CNC Pietenpol Ribs & More

[SaltedTailfeathers]

I'm new to this.

One of the things I expected to see, (maybe I haven't looked in the right place yet) but haven't, is rental tooling.

If someone is building a tail feather for a Cub there is a fair bit of layout and lofting (boat building term I don't know if it applies) before the metal gets cut and welded together. Building the tools to build the parts is a significant amount of the work. The hydroform process for making ribs is another case.

For a few hundred$ you can ship a pallet box of tooling almost anywhere. I kind of hoped to find that there would be a rotation among the chapters. (Chapter 1, would build the dies and hydroform boxes for ribs and control surfaces. Chapter 2. Tail jigs. Chapter 3, engine mount jigs..........)

I understand that would require a significant number of people to want to build the same aircraft and have the faith to accept the next guys tool construction of a design that probably only a few folks could agree to.

At the least builders who have completed stages and tools could have an exchange?

[Sam Buchanan]

I understand that would require a significant number of people to want to build the same aircraft and have the faith to accept the next guys tool construction of a design that probably only a few folks could agree to.

And you are still wondering why the tool rental program has never been a success?

A couple of thoughts:

1) Custom-built aircraft take shape in an extremely fragmented manner--some build a set of ribs in two weeks, others are still working on them twelve years later...

2) Die-hard builders want to own their tools.....collecting a shop-full of airplaney tools is part of the fun!