Don't need no stinkin fuselage jig

Stuka Stunt Main Forum · 20 of 20 known posts recovered

Bob Reeves · Jan 06, 2004 11:05 AM

Quite a while ago there was a discussion on fuselage jigs and I brought up my shotgun shell box way of building fuselages. I posted a picture of the TwistMaster sitting on the (use them for many things) boxes and someone commented that the picture was showing a profile, implying the obvious.

Well I am here to set the record straight, this is the Skylark fuselage being built with my shotgun shell boxes If the plans are accurate it is perfectly straight and true.

shelby554 · Jan 06, 2004 12:58 PM

#1 source

Looks straight to me!

Don Jones

bkruger · Jan 06, 2004 01:06 PM

#2 source

>Well I am here to set the record straight, this is the
>Skylark fuselage being built with my shotgun shell boxes
>If the plans are accurate it is perfectly straight and true.

Bob;

Looks good. I use boxes of shotgun shells as well. Works great.

The only problem is that they seem to go away during hunting season.... . I used up my last two boxes this past weekend.

Perhaps I should fill the empty boxes with scrap iron.

v/r - Bob

DennisV · Jan 06, 2004 01:14 PM

#3 source

Bob,
Do my old eyes deceive me or are you using VELCRO (or equivalent) as a facing on your shotgun shell boxes where they touch the fuselage?
DennisV

Bob Reeves · Jan 06, 2004 02:25 PM

#6 source

Dennis,

That is some sort of foam plastic that I snatched out of the packing for circuit boards we use. It is about 3/8 thick and fairly stiff but still has enough give not to scratch or dent balsa. I glued a piece to the top of each shell box to insulate the hard cardboard from whatever balsa piece I am working on. Sometimes I use them for weight, sometimes for a stand, they are always in constant use when I am building.

Bill Little · Jan 06, 2004 01:21 PM

#4 source

Hi Bob,
I see no reason that shouldn't work just fine! Done it similar to that way myself several times.
I am fortunate to have a 3/8ths glass sheet on my table shimmed flat so I draw lines and tack glue to the glass. Very quick and true.
As probably everyone else does, I cut my sides while tacked together so that they are matched. C/l for wing and stab drawn inside and out on the sides. We just got a lazer incidence meter, and it shows that we are as close as it seems possible to straight and true. All the jigs are nice, but the old ways still work, too!
Bill <><

Disclaimer: I am neither a NATS Champion, engine reworker, engine producer, column writer, Hobby Shop owner, *rockeet* scientist, nor otherwise. Just an old Advanced flier.

Bob Reeves · Jan 06, 2004 02:45 PM

#7 source

Ya, the bench you are looking at is a steel work bench with 3/4 MDF on top shimmed level and flat. On top of that is the fiber board work surface which conforms to the MDF bench top. I have a 2x4 foot piece of 1/4 glass on another bench that is also shimmed flat and level but it mainly gets used for cutting Monokote.

P Walker · Jan 06, 2004 02:20 PM

#5 source

>If the plans are accurate it is perfectly straight and true.

I guess it depends on what the tolerance is on "straight".

Straight for you and straight for someone else may be different.

Sometimes close enough IS good enough!

P Walker

DMoon · Jan 07, 2004 09:32 PM

#8 source

Legos work great for use as equal spacing off of a bench or aligning a stab. My brother started using them. They are manufactured parts and they are identicle. They are also square. The large ones called Duplo Blocks are also good. They tack glue easy with CA and they pop off your bench real easy when you are done.

Doug Moon

Dr Spark · Jan 07, 2004 10:18 PM

#9 source

Having constructed a complete wing panel for the Focke-Wulf 44J in my shop with no more than "eyeball" alignment, I must brag that my eyes are every bit as accurate as a jig.

(ps. It flew perfectly without further trim).

Floyd

DMoon · Jan 08, 2004 10:02 PM

#12 source

The human eye is a VERY accurate tool. In art school they showed us by asking each of us to center a pencil mark on a square peice of paper almost everyone including myself got it within 1/32" of dead center. Seeing it accurately is one thing...holding and gluing it that way is another....

Doug Moon

ferocious · Jan 09, 2004 07:34 PM

#17 source

you gotta watch out if you have astigmatism and wear glasses. It can make a lot of lines that should be straight look curved, depending on how you are looking at the piece. I've finally learned what to watch out for, but it is nothing to be off 10-15 degrees and you could swear it looked straight. the trailing edge looks perfectly straight, until you put it up against a straightedge and find out the astigmatism was taking the curve out. Cut it straight and then it looks curved. Or you try and eyeball a former up straight. It looks fine from one angle and slanted from another. Use a square and find out that it was crooked from both angles.

Phil C

Ty Marcucci · Jan 09, 2004 06:44 PM

#14 source

I hope your nephew is not missing any leggos.

4stroker · Jan 08, 2004 04:12 PM

#10 source

Hi Bob.

I'm wondering----does this building technique suggest that someone will have to rip the fuse from your cold dead hands when you've finished?

Jim B

Bob Reeves · Jan 08, 2004 09:32 PM

#11 source

>Hi Bob.
>
> I'm wondering----does this building technique suggest
>that someone will have to rip the fuse from your cold dead
>hands when you've finished?
>
>Jim B

Well that kinda depends on the circumstances, I haven't fired a shotgun in probably 20 years but still have my Browining Auto-5 12ga, also have a Browning 9mm auto. I call the 9mm my people-gun because that is all it is good for.

Fix_it · Jan 09, 2004 02:59 PM

#13 source

LAST EDITED ON Jan-09-04 AT 03:00 PM (CDT)

I have a slightly different device for squaring up fuse sides etc. They are the wrist pins from the pistons of a Cummins diesel engine. They are heavy, have a perfectly square face angle, and the circular shape provides about the same contact area as one of those fancy metal building jigs fixtures.

I got mine free from a overhaul shop, the guy had a bucket full.

They can also double as hand weights for doing curls to improve your arm strength.

Bill Heher
aka Fix_it
If it's broke - fix it
If it's not broke
Let me see it for a minute!

Bill Heher
If it's broke, fix it.
If it aint broke - let me see it for a minute.

Ty Marcucci · Jan 09, 2004 06:46 PM

#15 source

Hey Bill. I have only one Cummins piston pin left. Wish I had more. Great for weighing down various items joined with epoxy. I also have one piston pin seal driver. It is shorter than the pin, but heavy.

Proparc · Jan 09, 2004 07:04 PM

#16 source

>Quite a while ago there was a discussion on fuselage jigs
>and I brought up my shotgun shell box way of building
>fuselages. I posted a picture of the TwistMaster sitting on
>the (use them for many things) boxes and someone commented
>that the picture was showing a profile, implying the
>obvious.
>
>Well I am here to set the record straight, this is the
>Skylark fuselage being built with my shotgun shell boxes

>If the plans are accurate it is perfectly straight and true.

Thats how I do my fuselages Bob. Anything square and accurate will suffice. I also believe it gives you more flexibility in construction.

Milton Graham\Proparc

Larry Cunningham · Jan 09, 2004 07:44 PM

#18 source

Why do something a simple, obvious, efficient way? When you can do it the labor-intensive Cowboy Way! ((The Cowboy Way, by definition is never the Easy Way, but it almost always a Good Way. And it is the way that Roy or Gene or Hoppy or Tom probably would have done it..))

[photo not recovered: 3fff586016347a01.jpg]

By expending hours of hard work on CAD drawings, you can design a fuselage with both horizontal and vertical curvature, and diagonal aft formers. Properly done, the parts are so accurate that the fuselage will only fit together one way, the correct way, and no jig is really necessary!

[photo not recovered: 3e69bb3870f12ad5.jpg]

C/L Gee Bee · Jan 09, 2004 09:04 PM

#19 source

My Granite Slab was well worth the wait. Nephew Ted (precision machinist) insisted I needed this. Weights were too cumbersome, gave it back to him. Afraid of "out-tricking" my self. Al Rabe is still the one to emulate, in my humble opinion.

Mike in Atwater,
'When I fly, the plane gets nervous'