Making Ribs for a 1917 Sopwith Camel Ep15

[@kevinlytle6215]

Really nice! Things moving along well.

[@MattProject]

Cheers :-)

[@sleepingdogs8939]

Looks like real nice work so far!

[@MattProject]

I'm enjoying it :-)

[@stuartdyson1404]

Adam Savage on Tested has a great video on making lots of the same thing and the cost of a small amount of time on each of lots of operations.

[@MattProject]

Will keep an eye out for it. The guts will be; sort your processes and tooling out, then do things in bulk. I'm at the tail end of sorting my processes and tooling out for creating ribs. Next step it to do it in bulk. For example, having run out of ply webs, I intend to get stuck into 5 sheets of 4x4 ply and cut the lot into the ply webs I need for all the ribs. That's the next job.

[@johnharen9921]

Instead of drilling the ply rib webs and cap strips separately - a slight modification to your rib jig and drilling jig may let you drill both while in the jig. The rib jig would need a few swinging "fingers?" to hold the cap strips and webs down(your cam clamps may do this already. Then if your drilling jig was set up at the right height above the jig base and parallel to it, you could run it around the ribs drilling the holes in situ, followed by eh counter sinking. Considering the number of ribs you need this would have less chance of error I feel. Anyway just food for thought. building this Camel from scratch is quite adventurous. Cheers.

[@MattProject]

Hi John, I like the idea and considered it while mulling over options. It would need cutouts in my jig to allow the drill to get close enough in to drill the holes plus a way to ensure the drill was drilling straight in both the x and y axis. The first is easy, the second may be a little bit of a challenge. Once set up though it would definitely be quicker. The reason I chose this option was in part ease but also because it ensured my screws were located consistently. There is definitely more phaffing though. I'm about to get into making ply webs in bulk, it'll give me lots of time to reassess and think these things over!

[@johnharen9921]

@@MattProject Perhaps a long reach drill bit would help? As for maintaining alignment in the x and y axes - this would be possible if the longer reach drill allowed you to use the jig base as the alignment datum for the y axis (vertical) while the x axis would rely on the drill jig running on the jig base and the cap. if an extended length drill bit is not going to work then perhaps another base plate could be located under the existing or even just using the bench supporting the jig if it is flat - to provide the alignment for the drill jig.

[@MattProject]

Thanks John, you have got the grey matter thinking :-)

[@bruceyoung1343]

No glue?😢. Even titebond just a lil would make me feel more comfortable it won’t flex ? Also how did the testing go?

[@MattProject]

They were supplied to front line repair shops screwed, they were glued on site. Testing went well :-)

[@bruceyoung1343]

@@MattProject what kg were you able to achieve?

[@MattProject]

~90kg using a rib made up from rejected parts, goal was IIRC 86kg. I expected it to break and used rejected parts because I had them and wanted to be confident the test process worked before testing a production rib. The rib didn't break, but did deform which has informed how I wish to make the sand bags for the next test. The next test won't be for several months. I'm confident the ribs and my assembly are ok. But remain curious about the load a production rib will take :-)

[@dangermouse1143]

Music was harmless just too loud!

[@MattProject]

Ahhh... Rookie error on my part... ta for the input, big thanks from me and no doubt a few others!

[@ianharvey3696]

Gave up when the bloody music started........

[@MattProject]

lol, ta for the feedback! I have no idea what people prefer. I'm not phased either way and looking for free music with no copyright issues is mildly painful. Happy to hear other feedback on this from others