...wingrib gussts everywhere (May 29th 00)

made lots and lots of wingrib gussets. It's a good work to become familiar with the aluminum material. One piece looks nicer than the other. All edges nicely rounded, everything polished to a satin shine. I have to be careful not to become careless.

1. Don't snip small pieces away from the bandsaw when it's running.

2. Don't get caught by the routine - there are left and right parts and mirror-inverted parts!

...lessons learned (May 24th 00)

have cut and grinded 32 pieces of W15-08/08 wingrib gusset stock. Two things learned:

1. if more than three indentical parts are required, build drill-jigs, templates and any other

useful tools, otherwise the job will become boring

2. if more than three indentical parts are required, then make a test piece, otherwise

the first of the three will become your test piece (say: scrap)

...bending brake experiences

have bolted the bending brake at the long-side of 12x4 ft assembly table. Have experimented with setback to get a defined bending radius. My result: for 1/16" bending radius the brake's setback is about 2 millimeters (here we're in metric Germany guys!). An easy way to check bending radius is to put an #30 drillbit into the bend and check if the sheet fits nicely around.

=============================================

...it happened today at the toolshop (May 16th 00)

today I visited a hobby-supermarket downtown. Mostly they sell tools for gardening, woodworking, tiles, bricks, cement and similar housebuilding stuff.

Oh, boy I was surprised when I strolled along the shelves and found some dusty boxes containing sheet metal bending brakes ***BENDING BRAKES*** - in a ***GERMAN*** supermarket!!! No more import necessary from the great but far-away (and thus expensive) US of A. But still better I found an intersting roller? sheet metal shears. See following pictures

This machine is Great! I tried cutting the stainless sheet for the firewall. - It cuts through like butter. Initially I thought buying a nibbling tool - bus this machine is 100 times better. It makes straight as well as curvature cuts. The cuts are very smooth. Maybe it's time to sell my tin snips at the next flea market.

============================================

Stainless (May 15th 00)

My alumn metal order is in process now. Until the steamship has traversed the big Atlantic Ocean some weeks may have passed. So I took my Peugeot cabrio, drove to the precious metal dealer in Frankfurt and bought a sheet of stainless steel (European designation: 1.4301) 1 m x 2 m (much more than necessary - so there's left a lot for practicing). When the softtop is removed the roll fit perfectly on the rear seats. Tonight I made some flange bending experiments. - Believe it or not this stuff is easier to bend as the alumn I tried before. The sheet got a perfect mirror-like surface. Additionally the surface is covered with a touch of laqueur. The sheet feels like silk - and bends the same way. This firewall looks like to become an outstanding piece of craft.

============================================

my scrap pile -aehm my learning curve regarding flange bending improved considerably the last few days. This are my little tricks/experiences:

1. the Sonex flange forming tools (particle boards) need some post-processing.One thing is to radius the edge where the metal bends over. For this task I made a litte 'radius gauge':

2. The prefabricated fluting grooves also need some pre-processing.

3. I made a small (about 10" wide) 'training' flange forming tool. Advantage is that I can experiment with the fluting grooves without ruining the original Sonex parts. Secondly because it's actually only a section of the rib's curvature I need much less sheet metal for my experiments.

Now the flange came out nearly perfect. Adittionally I waxed the edge and grooves. I don't know if this actually helps or if only the skills have improved.

I'm waiting now for the real 6061-T6 material order to arrive.

============================

Today I started some flange bending experiments. Due to my metal has not arrived yet I used some scrap 0.025" 2024-T3. I choose SNX-F20-05 (turtledeck former #5) as my first victim (because there is the most bend with the fewest flutings).

The result came out as a real desaster. The metal built up lots of folds (much more than fluting grooves of the forming tool).

Hitting these folds down made things worse (sharp bends build up which could not be removed anymore). What I'm doing wrong? Is it because of the 2024-T3 is so much harder to form? please HELP