Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Wing Rib Triangle Gussets

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.