every low spot. Next we found the spring back of 5052-H32 was much more that the old tool's curve would form to the airfoil shape needed. The curve came out very flat.
Also on the first tool we used about a 30 degree angle on the edge of the roller instead of 45 degrees like on the old tool. It needs about 45 degrees to get the bend started. The outer tips of the roller start bending the metal down so it can fit into the channel shaping area of the roller. The last thing we learned was the spacing between the rollers had to increase so that the angle relative to the surface of the form block was tipped more from vertical as on Cliff's tool. If the angle is to close to perpendicular you can't get enough leverage to form the channel.

For our next effort John got a 4" wide piece of aluminum. This allowed us to decrease the radius of the curve to better allow for the spring back. If I did it again I would use a 6" wide piece because we ran out of room at the ends. The wider the piece the more it costs so we tried to keep it narrow since we had no idea how quickly we would get the shape right. This tool took some reshaping but we got it to work by making one pass and then turning the part end for end so we could use the tool to add a little bend in one area. The second roller incorporated what we learned from the first and we made the main roller a little larger in diameter. At that point we could make parts but the engineer in me was not willing to stop experimenting so John had his tool and I went off excited to try out more ideas.

Making The Blank Strips

2011-03-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

I bought the aluminum from Airparts in Kansas. A 3'x4' piece will make 120 ribs if all goes well, and it can ship flat by UPS. We cut 3 strips 14-1/2"x36". That gets the grain going the right direction for forming the channel, across the rib strips. I printed a sheet of paper with lines every 7/8" so that the lines are perpendicular to the print head travel. You need to think about it but printing that way eliminates any error in the feed rollers and the print head motion is the most dimensionally accurate.

We positioned the page on the table of the metal shear with magnets while we got it aligned with the cutting edge. It takes a little care and trial and error cuts, there go those 20 extra pieces I thought we had. In the end the first line is 7/8" from the blade and parallel within .005" end to end. At that point we taped the paper down with double sided tape and squared up the side rail with our lines. The magnets allow you to tape one side of the paper at a time without it moving, OK they're very strong magnets I use to hold vinyl in place while applying stickers to cars. Obviously a 36" strip of aluminum is too long to to use these lines as a guide so what we did was to use the back line to cut off chunks, about 14" long, which were cut into the actual strips. By lining up the back edge of the aluminum with a line you get nice identical 7/8" strips. Because the shear is old and leaves a small burr we figured out that if you flip the sheet left to right after each cut both burrs end up on the same side of the strip. Flipping the sheet also doubles any error from how parallel the lines are with the blade.

With blank strips ready we now needed a way to notch the ends. One way considered was to punch 1/8" holes in the corners of the notches with a Whitney punch and a little template, then finish the corner with snips. OK that's fine for one part or 2 but not 100. What we needed was a corner punch but NO MONEY. Instead I made a fixture from some scraps of 1"x 1/8" aluminum angle from my ultralight days, ah the good old days, and scraps of .032" sheet aluminum. I have this nice drill powered Bad Dog Biter nibbler (with their Versa-Clamp) which I bought at a sign show. They sell them at Oshkosh also.

The idea was to make a fixture which would trap the strip with an opening to insert the nibbler head, cut one corner and flip the strip to cut the other corner. If you watched the video in the earlier post it works very well. The pieces are bolted and pop-riveted together. You need a little clearance on the cut side of the pocket strip to allow for some variance in the width of the strips but not much so if you miss-cut a strip, something I've never done, it won't fit or it will be obviously loose. I used .032" sheet for these parts because the strips are .025" and You need a little clearance inserting the strips.

You insert the cutter at the top end of the fixture and just hold it tight to the side of the cutter while pushing it into the cutter. You have to hold the strip in against the stop in the fixture with one hand while holding it tight to the right side with your fingers.

Very simple and it works. So far we've done over 200 strips for 2 sets of wings.

Old (Factory?) Tool & Drawing

2011-02-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

We'll start with the factory drawing. This is the drawing made for the model TEN series of planes. Fortunately it is the same part used on the NINE. The only problem with it is 17ST aluminum sheet is no longer made. We've used 5052-H32 which is then additionally work hardened during forming .
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At the 2007 WACO Fly-in at Mt. Vernon, Ohio Cliff Hogan flew home and brought back this forming tool which he believed was used at the factory to make parts. It appears to have a lot of use on it so it might be the tool. He also brought an original rib, very cool. Our effort was to make a tool based on the ideas in this one. We used these photos and a few others I took to figure this out.

Updated Forming False Nose Ribs P/N 362

2011-02-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months I've been working with John Gaertner of Blue Swallow Aircraft
to develop a tool for making the False Nose Ribs for the wings on the NINE. John had a job to make a tool and I needed a tool to make my ribs. John's shop is down the road from me, closer to Charlottesville. After we got the tool working for John I wanted to experiment some more with the process for making parts. These 2 videos show the result of that effort. The next Blogs after this will explain how we got to this point.
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The ribs are an aluminum channel bent to the shape of the airfoil from the leading edge to the front wing spar. The rib continues a few inches past the spar as it bends down from the fabric so there isn't an abrupt end.
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This should have been easy. We had the factory drawing. I had photos and measurements of the tool like this which was believed to be the factory tool. The problem was the original parts were made with 0.025" thick 17ST (2017) aluminum. They don't make 2017 as sheet stock anymore. The closest aluminum in terms of chemistry and physical properties is 5052-H32.
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The result shown here is simple, shear strips 7/8" wide, notch one end of the strip, and roll form the rib over a block shaped so that when the part springs back after forming it has exactly the curve of the airfoil. Getting here was a cool adventure. The tools you'll see here were made with a band saw, belt sander, and a drill press to drill some holes.
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Enjoy
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Cutting the notches in end of the Blank:

Forming the finished Rib (Updated Video):

First 2 Tip Ribs Done

2011-02-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

Last night I glued up the first 2 Tip ribs. The gussets are only on the inside of the rib. There are 2 which go on the outside at installation. The 1/2" sq. diagonal braces for the tip bow have to pass through them so there is no hope of prepositioning them correctly.
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Today I took the ribs out of the jig. I was surprised how well the sticks were bent when I removed the ribs. The shape is perfect with very little spring back. I soaked the sticks for 2 days and steamed them for 30 minutes so they were very soft to bend.
The next set of sticks are steamed and in the jig drying.

I'm starting assembly of the solid ribs which I cut the pieces for a few weeks back.

Tip Ribs

2011-02-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

The rib at the wing tip bow is a smaller rib made of 3/8" sq. spruce cap strips with 1/16" plywood gussets. The are no internal sticks. A new rib jig was needed. A piece of 1/2" plywood 24" x 48" from Lowes and a drawing of the rib and we're ready to build the jig. I only need 1/2 of the sheet so the rest of the plywood was used to make some 2" strips of wood to stiffen the jig. I know you can just use a piece of plywood, but I just can't use a warped jig to build ribs. Also the space under the jig board allows screws to stick through without worry of the length of the screws.

The drawing was glued and taped to the top of the board and then waxed with carnuba wax to keep glue from sticking. The drawing took longer than all this building work. The factory drawings show the same rib as the TEN but that is not exactly correct. The aileron arrangement is different on the TEN. As a result the ribs for the lower wings are longer and the upper are shorter than on the TEN. I decided to make them all long and trim them to fit for the upper wings. They did design the taper at the end of the spars so the same basic rib fits both upper and lower. The ends if the sticks have no gussets and get trimmed and positioned to fit on the wing.

The 3/8" sticks need to be steamed and bent at the forward spars. I could have made form blocks like I did for the main ribs but we are just making 4 ribs total. Therefore I made the form blocks part of the jig. The sticks are left in the jig 24 hours to dry the wood before adding the gussets. I over bent the top stick slightly to help with spring back. To make the block I used a sheet of overhead transfer plastic and drew the block shape on it with a permanent marker. It doesn't have to be perfect because I'll belt sand the block to fit. Cut out the pattern and trace it on the block. I use these projector sheets rubbed onto my computer screen to freehand draw complex curves with washable markers and then draw with the CAD system.

Holding blocks for the sticks are cut from 1-1/4" dowel. I use a piece of tape as a guide to cut the length. You can't use the fence because the block will get stuck next to the blade until the saw flings it out.

I drill the off center holes in the blocks with a vee block on the drill press because it make it easier to hold them. The paint bucket is my parts catcher, better than the floor.

I countersink the holes because I use flat head drywall screws and the countersink keeps the block from splitting when the screw is tightened.
The blocks are laid out on the board to make sure I have enough.

The final position of the blocks varied a little because I bent a stick as I installed them to make sure where they were needed to hold the sticks to the lines.

After steaming the forward ends of the sticks were quickly bent using the top of one of the form blocks before installing in the jig. The holding block at the front of this rib is removed to do this.

While the bent stick is still hot it is quickly installed in the jig.

The end of the lower stick on this rib had to be cut to length so I could bend the last stick on the top of the block.

Once the last stick was bent the holding block at the front end of the rib had to be quickly reinstalled.

Adjust block to hold stick tight and in the correct position.

Sticks in the jig and drying before adding gussets.

Bending 3/4" x 1/4" Cap Strips

2011-01-18T04:40:00.001-08:00

I made a temporary stand to keep the sticks in from some cardboard tubes. The vinyl we use in our business for tee shirt transfers and sign/wrap material come on these 3" tubes. I've bundled them with some bungee cords here, packing tape works better. The cords let the tubes shift and more easily fall. Next to them are some sticks soaking in water. As with the other cap strips I found the sticks too dry to heat and bend easily. Soaking in water for 24 hours before steaming wets them enough for the heat to more easily penetrate the wood. Wood is a pretty good insulator when dry.

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To fit the wider strips in my steamer I removed the crosswise cable ties. You can only get 3 in at a time, but we only need 6, 2 upper strips and 4 lower. They bend just as easy as the smaller stick. You need to quickly clamp the end and then work from there pulling down the bend as you go to the end clamps. Don't try pulling on the end of the stick.
I don't know why the blog site is rotating this picture. I tried twice and gave up. You'll just have to turn your head.

I'm ready to start making the butt ribs.

Cap Strips and Other Sticks

2011-01-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

All the cap strips and other sticks needed for the solid ribs are cut. Some like the cap strips need steam bending, others need some shaping. Lots of little tasks.

Flux For Soldering Wires

2011-01-07T03:29:00.000-08:00

On the 1925 & 1926 WACO NINEs the external brace wires are stranded 1x9 Galvanized cable. From 1927 on WACO used solid streamlined wires, very expensive and slow to order these days. There are four different ways to form an end for attaching cables.

The ends on today's cables typically use a fitting which slips over the end of the cable and is swaged on, very nice and very expensive. The swaged fittings are designed to allow the cable to be loaded to it's full strength without failing before the cable.

Another way is to form a loop on the end of the cable either around a teardrop shaped thimble or around a grooved bushing with a hole in it. The loose end of the cable is the secured to the cable with a Nicopress sleeve which is crimped on with a relatively inexpensive tool.
(Per AC43.13-1B, Nicopress Process is a patented process using copper sleeves may be used up to the full rated strength of the cable when the cable is looped around a thimble.) These Nicopress sleeves and their tools were originally developed to slice telegraph wires instead of the overlapping twisted splice originally used, a very good method for splicing electrical wires, very strong.

On non-flexible 1x19 cable, or flexible cable less than 3/32" in diameter, you can also use a thimble and and secure the end of the wire by wrapping the loose end to the cable with annealed steel wire and soldering it all together. This is how the bracing cables on the NINE were made using 5/32 diameter 1x19 galvanized cable. Unlike the nicopress this method will only hold a load up to 90% of the cable strength and can be replaced with a nicopress sleeve, quicker and cheap but ugly.

On flexible cables such a 7x7 or 7x19 you can use the 5 tuck splice, the way ropes and cables (wire rope) were done before all this high tech stuff. Well I'm sure it seemed high tech 80 years ago. The 5 tuck splice is wrapped with a cotton serving cord to protect and stabilize it. The 5 tuck splice is only rated at 75% of the cable strength. There is also a 7 tuck splice which I believe is rated a little higher. All the control cable ends on the NINE were formed by using the 5 tuck method so we'll get into all that later. John Gaertner at Blue Swallow Aircraft just filmed a video (for sale) on how to do this. John lives down the road from me and does really cool WWI aircraft.

Back to the cables on the NINE. Today we tend to use Stainless steel cables. Galvanized cables don't last as well but cost less for the same rated strength and weight. I'll be using Galvanized because we're restoring this plane not trying to make an improved version. Galvanizing chemically bonds a layer of Zinc to the surface of the steel strands before the cable is wound. As you cut through the zinc to the steel the mix of zinc and steel varies from 100% zinc to 100% steel. This zinc protects the steel from corrosion even if scratched. It's not as good as stainless but this plane will not be spending it's life outside. The other cool thing about this zinc layer is it's easier to solder to then bare steel. You still need to remove surface corrosion for the solder to bind and that's the job of the flux.

So why this long story?

The latest version of AC 43.13-1B drops wrap-solder and 5 tuck splices completely. All the versions before as well as CAM 18 and older books I've found all have very specific requirements for the Wrap-Soldered Splice. We'll only talk about materials here. We'll deal with making the splice in another post.

From CAM 19 August 1, 1949:

The method of making the wrapped and soldered splice is as follows:

(1) The serving or wrapping wire shall be of commercial soft-annealed steel wire or commercial soft iron wire, thoroughly and smoothly tinned or galvanized.

(2) The solder shall be half-and-half tin and lead conforming to Federal Specification QQ-S-571. The melting point of this solder varies from 320 deg. to 390 deg. F., and the tensile strength is approximately 5,700 Pounds per square inch.

(3) Solder flux shall be a compound of stearic acid (there shall be no mineral acid present) and resin. A warming glue pot to keep the flux in fluid state is desirable.

And you thought we'd never get back to the flux. Also this is not a lead-free process so don't eat, drink, or breathe any of this stuff.

First off, NO Mineral Acid. What the heck is that?

To start with mineral acids are CORROSIVE. They'll get trapped in the strands of the cable and slowly dissolve it, not good. The common list includes Hydorchloric, Nitric, Phosphoric, Sulfuric, Boric, Hydrofluoric, Hydrobromic acids. The thing is they are not organic and they release hydrogen ions when dissolved in water because they have hydrogen bonded to some mineral, remember that chart of elements from chemistry class. Almost every commercial flux contains something like hydrochloric acid, zinc chloride, or ammonium chloride.

So what are Stearic Acid and Resin?

Stearic Acid is derived from animal or vegetable fats and oils. It's a fatty acid, you know, like that omega-3 fatty acid stuff that is supposed to be good for you. Fatty acids contain only Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Carbon, No Minerals. Stearic comes from the Greek word for Tallow.

Resin (Rosin) is a hydrocarbon which is secreted from trees, Pine Sap anyone. In solid form Rosin is used on bows for stringed instruments. In powdered form athletes and dancers use it to improve their grip. Did you know Frankincense is a resin?
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I bought powdered Rosin at an athletic supply store. I thought it would mix/melt better, I was wrong. If I were doing this again I would use Lump Rosin. Artists use both forms. Daniel Smith has lump Rosin for about $12/lb., If you get 1/4 lb. it will probably be a lifetime supply.
I found Stearic Acid in candle form made by GMP at 3111 Old Lincoln Highway, Trevose, PA 19053-4996. It's their P/N 04320 Candle Stearine Flux. It comes as 6 pieces of broken candles in a bag, probably pieces from making tallow candles for churches or some such.
I used 2 pieces (4 1/2 ounces) mixed with 3 ounces of Rosin, a 60/40 mix. I cut the candle into small chunks so I could see if it would fit in my pot, but you're just melting it. I got the hot plate at the Hardware store for $15 and the iron pot from a gun supply store for $21. You don't need much heat.
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Until it got to about 275 deg. F. it was just a milky looking mix with the rosin at the bottom. At that temp the rosin melted and it looked more like coffee, no cream.

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It turned back solid at about 150 deg. F. You need it liquid to brush it on/into the cable.

Next step is to start making some practice cable ends.

Solid Ribs

2011-01-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

There are several ribs made of solid 1/4" thick spruce. On each
wing the butt end rib is made solid the full length of the chord and is attached on the inboard end of the spars. The other solid ribs are all split into sections in front, between or behind the spars. They also vary as to whether they have 1/4" cap strips, no cap strip, or 1/8" plywood (wing walk). As a result there are several variations. I could have just drawn them all by hand on the wood, way to much work and possible errors. As I like to do with most such things I made some templates from galvanized sheet. I didn't want to make templates for all the variations. If I had more of each rib to make I would have made router templates. Instead they are used to draw the parts on the spruce with pencil. The ribs are then band sawed and belt sanded to a close tolerance. In the end 4 template pieces were made since I didn't have steel wide enough to make the long ribs in one piece. The red line running horizontally is 2" above the cord line and used to assemble the pieces.
By using some very strong magnets, I use for installing vinyl wraps on cars, my nice straight edge was clamped to the pieces along the line while soldering them together with overlaps the size of the spars. The solder joint doesn't look all that good because I thought I could sweat the pieces together without leaving a mess so I only fluxed between the joint. OK, their solid and straight, just ugly.

The extra piece for the nose rib allows for the sections which do not have cap strips or plywood. The other sections allow for a cap strip on the bottom and plywood on top. It was easier to mark 1/8" sorter and redraw the top lower on the pieces with cap strips on top.

Drawing the ribs meant making a list of what needed to be included for each piece being drawn since all the notches and hole are available on the template. It really went very quick and was well worth the time to make the templates.

All drawn out like a big model airplane kit. It only took a few hours to saw them all out and belt sand the edges smooth and square. The notches for the step supports are rough sawn and will be finished to a snug fit during assembly of the wings.
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All the ribs needed to build the wings except the small ribs in the tip bow. We'll do those a soon as I get done cutting the cap strips and other sticks needed to assemble the wing. We're done with the slow repetitious work of building ribs. The next parts have their own challenges but it is so cool to finally be close to assembling the wings.

Trimming Light Ribs

2011-01-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

All the light ribs are done. The lead edge was trimmed using the fixture we showed earlier. A slight modification allowed it to be used to trim the short ribs to end flush with the back of the rear spar. It's always nice when life works out so well.

Last Light Rib

2011-01-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year 2011
The last of the light (stick built) ribs is in the jig drying. When it's dry tomorrow I'll be able to trim up the nose and trailing edge on all of them, and sand all the gussets to soften the edges. I still have to build the 4 ribs at the wing tips and the solid root ribs. I'm nearly ready to cut out the template for the solid ribs. It's actually setting in the back of this picture.

The next big steps will be sawing, drilling, and routing the spar blanks which have been setting in the shop for 2 years. I've also got a tent set up in the driveway, for the Cessna 140 project, which I can use as a safe place to weld up the wing fitting assemblies, probably not safe to do in the attic.

All in all this should be a year when visible progress is made.

Wing Rib Triangle Gussets

2010-12-01T17:53:00.001-08:00

I finished making the last Full (length) Light (stick built)Rib and started on the Short Light Ribs (14) for in front of the ailerons on the upper wings. In the process I discovered I'm short about 250 gussets, mostly the larger ones. I counted correctly on all the other parts. Somewhere in moving I lost or converted my fixture for making the triangle gussets. Since I had to make a new one it seemed a good idea to show how it works.
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It's made from a scrap of plywood with a stick glued on the bottom to guide it straight in the slot on the band saw table. Two pieces of 1/8" plywood are glued on top as guides for the 1/16" plywood gusset material. One block is perpendicular to the saw cut and the other is at a 45 deg. angle to the cut.
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The first task is to cut some strips of plywood gusset material. The large gussets need strips 1 3/4" wide and the small ones 1 1/4" wide.

On my other band saw I used a 1/16" 20 tooth blade. It's set up now for steel and to much trouble to change for wood. The finest blade they had at Lowe's to fit the Shop Smith was a 1/8" 15 tooth blade. Find the finer blade. This one leaves a cut which has to be cleaned up.

The first cut with the jig is just to get the first 45 deg cut. Then just flip the strip over, slide it down to the stop and make the next cut and repeat...........

It's pretty simple and it works. I saw some poor guy draw and cut such gussets with a paper pattern and a lot of hand work. This is very quick. The size of the gusset is all determined by the width of the strips.

More Parts and Info for the Project

2010-10-05T15:19:00.000-07:00

The summer is over so I now have more time to work on the planes. I'm continuing to make the last of the stick built ribs while learning about the solid ribs which still need to be made. More on that next time. While travelling to a few fly-ins this summer I acquired some very cool things. At the Waco Historical fly-in I was talking with Tim Pinkerton who has a KNF and 2 WACO TEN projects. He mentioned he had a nose cowl he was sure was for a NINE and was willing to trade it.

It's been modified with various holes and a lot of dents but if repairable and otherwise matches the drawings exactly. It will be one of my winter projects to repair it. It's made from a spun aluminum part with a former in it to give it it's oval shape and stiffness. It is so cool to have another original part. Because the front of the fuselage was cut off I had nothing of the engine cowl.
This would have been the most complicated part to make for the cowl. I'd like to repair it and paint it in the original Dutch Blue. Anyone have a 1926 ValSpar paint chart with dutch blue in it. I do have some original paint on the cockpit cowl parts under the black repaint of long long ago.

The next cool thing was also at the Troy fly-in. Jim Beisner was kind enough to loan me his WACO TEN gas tank. It's the same as the NINE, 83 pounds of terneplate and solder. It has a dent on one side and a small hole from a branch on the other side. Both are easily fixed. Because there are no NINEs flying I wanted an original tank to keep the weight and balance the same until we know the rigging is right and the plane flys well. After that we'll make an aluminum tank and use the weight saving for something more important like a starter.

The last cool thing, for which I have no pictures is the result of going to the American Waco Club fly-in at Creve Couer. Steve Curry of Radial Engines Ldt. was there. Along with his engine work he's been gathering every bit of data on WACO TENS, he has a project plane. He's been scanning all the drawings he can get his hands on and put them all on a DVD. I loaned him my copy of the drawing list for the first 4,000 drawing numbers to add to the DVD.

I bought a copy and it has already been a gold mine worth twice the price. The large drawings will need a copy from the NASM archives because of scanning limits. The smaller ones are great.

Because the TEN is an improved NINE many of the details of how parts were made and many of the parts are in the TEN drawings. They made very few NINE drawing. The planes were nearly all built before the feds required drawings. Much of the little details just are not on any of the NINE drawings. For the TEN they eventually made drawings of almost all the parts. It's just been great.

My next WACO project will be an NAZ primary glider. I have a copy of the master drawing list which includes the NAZ and they all seem to be on this DVD.

Thanks Steve, Jim and Tim!

Fitting Control Horns To Tubes

2010-07-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

To fit the tube/rib which the horn is welded to I needed a small jig. I added this to my elevator jig with 2 supports for the tube and 2 bolts to locate the cable holes on the horn. This assures the tube and horn are perpendicular to each other when welded. I located this over a hole to allow tack welding on both sides.

The first half of the horn was mounted in the jig with wing nuts to hold it in place. Notches for the tube we nibbled and filed until the tube just fit snug. By stacking this piece on top of the second piece it could be marked to more quickly nibble it almost to a finished cut. Then it was filed to a good fit.

The finished shells are clamped together ready to edge weld them. They will then be placed in the jig and the tube tack welded in position. This assembly can then be placed in the jig which has been setting for months and the entire elevator tack welded.

The steps in forming the horn parts are shown in this picture, form block, formed blank, trimmed blank, and finished parts ready to weld.

Cutting Out Control Horns

2010-05-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

To get the holes in the tabs and the edges of the 2 halves to line up I made a template from some scrap steel. The template is 1/16" larger than the hole in the form so it just touches edge of the corner radius. To locate the template I mark several spots along the edge of the radius on the inside of the part.
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The edge of the template is lined up with the inside edge of the marks. This gets it well centered on the part even though you can't see the part while you're doing this.

Then using the duplicating punch (no nib) in the Whitney punch, hold it all tight and punch the first hole. Ok, if you look close you'll see 2 holes on each tab of my template. I mislocated the first ones and just had to be careful to use the correct holes.

Put a cleco (3/16") in the first hole. Make sure it's still lined up at the other end and punch the second hole. You could clamp all this but I didn't want to risk scratching the tabs. Because the template sits just in the radius it wants to stay where it belongs making this easier than it seems.

I made a second template 1/16" larger than the first to mark the cut line . The holes are duplicated on it from the first template. You could do this with just this template but it was hard to get lined up correctly. The first template locates the holes, this one locates the cut line. Cleco it in place and draw a line around it with a felt pen. The wide line was easier to follow with the nibbler than a pencil line.

The part is ready to cut the outline.

The nibbler works best if you push the metal at it with a steady force, you'll get a nice smooth line. I started on the inside and saved the big corners to make the end tabs which go between the shells. OK, I have a lot of steel but wasting those corners is just not in my nature.

The finished part from the inside and a comparison with the original part.

The parts still need a notch at the trailing edge for the 3/4" tube and at the leading edge for the 1" spar tube.

Elevator Horn Forming

2010-05-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Having figured out how the Elevator and Rudder horns were made, the next task was to form the streamline shaped halves for welding together. We need 6 halves from 20 gauge cold rolled steel. The blanks are cut 16" x 6". I couldn't find small pieces anywhere. Dillsburg Aeroplane Works used to sell it but got rid of all theirs, probably not a fast mover. The day before our last big snow storm I drove over to Richmond and bought a 4' x 8' sheet. Do the math I have plenty left if someone needs some.

The tools are: form blocks, clamps, air hammer, rivet gun, leather shot bag, 1/2" straight rivet sets, and some hammer tools made from 1-1/4" & 2" dowel. The form block is made 8" x 16" from 5/8" particle board shelving. I made it wider than the blank to give it a little extra strength. The hole was carefully cut and sanded to have nice straight edges and a 1/16" radius for the metal to draw over. Three tools were made from dowel by cutting 6" long pieces and drilling a 1/2" hole 1-1/8" deep with a flat bottom. I thought the dowel would need to be glued to the rivet set but it was a tight fit and as it gets used it warms up and sticks in. Glue might have solved the problem of the hole deepening and the need to cut off the hole end after each part was made. For six parts I just kept cutting them shorter. The 1-1/4" dowel was oak, the 2" poplar. Oak is clearly the right wood since it did not need as much rework. The 2" tool was less than 4" long when I was done but, it never split. I had one of the 1-1/4" tools split along the hole. It was easier to just make a new tool than worry about how to prevent splitting.

The ends of the tools were rounded by hand using the belt sander and some hand sanding with a light casting shadows on the high and low spots. One of the small tools was cut to 3/4" wide to get into the corners. The 2" tool is almost flat on the bottom with about a 1/2" radius on the corner.
I found these vise-grips (made for holding bolt heads) worked perfect for getting the rivet set out of the wood. It really gets stuck tight. They grip without leaving any marks on the shank.

The rings are most of the ends cut off the tools as the rivet set smashed it's way deeper into the wood.
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The sheet of steel is clamped between the form block and backing board leaving about 1/2" beyond the trailing edge point. I did all the hammering with the form block setting on the shot bag to reduce noise through the house and prevent damage to whatever was under the clamps. They do not touch the work bench (floor).

The first tool used is the corner tool. The corners seemed to stretch better if done first. I formed each corner to it's full depth and then used the same tool to form the radius all around the edge.

The next step was to use the 1-1/4" round tool to form the leading edge radius. This was blended into the corners to form a smooth transition. The middle part of the trailing edge was left unformed. It takes the least work.

The trailing edge was then formed with the 2" tool to give a nice streamlined shape. The rivet guns faster rate gives a much smoother finish. The trigger also has better control over speed and force.

Note the noise cancelling head set.

Once the shape looks good and is relatively smooth the part is removed from the form block for some gentle smoothing with the 2" tool in open areas and the 1-1/4" tool along the edges.

I actually improved this part a little more after taking this picture. The slight bumps at the left were easily removed.

Wing Rib Progress

2010-03-07T15:21:00.000-08:00

Steady progress is being made on wing ribs.

14 of 14 Full Light Ribs for lower wings
4 of 4 Heavy Compression Rigs (1 per panel)
4 of 4 Full Light Compression Ribs (1 per Panel)
2 of 2 Half Light Compression Ribs for upper wings

The rest of the light ribs (stick built) are all for the upper wings 8 full length and 14 short (at aileron cut out).

I need to order some more spruce to make the rest of the ribs which are all made from solid 1/4" spruce, root ribs, wing walk and, 2 outboard compression ribs for the lower wings.

I also need to finish the fittings, most of which are drilled and cut out but, need filing, bending and welding.

Compression Ribs

2010-02-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

I built the second of the short compression ribs. One thing I forgot to say, it's easy to lightly unbend the stick slightly to fit the nose rib nearly perfectly which makes getting a tight glue joint easier.

I have one more of the full light compression ribs to build for the lower wings, they get sticks added to both side.

The compression rib for the lower wing at the tip is not made like the short one for the upper wings. It uses the same nose rib from 1/4" spruce but that's all. There also is no drawing for it. The factory assigned a part number and then some how used that number for a different part on a totally different plane, good job guys. The rib does not show up in the factory photo because all you can clearly see in it are upper wings. The drawings I have that the Air Corps made in late 1926 some how missed that rib also. They show all the other rib types for each wing. Both the factory drawings and the Air Corps drawings show the cap strips made from 1/4" x 3/4" spruce with a web in hidden lines about 1/4" thick, like the nose ribs and root ribs.

I found this photo (only the tip end shown here) in Foster Lane's book about Miss McKeesport. The picture, about the size of a credit card, shows an upper and lower wing for C116 in a stand after repairs when he restored it. I scanned it, descreened it and enhanced it enough to see that the rib is clearly solid spruce and from the amount of overhang of the cap strips it clearly is 1/4" thick. The trailing edge section looks shortened but I suspect they used the same rib as for the aileron cut out on the upper wings and the shortening is due to shaping to fit the tip bow. The Aileron cut out rib aft of the spar is also 1/4" spruce with 1/4" x 3/4" caps strips.

This rib isn't used on the WACO TEN (improved NINE) because the TEN has ailerons on both upper and lower wings. Why on earth they made every compression rib different is beyond me. They Clayt and Sam were not engineers so it's hard to imagine any precision knowledge of different loads at each rib. They did work at Aeromarine during the war which is where they got the airfoil. I've seen other planes designed with this airfoil and the details are identical on the full light ribs. I suspect all or much of this came from some Aeromarine report which we just have not yet discovered. Ah, the quest for knowledge!

First Short Half Compression Rib

2010-02-27T22:00:00.001-08:00

The outboard compression rib on the upper wings is a short (ends at the rear spar) light rib with a compression stick glued on the inboard side. There are some blocks which get added to the nose rib after the gussets are all on so it fits the jig. I temporarily modified the rib jig to clamp the upper and lower sticks tightly to the solid nose rib. Some pieces of carpenter shims and scrap sticks made this easy enough for 2 ribs.

These more than the other ribs need to stay in the jig until the glue is set. I did use a few nails to help hold the nose sticks.

I also left the sticks long at the aft end until gussets are on both sides.

The gussets on the inboard side of each rib need to be trimmed before installing to fit the compression stick. I think it will be installed on the rib as the rib is installed on the wing to get the bolts in and make it all fit correctly.

Rib Leading Edge Fixture

2010-02-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

I want the leading edge stick to form a nice straight line when it's installed. Therefore the ends of all the ribs need to be cut to match. To do this I made a simple fixture to use on the table saw to cut the angle on the leading edge of the ribs. The cut is tipped 16.5 degrees from the spar which is both easy to locate from and relevant to getting the leading edge straight.

The references to hold the rib are the front and bottom of the spar, and the top of the rib at the nose. I've since removed the stop below the nose. The other 2 in front of the spar and at the top of the spar are just there so I don't grossly misalign the rib and ruin it.

I hold the top of the fixture with my finger tips and the bottom of the rib with my thumb while cutting and it all works very well. The next time you come back to do another stack of ribs it's easy to align the blade with the front of the fixture, just don't cut into it and slowly make it shorter.

The guide stick is glued and screwed to the bottom of the board and everything laid out from it.

Heavy Compression Ribs Finished

2010-02-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

All the sections for the Heavy Compression Ribs are finished. They'll be assembled on the wings to assure a tight fit to the spars once the regular ribs are installed. There are only 2 aft sections because the upper wings are cut out for ailerons. On those ribs there are only short sticks added over the spar. The ends of the sticks do not follow the top of the center section but, are bent down so the end of the stick does not touch the fabric on the top of the wing.

Building More Heavy Compression Ribs

2010-02-23T17:53:00.000-08:00

Today I made the rest of the parts for the other 3 heavy compression ribs. Instead of the complicated cutting I'm gluing 1/4" webs to 7/16" x 1/2" sticks to make the "L" sections. In the factory photo it looks like glue is smeared in the corner like the factory made them of 2 pieces.

Heavy Compression Rib Finished

2010-02-21T22:00:00.000-08:00

With the 2 heavy members made I cut the 3 vetical sticks and the gussets to hold them in place. A lot of time was spent getting all these right since each has a different angle on each end. I suspect the factory used square cut pieces for this as they did on the light ribs. For sure the stick in the middle and the gussets could all be done as rectangles.

I made a board with some guides to hold every thing in position, not really a jig, while assembling the 4 ribs, 2 lefts and 2 rights.
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The nose and tail sections will get installed on the wing to allow the main load bearing part to be carefuly fit between the spars as the wings are assembled. The edge of the nose and tail sticks get glued to the 1/4" web for about 5" past the spars. I'll come back to this when I put a wing together

Wing Rib Nose Gussets

2010-02-19T07:15:00.001-08:00

The wings need 104 gussets for the nose portion of the ribs. To make these quickly and uniformly I rough sawed them from the 1/16" 90 degree mahogany plywood with a very fine toothed band saw blade. Even my best efforts with the band saw will not yield uniform parts. Stacking them does not work because the blade wanders more the taller the stack. Instead I used my router to make parts quickly and all within a fine tolerance. I did this by making a steel pattern, attaching it to a holding block and routing the finished shape with the same formica cutter I use to trim finished ribs.

The template is made from 24 gauge galvanized sheet steel from Lowes. I find galvanized steel the best to make templates from. It's cheap (always a recommendation) and easy to work with both in cutting and filing carefully to a scribed line. Steel also holds up well in use as a template. The plywood on top of the template is needed to allow the roller to follow the template and postion the gusset so the blade can cut it.

The screw points peeking out from the plywood are there to hold the gusset in place while running the cutter around the template. for this I like the very pointed coarse thread screws like drywall screws. You only need about 1/32" of the sharp tip pointing out to hold the gusset from slipping. I clamped the block in a vise, set the gusset on it and, ran the router quickly around the edge.

If I were doing it again I would turn the process upside down by drilling a 1-1/4" hole for a vacuum cleaner hose with some air paths out to the screws like in the other block below. You put the block on the hose, set the gusset on and, with the router upside down in a stand run the template around the cutter. It really works slick and quick.

Heavy Compression Rib Members

2010-02-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

The wings have several different ribs along with the light ribs. One such is the heavy compression rib at the strut attachment point. This rib uses the light contruction for the nose and tail portions with heavy members between the spars. The first step in making these ribs is the 2 heavy members cut from 3/4" wide spruce. The curve and spar cuts were laid out using a light rib as a pattern along with the drawing dimensions (D/N 3662).

With the cuts all drawn on the sticks, the first cut was made for the 1/4" wide web. The order of the cuts is important to be able to handle the sticks as each cut is made.

The next cut was the ends of the sticks to fit the spars. The miter was set by using a straight edge lined up with the saw blade and the cut line on each end of the sticks. Not only are the spars tipped from square but, each stick is at a different angle to the spars.

Next, the curves were cut on the band saw and sanded smooth.

The last cut was made to form the 7/16" thick foot of the "L".

Trimming Wing Rib Gussets

2009-12-30T17:14:00.001-08:00

The gussets on the wing ribs are mostly triangles and rectangles. They are glued on with the corners of the gussets sticking out past the curved upper and lower sticks.

In the factory photos you can see that they trimmed the corners of the gusset with a belt sander to create a smooth contour on the edges of the ribs. That actually works very well with soft glues like they used in the mid 1920s. Resorcinol is very hard once it cures and is not as easy to trim with the belt sander.

What really works well is a straight sided router bit with a roller bearing for trimming Formica.

You need a sole plate for the router with a very large radius on the edges so the gussets and any stray nail heads do not hang up on the edge. I made this one with a scrap of plywood and rounded the edges on the belt sander. I've lost my little table/router stand so I just clamp it in a work mate.

Adjust the height of the roller so it is near the top of the stick. This assures you get any glue which may have dripped down a stick. Also you need to rout each side of the rib once the gussets on that side are dry. Otherwise the roller will follow the gusset or glue from the first side or be adjusted so low it won't clean up all the glue.

Remember to rout in the spar openings as well. You'll need to touch up the inside corners with a mill file.

Wing Rib Gusset Glueing & Nailing

2009-12-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

Now that the Christmas rush is over in the embroidery shop I'm back to building wing ribs while working on other projects. I've realized there are some things which could use some more explanation.

When mixing the glue I've found that mixing by volume vs by weight is the easiest. I've also found that the amount of glue needed to put all the gussets on 2 sides of a rib is exactly the amount using 4 teaspoons of Liquid Resin with 3 teaspoons of Powdered Catalyst. I've found that clear plastic drink cups work great. Recently I got some shallow clear plastic pill dispensing cups, they're even better, harder to spill. I use a metal teaspoon since it's easy to level the catalyst with a popsicle stick. It's also easier to wash the metal spoon clean after measuring each ingedient to make sure the unused portion in the can is not contaminated. One of the nice things with Resorcinol is that it washes up with water until it cures and becomes waterproof.

I measure the catalyst into the drink cup and the resin into the pill cup. The drink cup is easier to poor from slowly while mixing in the pill cup. The 3rd cup in the picture is a gauge to double check whether I've put in the correct amount of resin.

I reuse the cup for the Catalyst so I've drawn a line on it as a double check in case I get interrupted while measuring.

That doesn't work as well with the Resin since I use that cup to mix the glue. Since the cups are clear I have a cup which I can set the Resin cup into to check that the correct amount of resin was measured. I also have a line on it for the volume after mixing which is less than the 7 teaspoon total.

I've made 2 little videos to help explain how to install gussets.

The first covers applying the glue, just to the areas needed.

The second covers using the nailer.

These methods seem simple and obvious but they reduced my time to build assemble and nail both sides of a rib from 2-1/2 hours to 1-1/2 hours. With so many ribs to build it's a big savings over holding the nails with pliers and using the tack hammer.

Elevator Horn Material Thickness

2009-12-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

I've been working on how to make new elevator and rudder control horns. They are not used on the Waco Ten so there aren't many people to ask. There is one on each elevator and the rudder. They are stamped as 2 metal shells and welded together along the edge to form a rigid streamlined shape. There is no drawing I've found for these and they are more complex than almost anything else on the plane so I believe they were simply purchased as new WWI surplus. We built our Fly Baby with a lot of WWII surplus parts from the A & N store before they discovered Levis and Nike.

The outside shape was easy and I'll cover that in another posting. The bigger problem was the metal thickness. I have one horn on the rudder which is in good shape and one on one elevator. This elevator has rust problems but the horn is usable so I didn't want to damage it to measure the metal thickness.

Also at each end there is a piece of steel welded in the tab end making the tab 3 layers thick all welded along the exposed edge. The three layer tab measured .110" thick which leave a couple possibilities for the 2 shells and the inserted tab. The most likely combination was all three being 20 gauge steel (.o359").

The idea was to make a go-no-go gauge from 2 pieces of welding rod with feeler gauges taped between them. with this the thickness of the tab insert could be measured and the thickness of the shell becomes half of what's left from the .110" total

We don't need an exact measurement just close enough to determine the gauge size of the steel. By adjusting the stack of feeler gauges between the wires in .oo2 increments it was easy to show that the steel is 20 gauge.

I've included a video which explains this better but even at the lowest resolution it's 62 mb. I have a higher resolution version but it's 229 mb. If you have a high speed connection check out the video.

Elevator Ribs

2009-11-22T18:23:00.000-08:00

Today I started making the ribs for the elevators. These are made of 5/16" tubing. After cutting them a little long I square one end on the belt sander and clean up any burrs.

Next I flatten the bottom of the tube hitting it about 30 degrees from vertical.

Then I turn the tube over and position the end so its 3/8" past the center of a heavy walled piece of 1" tubing, same diameter as the spar. By flattening the end on the tube you end up with the rib end shape needed. If its a little long just shorten it on the belt sander. About 4 whacks with the hammer and the whole job is done.

The other end is fish mouthed to fit the Trailing Edge tube.

One tube is square to the spar. The tube on the other side is offset about 1" at the trailing edge.

Elevator Jig & Fabricating Parts

2009-11-21T16:47:00.000-08:00

Before I started on the tail surfaces I took all the various drawings I had and the existing surfaces and created a drawing which is as close to exact as I can do. All the drawings were made after the plane was built. I have only found 2 drawings for the NINE which were drawn before my plane was built. They are for the radiator and are in the Rome Turney Radiator Company collection of the Rome, New York historical society. They exactly agree with the later production drawing of November 1930. The jig board was laid out from my drawing and was done to allow both the stabilizer and elevators to be made with one jig. The cut outs are to allow tack welding with a torch. I know there are great new welding methods and equipment. If it were a safety issue I'd go with the new methods otherwise using them misses the point of this restoration hobby.

Because the ribs pass above and below the spars I wanted the spars, leading edge and trailing edge tubes all on a plane parallel to the board. To do this and hold the tubes in position for tack welding I made these blocks which have the same distance from the board to the tube centerline. They were made by drilling the holes for the different size tubes in a simple jig and then sawing them through the holes. They are screwed to the jig board so they can be removed as needed to make the different surfaces.

The first task was to make the trailing edge from 5/16" tubing. I started with the bend which would be the hardest to get right if not done first, the small bend at the inboard end. This was done with a simple tubing bender which had the needed bend radius. This bend was used as a reference point as the rest of the tube was bent while being held flat on the jig board. That's why some of the weld cutouts were still screwed in place. They contained part of the curve for the Trailing Edge tube.

To make the larger bend I made a simple wooden bender with a large radius to get smooth bends. The radius is still significantly smaller than any on the tube. I worked from the inboard end out making very small bends while holding the tube flat on the jig board. The first one took about a half hour and the second twenty minutes.

Next the outboard end of the spar was flattened and filed to fit the trailing edge tube. This was done first because it is easier to locate and drill the hole at the inboard end then it is to flatten the tube.

The inboard end of the spar was marked for the Trailing Edge hole by rubbing with a small square. The hole was drilled through the spar and the Trailing Edge tube will be trimmed off after tack welding.

The tubes are held in the jig blocks with a piece of plumbing strap held down with the mounting screws.

The rest of the pictures show details of how the original elevator was welded together. Starting with the inboard end joint of the spar and trailing edge.

The next 2 are of the Spar to Trailing Edge joint at the outboard end.

The next 3 are of a typical Rib to Spar joint.

These 2 are of a typical Rib to Trailing Edge joint.

The last is of the elevator control horn and 3/4" tube rib.

Great Neck Magnetic Brad & Nail Driver

2009-11-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

I found this nail driver on line from a tip I picked up at the antique fly-in in Iowa this year. It's the Great Neck model BD1. I was not impressed when I first got it because I expected it to be spring operated like a one handed center punch. After some experimenting and building a rib with it I realized some minor improvements would make it into a great tool. It's primary attribute was a price of less than $5.00, but now I will use it for all my rib building, etc.

The first change was to buy a 1-1/4" chair foot at Lowes. I mixed a little epoxy and filled the foot about 1/4 full. Then I stood the handle of the driver in it and left it to dry over night. Next I used my belt sander to grind off the ridges to make a nice palm face. The last thing was to rough up the end and install a short piece of heat shrink tubing to allow me to more easilly slide the sleeve down if I want to see if I have a nail in the holder.

Using it is easy. I have a shallow bowl of nails I can pick up with my right hand, to the right of the gusset I'm nailing. Yes I'm right handed and not even sure I could pick up a 1/4" nail with my left hand. With the nailer in my left hand I drop the nail head first into the magetic holder.

Next position the tip of the nailer where you want the nail. I've marked my jig with a red felt marker at each nail location. It helps me know where the nails go and as a quality check when I'm done to verify I did not miss one, or serveral as the case may be. Now hold the nailer vertically and gently press down until the nail contacts the gusset.

A light slap with your right hand on top of the nailer will drive it home. If you leave one a little high just finish it with a tack hammer. When I'm done nailing I run my finger over every nail. Any that feel high I touch up with the tack hammer.

This thing is way better than needle nose pliers and a tack hammer.

Building Our First Rib

2009-11-20T17:29:00.000-08:00

The first week of 2009 our grandkids Rowan and Duncan stayed with us. Rowan helped grandpa build the first rib in our WACO NINE restoration. The first part I did myself. I started with 1"x6"x6' boards of sitka spruce. Those boards were cut into 3 pieces about 2" wide. These were then sawed on edge to make 2 strips 3/8" thick. These more manageable strips were sawed into a lot of sticks 3/8" x 1/4", some 3/8" x 3/8" for spar attach sticks, and a couple 3/8" x 3/4" for nose blocks.

After we did the first rib perfectly, I broke several sticks trying to bend them. Well it was the dryest time of the year. Everything I read said there was no need to presoak the wood unless it was very dry. You're really not trying to get the wood wet. Bending is all about heat. The heat is transmitted by heating the water. The wood itself is a pretty good insulator, the water (steam) overcomes that resistance. We made a vase 2 ft tall from a piece of 4" schedule 40 PVC pipe and a toilet flange with the pressure test knockout still in place. Ok I design alternative waste water sytems as well as my embroidery business so this was easy for me. Any tall vase would work. You need to soak about 18" of the stick. That's all we're steam bending is the end of the sticks. My vase held exatly 1 gallon of distilled water to my 18" mark. Clearly the size I made it was meant to be. I soak the sticks 24 hours standing in the vase. I have 2 form blocks which each make an upper and lower stick, so I usually soak 4 sticks. While I'm steaming one set I start the next 4 sticks soaking. I've steamed way more sticks than I've made ribs so far because it's been harder to find time for building ribs.

Now we're ready to steam the sticks for bending. To generate the steam I bought a cloths steamer at Target or Walmart. I bought the cheapest one I could find. I probably should have found one with a little more heating power but it works. It just takes twice as long as all the literature said, 15 minutes per 1/4 thick. It takes mine 30 minutes and uses about a quart of water. The steaming tube is made from 2" schedule 40 PVC with a tee at the steam end. Yes it's a tee because there is a 1/4" drain line going downd to the water bottle to remove condensation.

I cut the tool end off the steamer tube and clamped it to a tube fitting screwed into the reducer in the end of the tee. Got all that? The supports are there to hold it at an angle, so water runs out. They are just plastic pipe hangers glued and screwed on. This thing get hot enough to melt the glue.

To monitor the steam temperature you need a thermometer. My cheap, note that theme, multimeter from Lowes came with a temperature probe. I have it stuck in a hole past where we need to bend the sticks, so we're sure it gets the sticks hot. Note the temp. on the meter. You have to let the tube get to temperature before you put the sticks in. The towel wrapped loosly around the end of the pipe slows, but does not block the steam. You want good flow to get good heat. We want heat not wet.

What you see in this pic are the cable ties criss-crossing in 2 places to support and separate the sticks so they get good even heat. You can see where they are on the outside of the tube because I plugged the holes with epoxy putty after lacing the cable ties. One of the holes is where I insert the temp. probe.

Compare the shape of the form block and the curve at the front of the rib. You have to overbend the sticks. They do spring back a little. We're only steam bending the areas which won't bend dry without breaking, basically from the spar forward.

Anyone who knows me knows I normally go for fancier ways to build things, but for this we're using a piece of scrap 3/4" plywood, some scrap pieces of stick, and some cable ties. I start with 2 cable ties loosely tied at the start end, left, of the block. Pull a stick out of the heat and clamp it with a long block. Gently but quickly form it to the block with the palm of your hand. Hold it there and clamp it with small blocks and cable ties. The books all say you have 5 seconds to form it while it's hot. It's true. Now rotate the block 180 degrees and do the next stick. I start with the lower stick then the upper so I don't have the end sticking out in the way when I go to do the bottom stick. Don't remove a stick from the heat until you are ready to clamp it, remember 5 seconds.

You can see all cable ties are going the same direction and I don't trim them. After they dry 24 hours on the block I cut them loose with diagonal cuters.

As soon as the sticks are both clamped, lightly mark where the front of the spars are, with pencil, so you can locate the sticks correctly in the jig.

My ace assistant helping build the jig. Is that intensity or what? The colored dots were my way of figuring out where I wanted blocks. We're back downstairs in the nice warm shop for this rather that turn on the heat in the attic just for glue to dry. The paper pattern is coated with paste wax. That good Carnuba wax is best, a little trick from Shop Smith.

You can see most of the blocks are round with an off center hole to allow adjustment. The 1/4" plywood block worked the best. You need them short enough to keep away from the glue.

Each stick generally has 3 blocks, 2 to locate on a line (the red ones), 1 to hold it tight against the other 2 (the blue ones).

Here all the sticks are in the jig ready for gussets to be glued on. The other rib layout is to flip the rib over when it's dry and put gussets on the other side.

My ace assistant again driving nails on the second side. I was sticking the nails in the gussets with needle nose pliers, glueing and then driving the nails. I now have a great tool fron Great Neck Tools, but that will be another posting.

All the gussets are installed. I let it dry 24 hours before I move it. The rib is 62 inchs long so moving it can easily break joints loose if the glue isn't dry. I only use Resorcinol. It's easy to mix and always works, and is the only FAA approved glue. Don't waste time trying to sell me on others. I also use cement coated nails. No staples here. Again don't waste time on me just do it your way. That cool hammer is from 7th grade shop class, back in the stone ages when people were expected to have to earn a living with their skills.

I couldn't resist another picture of Rowan working that hammer. Before we flip the rib I trim the glue and gussets with a router bit used for trimming Formica. It works great and it's easier if you do each side as the gluing is done. You always want enough glue that a small bead oozes out of the joint.

Steaming to finished rib takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours of work with all the parts pre-cut. I printed these pictures for Rowan and she gave her kindergarten class a report on how we did it for Show & Tell. Now I just need to finish the rest of the ribs before she's old enough to fly it.

Early Pictures

2009-11-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

This is our plane which was delivered by air to Pennsylvania by Lloyd O. Yost. It is pictured when owned by first owner Fred Nelson who based the plane at Middletown Air Intermediate Depot, now Harrisburg International.

The picture was taken while the plane was marked, in water color paint, with temporary number 1184, issued in April, 1927. The permanent license number C3391 was issued November 7, 1927.
The plane is powered by a 90 HP OX-5engine made in December, 1918.

The 75 employees of Advance Aircraft Co,who built this plane. This picture was taken Saturday June 26, 1926. C3391 was delivered either June 20th or 30th. This crew could build 1 Waco NINE each day.In 1926 they built about 175 planes.
The Waco NINE was the first commercially successful U.S. light plane with 283 NINEs built in 2 years from mid 1925 to mid 1927.

The NINE was replaced with the enhancedmodel Ten. It featured a better landing gear, wing center section, passenger door,elevator trim, 4 ailerons, and cowled motor.

No wasted space in this plant. These guys are makingAirplanes. This picture and the one to the right weretaken Monday June, 28th. The fellow in the dirty coveralls is wearing Lee Aviation Union-Alls.
Note the simple construction of the welded fuselage. Virtually all of the diagonal bracing is done with hardwire loops and turnbuckles, which are still tight after 1100 hours and 80+ years. There is no headrest on theNINE and the padding around the cockpit is coveredwith leatherette, an early fake leather like they used the later Model A Fords. You can also see the shock cords for the full swivel tail skid, a true tail dragger.

Not as crowded as the fuselage assembly area, this is thewing department. The wing in the front is an upper left.Only the upper wings are cut out for ailerons. They’rebeing built to the right behind the big band saw. With4 wings per ship and a booming business in spares, youneed to be making a lot of wings.
After assembling the ribs, the edges of the gussets arecleaned up on the belt sander just back from the bandsaw. The last rib before the tip is a very strong rib of heavy spruce. There’s one by the window to the left.
The suited fellow near the back is Paul Walton. Hestarted making ribs in 1924 and also made some ofthe first drawings of the NINE in December 1926.

Found Serial Number

1996-07-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

I found the Construction Number (production Serial Number) while showing the fuselage to my brother in-law Mike Clark. The number 264 was carefully written on the back of the turtle deck former behind the rear cockpit. The font used was the same as that used for the drawing number on some of the oldest drawings. This seems to much of a coincidence not to have been done at the factory. Besides which it's in a very awkward place to do after installing on the plane.

From various letters from the feds to other Waco NINE owners the factory stamped the official Construction Number on the right forward landing gear fitting. That part of the fuselage was cut off and not available for us to find. The number on the former may have just been easier to see during the assembly process at the factory.

In the Beginning

1996-05-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

I had planned to build a Hatz Biplane to use for giving rides in the EAA Young Eagles program. I thought kids should get a ride in something more like the barnstormers of the '20s flew. A friend of mine and co-worker, Leon Johenning, suggested that if I wanted a plane which looked like something from the '20s I should build the real thing, a WACO. Drawings were available for the Taperwing, so how much more work would it be to have the real deal? We along with our wives drove 8 hours west to attended the 1994 National WACO Club fly-in in Mount Vernon, Ohio hoping to learn about WACO's. It rained all weekend and only 3 planes attended. Leon wandered over to a nearby airport where a nice cabin WACO was for sale, since there wasn't much else happening. He convinced me to go look and it was lust at first sight. We had just sold our house so I had the money for a down payment and the credit to get a mortgage on the rest. After 360 hours of great fun I sold the VKS-7F to a fellow in Michigan who at the time ran Waco Classic in Battle Creek.

Before I sold the WACO I had attended the 1996 Vintage Chapter 3 Fly-in where I met Morton Lester. He picked numbers badly at the evening banquet so our table was last to get fed. As a result we had time to talk about airplanes and Young Eagles. I enjoyed giving rides in the WACO but still wanted an open cockpit late '20s sort of machine. I had been gathering drawings to build a Straight Wing WACO 10 for the purpose. Leon had been right all along it was as easy to build the real deal as the Hatz. Morton said he had a WACO 10 fuselage which might speed my project. I was delighted to just go take pictures and measurements but he was willing to part with it. Two weeks later we were on his doorstep with a trailer to move the fuselage home.

One look told me this was not a 10 but an older NINE. This was even better. We hauled it home May 18, 1996. It took several years to track the heirs of the last owner to get clear title. We're now rebuilding the plane and plan to use this blog to record what we learn and do through that process. We have also been gathering the records of all WACO NINEs ever registered with the fed's to learn more about the lives and times of these planes.

These are Morton's hangers and museum.

This is what we picked up. The fuselage was cut off by a fellow planning to make an airboat out of it. That's another story. From where he cut it off back everything except instruments is there. The headrest was added after 1929.

The last bay of the fuselage had a piece of fabric with eyelets and was laced on with what look like shoe laces. It looks like it reduced airflow through the fuselage and out the tail. The little things you discover when you have original parts.

We'll be posting only as we actually do things so don't expect daily updates, earning the money to pay for this takes priority.