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Hey guys,
I'm kind of stalled out in the shop right now while I wait for a response from Bob regarding a fuel tank question. So I've been thinking about the fuselage process, and whether I want to purchase a profiled tubing kit from Cartesian Tube or possibly Bearhawk Aircraft, or just buy the tubing from Wicks and profile it myself. A little bit of back ground about me; I have only built one basic fuselage which was for a GN-1 Aircamper. I stopped that project after I sat in the fuselage the first time and hated how cramped it was (it's even smaller than the original Pietenpol, which I didn't realize when I bought the plans). That fuselage was MIG welded together (1026 steel). At the time I chose MIG, because it was a process that I literally used five days a week for work, and I was very comfortable with it. MIG is also very friendly when a joint doesn't fit perfect (more on this later). I will not use MIG for the Bearhawk, because of the 4130 fuselage, to save weight (I added 12# or wire to my first fuselage), and for higher weld quality/resale value. I now have an AC/DC pulsing TIG machine. I like it, it makes nice welds, need little filler, but really prefers tight joints; tighter than what I had created with a hole saw jig for my first fuselage.
In terms of cost, it looks like the basic VR3 kit ($4000+$300 shipping quoted today) will cost about 1500 more than what the raw tubing would cost from Wicks ($2500+$?shipping). The VR3/Cartesian kit includes approximately 140 tubes cut and profiled; which works out to about a difference of $10 and change per tube to have it cut to size and profiled. That's assuming I could build a fuselage from raw materials with little to no scrap, which isn't very likely. Mark from Bearhawk Aircraft would prefer to wait to quote until I'm closer to purchase time, which won't be until this summer. This is perfectly understandable, but just means I'll have to wait to do a real price comparison between the three.
Those of you who are scratch building your fuselage; what are your opinions regarding the cost difference vs the time spent/saved?
I'm kind of stalled out in the shop right now while I wait for a response from Bob regarding a fuel tank question. So I've been thinking about the fuselage process, and whether I want to purchase a profiled tubing kit from Cartesian Tube or possibly Bearhawk Aircraft, or just buy the tubing from Wicks and profile it myself. A little bit of back ground about me; I have only built one basic fuselage which was for a GN-1 Aircamper. I stopped that project after I sat in the fuselage the first time and hated how cramped it was (it's even smaller than the original Pietenpol, which I didn't realize when I bought the plans). That fuselage was MIG welded together (1026 steel). At the time I chose MIG, because it was a process that I literally used five days a week for work, and I was very comfortable with it. MIG is also very friendly when a joint doesn't fit perfect (more on this later). I will not use MIG for the Bearhawk, because of the 4130 fuselage, to save weight (I added 12# or wire to my first fuselage), and for higher weld quality/resale value. I now have an AC/DC pulsing TIG machine. I like it, it makes nice welds, need little filler, but really prefers tight joints; tighter than what I had created with a hole saw jig for my first fuselage.
In terms of cost, it looks like the basic VR3 kit ($4000+$300 shipping quoted today) will cost about 1500 more than what the raw tubing would cost from Wicks ($2500+$?shipping). The VR3/Cartesian kit includes approximately 140 tubes cut and profiled; which works out to about a difference of $10 and change per tube to have it cut to size and profiled. That's assuming I could build a fuselage from raw materials with little to no scrap, which isn't very likely. Mark from Bearhawk Aircraft would prefer to wait to quote until I'm closer to purchase time, which won't be until this summer. This is perfectly understandable, but just means I'll have to wait to do a real price comparison between the three.
Those of you who are scratch building your fuselage; what are your opinions regarding the cost difference vs the time spent/saved?
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