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I finally found some place to bend my spars. I look around for a 10' break but could not find one. I then started looking for someone that could bend it for me. I found a sheet metal place near buy that than was able to bend and shear them for me to my exact specifications (including bend radius). They had a bunch for CNC shears and breaks. They also do not mind small jobs. They are setup for large and small. Everything is charged by actual shop time down to the 0.1 of an hour. Their shop rate is $80 an hour and they expect it will take less than 2 hours for all the spars (Main, rear, false, aileron and flap). They should be ready on tuesday.
Now it was time to build the assembly table. Out here in Colorado our low humidity likes to make the wet dimensional lumber from the Pacific North West and Canada warp like a pretzel. I was worried that if I built the standard EAA table, they would warp after a few weeks. I decided to bring back my woodworking side and build a table similar to what I use for woodworking. It is called a torsion box. Really it is a similar idea to building an airplane. The torsion box ends up making a very strong and flat box that I can use as a table top. I made 2 tables 2' x 8' x36-1/4" high. I made the tables out of 1/2" MDF. It took 2 sheets to make each table and 1/2 sheet of plywood for the legs.
I started out by cutting a bunch of 4" strips to MDF making sure they were very straight. I then created square matrix that had about 6x8" squares. I glued and pin nailed these together. I clamped them up and then attached the 1/2" skins to the top and bottom with glue and brads. The important part is to build these one a very flat table because they will only be as flat as the table you build them on. Here are a few photos.
Now it was time to build the assembly table. Out here in Colorado our low humidity likes to make the wet dimensional lumber from the Pacific North West and Canada warp like a pretzel. I was worried that if I built the standard EAA table, they would warp after a few weeks. I decided to bring back my woodworking side and build a table similar to what I use for woodworking. It is called a torsion box. Really it is a similar idea to building an airplane. The torsion box ends up making a very strong and flat box that I can use as a table top. I made 2 tables 2' x 8' x36-1/4" high. I made the tables out of 1/2" MDF. It took 2 sheets to make each table and 1/2 sheet of plywood for the legs.
I started out by cutting a bunch of 4" strips to MDF making sure they were very straight. I then created square matrix that had about 6x8" squares. I glued and pin nailed these together. I clamped them up and then attached the 1/2" skins to the top and bottom with glue and brads. The important part is to build these one a very flat table because they will only be as flat as the table you build them on. Here are a few photos.
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