Skinning the wing- Sonex or RV style?

[Tony Spicer]

For those looking at space requirements, the skinned portion of the LSA wing is 39" x 120", with 28" of spar added to the inboard end. Rear spar is about 23" aft of the main spar.

Tony

[GlenNJ]

Thanks for the link Tony. I thought the album was gone.
Glen

[Tony Spicer]

Glen,

The album is still there, you just need to know the URL to access it. Things were getting a bit cluttered.

https://picasaweb.google.com/tonyboytoo ... 8-W1udigEQ#

The big change to the production wings is the skins won't wrap from trailing edge to trailing edge.

Tony

[GlenNJ]

Tony,
It's to bad you removed the old wing build album from your Picasa site(the step by step photos were excellent). It would be neat to compare the techniques you used to construct the jig built wings, and your present workbench build wings.
Glen

[Tony Spicer]

Google found some photos:

http://www.sonexaircraft.com/documents/ ... W07-02.pdf

http://www.sonex604.com/wing_skinning.html

I may have a look at hanging a couple 2x4's off the side of the workbench and clamping the wing to those. That would eliminate bumping sawhorses.

Tony

[Tony Spicer]

Glen,

First, let me say that Dan is in favor of using a jig, and I suspect that's what will be covered in the builders manual. I've built one set of Panther wings and a set of RV-3 wings in a jig. The -3 jig was built to do two wings at once. Vertical supports were a pair of 10' 4x4's, with one end anchored to a concrete floor and the other end to the ceiling joists. Planning and building took a week. Dan most likely would have done it in two hours. Panther jig had one end attached to the hangar wall and the other end glued to the concrete floor. The advantage to using a jig is all the skinning can be done in the jig.

On the workbench, the wing is clamped down using wood blocks and drywall screws. Any twist is removed by shimming. Top (or bottom) skins from main to rear spar are drilled/clecoed. Skins are left in place and wing is flipped and leveled and remainder of skins drilled/clecoed. Once top and bottom skins are in place, wing is rigid and will not twist. To do leading edges, stand wing vertically, with the butt of the spar clamped to a sawhorse and a wood block supporting the outboard end of the rear spar.

When done correctly, both methods will produce a twist-free wing. Some builders have figured ways to flip a wing solo, but for me it was easier to get my wife to help.

Right now my plan is to use the workbench and document construction on a Picasa album. It never hurts for folks to have choices. I know I'm not the only one that's built wings on a workbench, so hopefully we'll hear from others.

Tony

[GlenNJ]

Tony,
I'm pretty sure you have built wings both ways (workbench and jig). When you consider things like ease of construction for a first time builder, trueness of the finished wings, the need for assistance to build, etc., which method do you prefer?
Glen

[Tony Spicer]

If you've built a Sonex or something similar, you most likely clamped the framework to the benchtop, skinned one side, then flipped it and did the other side.

If you're an RV builder, then you built a stand-alone jig that held the framework aligned with the leading edge up.

If you're building a Panther, you can do it either way.

This is meant to get some discussion going. Anybody?

Tony