wing saddle;

What is the way that you cut your fuselage sides to get the wing to fit snug into the fuselege??? I have been having trouble with this!!
It is causing some stress in that the fuse is "bowing on top", and creating aproblem with stab insedence..
Any suggestions sure will help.........

Gil,

The way I do it is fairly straightforward. Assuming a build-up wing I use the rib template to trace the wing outline on to the fuselage. Then I saw it out always keeping inside the lines and being carefull that I use the saw at straightangles with the fuselage. Generally the hole will be to small although I will have taken into account extra thickness for sheeting/capstrips.
So then starts the tedious work of filing the hole to the actual dimensions needed to make a snug fit, never forcing it in. Patience is what makes it fit best.

1. Either make a photocopy of the wing cross section or trace it on to tracing paper from the plans. Make two... one for each side. ( Obviously you only need one if it's a profile.)

2. Mark the balsa pieces that will be used for the fuselage sides with the wing centerline and leading edge location. I use a fine line black marker that doesn't dent balsa for this and all balsa marking.

3. Apply rubber cement to the back of the traced wing template and to the balsa sides. Locate as precisely as possible on the lines that were marked for the wing location.

4. If it's full fuselage plane with approx. 1/8" sides, I'll use an exacto knife to cut it out. If it's a profile, I'll use a scroll saw which helps to keep the cut square to the piece.

5. Peel off the remainder of the template and rub the excess rubber cement from the fuselage sides.

6. On a tapered wing , the cut-out will be slightly larger than the wing section where it joins the fuselage. That really isn't much of a problem.

OK. I'll confess. The cutout in the fuselage for the wing is one tedious job! These days, I usually get the cut-out too big. No problem. Just use strips of 1/16" balsa and pack them in the gaps with Ambroid. Unless you take hours and hours to make the cutouts just perfect (and the wing is perpendicular with fuselage sides) you haven't a chance. Once fillets are in place, the balsa packing is invisible.

In the '40s and '50s, I built stunters like they now make "I Beam" jobs. The only cut out in the fuselage sides were for the spars, leading edge and trailing edge. The same procedure, except I used full sheet balsa wing ribs, and not slices.

LAST EDITED ON Jul-08-04 AT 01:38 PM (CDT)
 
>
> What is the way that you cut your fuselage sides to get
>the wing to fit snug into the fuselege??? I have been
>having trouble with this!!
> It is causing some stress in that the fuse is "bowing on
>top", and creating aproblem with stab insedence..
> Any suggestions sure will help.........
> ;) ;) ;) ;)

Ron B.
F4Fguy

I(almost)always build the wing first.I mark the wing (use a felt tip, not a pencil or ball point which will score the wood)at the location of the fuse sides.I use a transfer guage to layout a template of the section at that point*.The template is then marked with center lines and offset from the root section due to taper.Then the template is used to cut the sides,cutting to just remove the line drawn from the template.This gives a very good fit,and assuming careful layout,very little needs doing to get good alignment.On profiles,I use a drill press to establish reference points on both sides then use the template to draw the section on both sides.

*If I'm building a kit,if I designed it,I'll plot the section at that point for the template.

First thing, you gotta have the wing centerline marked with a pen on the LE and the TE.

I will assume you marked on both suides of the fuse the wing centerline.

The other guys gave you the best possible advice, just make sure that the centerlines coincide.

Guy's I sure do appreciate the responses, as usual these fellows are right on problem solving..
Again thanks a lot, Gil

One thing I have done with fair success is to make the front and rear of the fuselage as separate pieces. Glue the front onto the wing and then the rear onto the wing. It is pretty easy to jig things up so that everything comes out straight. Good information in this thread!

Jim,

That's gotta be the ULTIMATE scarf joint method!