Warbird Information Exchange

Sorry, should have taken more in process pictures. I started with a blank. Then I used 1/4" pins in the grooves of form blocks. Pressed using a vice and hence the few wrinkles as the material was formed. Then trimmed the slot and cut down the short side. Made the fold and Whitney punched the holes and trimmed the final shape.

The form blocks were two pieces of 1" PVC plate. I clamped in the mill vice and drilled on 7/8" center at the split line between the sheets, or drilled half a hole in each block. This PVC is awesome to work with.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Lower section "short rib" today.

Here's the rib in place in my sample from CASC.


Next, I make a paper pattern of the inside face to determine the shape of the form block.


I then take that shape and make the blank pattern allowing for the flanges plus stock.


My high tech router to radius the form block. I will radius both sides so that I can make both the LH and RH ribs.


The router with a carbide bit will do the same job on aluminum as this PVC.


Note that there is a little curve in the skin side of this rib.


The blank in the form block. I took license to add two "jig holes" to help with this piece. The PVC is drilled and tapped for 1/4"-20 bolts. That's what I love about this material.


Trimming the rib. I use a pair of dividers set at the flange width with Dykem to outline the finished size.


Just needs final de-burring. then reverse the clamp block and make the RH version.

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

By the time you finish, you will have a complete tooling set in PVC!

Ha, pretty much. Will belong to WHF. Not sure the demand of these particular parts, however. Thanks for following.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Anything warbird related is in demand, especially Corsair related. Your posts are easy to follow. For me, its probably one of the most interesting threads on the internet.

i'm very very interesting! give me more!!

Thanks. Posts may be easy as I'm pretty simple guy. Glad you are enjoying this project as much as I am enjoying sharing my experiences. Just remember, there are shops in this wonderful business posting who have forgotten much more than I'll ever know. Seek all the experience you can, filter it, then apply it to your skills and project. Enjoy the ride as this is the most wonderful one can experience when helping to preserve such history.

Plenty more to come.

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Two more lower section ribs along with some simple reinforcing angles are the product of the past few days. Monday was a "fetching" day, fetching more PVC tooling plate and template aluminum.

Note, something cool in the works from my point of view. More to come.

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Working on patterning for the first of two 1/8" thick reinforcement plates for the lower section. Not having the loft pattern that is called out to define the profiles, back to the poster board.





The simplicity of the drawing is amazing. By simplicity, I mean the lack of information. The contours are all defined by lofting patterns. You have to read the print carefully to create the dimensions you need by extrapolation. This aluminum template will be used to create the finished plates.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Common problem with the Corsair drawings? Or is this drawing the exception rather than the rule?

Pretty common. I guess the combination of lofting patterns made the difference but have found many drawings do not call out angles. Those you calculate using old fashioned geometry.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Very common and more in use today that ever before.

Now the drawings, along with telling you to refer to loft XXXXX for contour etc, will tell you to reference the CAD model XXXXXX for much of the detail information.

Today's piece was a little more difficult as it is hidden behind the leading edge so I had to use a mirror and flashlight as I trimmed the pattern paper. The print, of course only had a couple dimensions. So it was cut, fit, cut fit, cut fit, awe crap, throw it away. The fourth actually worked.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

So, moving to the .125" T3 material now. 2 pieces of each. Router works well then some minor tune up and deburring.



Pattern, template and two pieces.

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Do you have a good source for the PVC sheet? We use mdf but i don't like it because it is soft.