what is the best method or saw for cutting material for making wood ribs?
thanks
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what is the best method or saw for cutting material for making wood ribs?
thanks
Are you talking small spruce capstrip? I used a bandsaw for my Tailwind spruce capstrip, but a simple handsaw will buzz right thru the small stuff.
what I was referring to are the ribs built from 1/4" material enforced with gussets
thanks
I use a template, and cut with a router, by cutting a 1 inch thick template to the exact size and shape, you can place the new stock on top of it and cut with a laminate trimmer bit in a router. makes a perfect rib every pass.Quote:
Originally Posted by stolflite
its not clear to me whether you are stick building ribs or sawn from a solid piece of plywood. if i ever get around to building my own Cherokee II glider (1/4" plywood sawn ribs) I will probably look into having the ribs laser cut from a cad file. Tom's method works well for mass production of sawn ribs but on the glider the wing is tapered and there are only two of each individual rib.
My apologies for not being clear in stating my question. What I want to do is rip 3/4"x 6" stock material into 1/4"x 1/4" rib material for making ribs by gluing and gusset method.
In making gussets for my Hatz project, I used the tablesaw to cut strips of mahogany ply, stacked them, and cut multiple gussets at a time on either my bandsaw or my chop saw.
I did the same thing with the individual spruce strips - made a prototype, then set an angled stop on my bandsaw so I could align a bunch of strips and cut several identical ones at a time.
As I cut the unique gussets and spruce strips, I put them in zip-loc baggies which I labeled to show which type of strip or gusset was inside.
I do that in 5 steps, first you edge the board in a jointer, then rip 3/8 inch off the edge, plane that strip to 1/4 X3/4, and rip in half, and plane each to 1/4 x 1/4 you loose a lot of wood to saw dust.Quote:
Originally Posted by stolflite
do you cut then with a 200 tooth blade on your saw?
Attachment 1223Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Downey
Probably a whole lot easier and less expensive to buy it from Aircraft Spruce unless you just need a few pieces. Current pricing is 21 cents a foot for what you are looking for. I looked at cutting my own for a couple of my restorations, but by the time I cut and finished the raw stock to the base sizes, it wasn't worth it. Of course I'm looking at close to a thousand feet combined of the various sizes.
yes it is a small amount by that comparison, and it was the bandsaw that I thought should work. I do not have one and there will be many uses for it throughout the project. I already have the stock material so thought it best to make use of it. Ordering would involve shipping could amount to as much as the cost of the material.
I appreciate the wealth of information that is available on this site thanks
rich
thanks for your help and the pic is a greatly appreciated also
rich
Buy pre-cut cap strip from Aircraft Spruce or any of the other aircraft supply houses. :)
With respect to the question of shipping cost, it looks like Spruce is working on it:
http://www.thepilotcard.com/
I don't work for these guys. I haven't yet applied myself, so I don't know if it's for real. But it says, pay for your Spruce order with this credit card, and shipping is on them. I saw this in another forum a couple of days ago, so haven't had the time to look more into it. If this is for real, it could be a game-changer for builders who don't live close enough to get to an aircraft parts supplier...
Hi,
While most woodworkers gravitate to the table saw, this methods chews up a lot of the stock. So an alternative is to use a band saw. If you want to try that, I highly recommend the WoodSlicer II band saw blades from Highland Woodworking (highlandwoodworking.com). These resawing blades are made specially for ripping wood on a band saw. They are not much thicker than normal blades but have special tooth patterns and come in 1/2" and 3/4" widths to minimize drift and ensure a smooth straight cut.
The next problem you will encounter is how to make a fence for the bandsaw that will ensure that long pieces of wood will remain straight as they move through the blade. For 3 or 4 foot pieces probably the standard fence is ok. If you are going to rip longer pieces then you'll need to rig something up. I've made extension tables to align with the bandsaw platform. That worked ok but it was too complicated to erect. The next thing I did was recess my bandsaw into my workbench. This worked ok for a while when I was milling spar caps as I had nothing else on the overall 16' workbench at the time. But later on, I needed the work surface for the plane construction so I abandoned the bandsaw and in spite of the material loss and overall chaos that it causes, went back to using a table saw for my cutting.
In addition to using the band saw, I do suggest a thickness planer to get the wood to the exact dimensions. Yoo are not going to get three 1/4" pieces from a 3/4" piece of stock material - you know that, right? So best of luck to you on this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stolflite
thanks for the help
Most small planers will not plane to the thickness less than about 3/8th" to go smaller try this. Find a nice plank about 2" thick, plane it on both sides to be certain it will go thru the planer smoothly. then using a dato head on your table saw, cut a slot down the center line of the plank to the depth and width of the piece you wish to create. use this to hold the strip you wish to plane the last side of, it will work every time.Quote:
Originally Posted by vampirein
That's a really clever way to "fake out" the planer. I'll try that next time. In my case, I am plans building a Fisher Celebrity biplane. For the capstrips which are 1/4 x 1/2, I decided to purchase them already cut. Aircraft Spruce did a good job on this. For the internal members of the ribs, though, which on this plane are a geodetic pattern rather than gussetted, the members are 3/8" x 3/32". 3/32" - Are you kidding me? Certainly below what a suface planer can handle. What I did was get a piece of shelving material that would fit through my planer - that particle board stuff that they sell in the big box stores with the veneered plastic around it - and clamped it to the planer's flod-out platform. Then using 1/8" x 3/8" capstrip (purchased from Aircraft Spruce as they too could not cut to 3/32" thickness) and it worked very well. The smooth surface on the shelving board allowed the strips of spruce to smoothly glide over it and the AS had cut the strips square to begin with so I had no worries that I'd end up with bowed pieces. I like your idea though, and will try that next time for a change.