This tool worked to straighten the rib bow

[fairchild]

OK -- tried an experiment----
some of my ribs are a little bowed on the sections which you would like to lay perfectly flat on the table. (but dont quite)
Took a 1 inch dowel --- glued onto the end a piece of sheet rubber about 3/16 thick. Then sanded it on the sander to cut the edge down
even with the dowel.
I layed the rib down with a rubber floor mat material under it. Then I took the stick and used it like a punch - hitting it with the dead
blow hammer. -rubber button down onto the sheet metal square to the surface. worked my way around the lightening holes.

The idea was to apply localized pressure and get the rubber mat to flex and allow the sheet to slightly cup.

I tried it on one of the worst offenders..... and it seemed to help a lot. i was able to remove 90% of the bow- leaving all most
a negligible amount of bow remaining. So the rubber "punch" worked pretty well.

I think it would work even better if I used a thinner and softer under pad instead of the thick floor mat. I would think a pad about
1/8 or 1/4 thick but softer than the rubber on the stick might work better. (so there would be more flex)

Tim

[Bcone1381]

You are the first person I know that rubber pressed your nose ribs. You are the first person who used this tactic to straighten the rib up. It might be a bit difficult for future builders to locate all your information. I was there once, and didn't get results as good as yours. Would you consider, as a service to future scratch builders, documenting your method from start to finish with photos and common errors you made and problems solved along the way?

It might also make a good Beartracks article.

[fairchild]

Thanks Bcone !
Just so happens that my boss is loaning me his old video camera so I can video work I do for him that goes out on Youtube.
(he just got a newer high rez one)
I should be learning the camera in the next 2 or 3 days. Would video or stills be easier to deal with ? I dont see a place here for
videos....... any thoughts ? Would I have to publish it on youtube if I did video ?
Tim

PS I love sharing anything I figure out to those who appreciate it ! :-)

[jaredyates]

We can't host the videos locally like we do for still photos. You can use a service like youtube or vimeo, and post links or embed the videos in your post.

[fairchild]

My digital still camera is on its last legs. (its a Kodak..... they are out of the camera business)
i will see if this video camera can do stills. If not i will do video. And see what I can do to make it work.
Tim

[fairchild]

Jared: I can probably figure out how to link----- but i will have to research (or ask my boss to show me) how to "imbed".
Imbeding looks visually nicer to me.

Before I started making the nose ribs I had assumed - after watching Mr. Snapp do his that way---(rubber hydroforming) that this was the mainstream way to do it.
His video seemed so well explained to me ( I do some wood working and he is in his wood shop-) and naturally logical and efficient-- I figured
everyone must doing that...... But now- I see some other people making ribs on a full length rib form. I guess you make them full length and
then chop them up into pieces ? That didnt look like any fun I wanted to have. I had the rubber and press from a project years ago. just
had to build a router table. It took a couple of weeks to figure out how to make the forms--- (and about a month staring at the plans----)
but now that the 2 forms are made the ribs all most make themselves. Then its just tweaking some details--- which im still doing. But the
product seems to be OK as far as I can tell. I cant imagine making these any other way now. If you can cut wood on a bandsaw and use a router--
then thats about it ! Thats the hard part. (and not making mistakes---- )

I remember somewhere Bob mentioning that he stole the wing construction style from the RV'ers. I went over there to try to gain
more insight about the pressing process..... but it appears that all most no one is scratch building an RV any more. Not the knowledge
gold mine I was searching for. As usual that dumps me back to trial and error.

Anyway -- it is fun so far...... cant wait to blow through the ribs so I can start the spars. Got to get fresh alodyne as my old gallon has gone bad. :-)

T

[jaredyates]

The embedding should be easy. Once you upload your video to the sharing site, they should have an option where they'll give you some code to paste in to your post here. If you run into any trouble, let me know and I'll help. If you get to the point of having the html code, send me that. I'd also love to have a Beartracks article about the rubber forming experience...

[Chris In Milwaukee]

The full-length rib is only for the outermost (tip) rib. I don't think I'd want to attempt to make a bunch of full-length ribs the chop them up. Just too many things that can go wrong on the bent edges, etc. I don't recall if the factory uses the full-length rib or not. Perhaps a QB person could answer that question. It's possible that they just use three pieces on the tip end.

[rodsmith]

Yes, three pieces

[fairchild]

Not sure what I was even looking at when I was looking at the full length rib thing.... just assumed it was a wildly different way to make ribs. :-)

Jared---- for the beartracks idea----- what format would it need to be in ? I have only the (cheap) word processor that is included with windows.
I dont have microsoft word or any of the big mainstream ones. The one I have is the one that is in the list with "paint".
i would assume you would want something to encourage others to try- and whatever isnt covered in N3N's youtube video. He doesnt
seem to dig down deep on the rubber pressing much.

Tim

[jaredyates]

I'll take whatever I can get, including photos of handwriting on a napkin. But what makes life easiest for me is when you put the text in the body of an email, and attach the photos to that email, and possibly additional messages if there are very many or they are too big for a single message. Attachment size limits vary by email provider. Any other way adds extra steps, and when I end up pasting your text, I strip all of the formatting to make it match. But the most important takeaway is that I'd appreciate the content however it comes and have not yet found a method that I haven't been able to make work.