Warbird Information Exchange

Schweizer TH55A Horizontal Stabilizer project. Needed new skin but once removed, found cracked spar and cracked end rib. Good replacements found and now nearly ready to assemble.

Original part.




Good spar and end ribs ready



Custom bead roller dies were purchased from Hoosier Profiles, a great supplier by the way, and a practice run with the bead end finishing in .020" T3.



Bead finishing with MDF form and PVC tool

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

Corsair fixture, out with the old and in with the new, I hope.

Now to see if my idea for the fixture is good. Removed the sample lower section and started to fit the new pieces I have been making. Will need some final tweaking but happy that they are fitting well.

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

Meanwhile back at the TH55A stabilizer skin. I bought a cost effective Woodward bead roller and mounted a Mittler Bros motor and control. I could not have done this piece with a crank, for sure. The skin is 30" x 36" x .020" 2024-T-3.

Working side


Finish side, protected with resin paper


Bead one with a fence and hand guide. Beautiful custom dies from Hoosier Profiles.


Rolled all the beads from the center out to keep stresses uniform


Last bead


Resin paper removed. Bead ends require hand finishing then to bend to air foil shape. Yeah, easy part is done.

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

Awesome control..Is next step shrinking?

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Those who think it,s impossible should leave the ones doing it alone..
http://www.spitfireprojecta58-27.com/

Rosco, the next step here is to fold the skin to form the leading edge and then fit to the rib/spar assembly. More to come.

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

Fitting pieces to the fixture now actually making something other than pieces.

These are formers #3 and #4. There are two more, Duh that have to be fit with their reinforcing plates that have been made prior. This is the actual new LH lower duct section going together for the first time.

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

I must say that after running these forums for the last 13 years that this has got to be one of my favorite threads ever to grace this place. I find this type of work fascinating and I'm enthralled by these posts and look forward to having them continue for some time to come. I am going to see about starting a static archive of this thread on the site so it will have a permanent home. Keep up the amazing work Scott.

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Scott Rose
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Wow! Thank you for the very kind words. I am only trying to share what I am priveledged to get to do. The real restoration shops, all well known worldwide, would blow me out of the water if they posted their art on a regular basis. I am just happy to share and glad some enjoy.

Trust me...this thread is far from over.

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

Scott,
you have said what plane you are building the parts for, but what one are you getting your patterns from ?
I am enjoying this thread as well, I am better at engines and systems than I am at bashing metal, I can do it, just not very well. I think my most complex fabrication job was building ammo feed chutes for the P-64 that is now in Thailand.

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

Matt, the Connecticut Air and Space Center has shared components for our reference as we have done for them. There are many FB posts about their project as on WIX as well.

Their plane came off a pole and will be an amazing static restoration from all I have seen.

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

Your work is absolutely amazing in its own right but you take it a step farther. You fully document the parts but more importantly you document HOW you form the part and all of the little steps that most posters forget to post. You are teaching some of us skills and giving ideas that we would never have otherwise. Many kudos to you for that!

found a reference to links that I can't get to work for repair to Corsair manuals at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney-
for what it's worth;
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/158267517? ... =172509709
Photographic glass plate negative, engineering drawing of aircraft "outer panel wing tip repair", Chance Vought Corsair aircraft, Clyde Engineering Pty Ltd, Australia, 1939-1945 A rectangular black and white silver gelatin glass plate negative in landscape format. The image depicts an engineering drawing of cosair aircraft repairs. Handwritten text on envelope with negative reads '1965 /​ OUTER PANEL WING TIP REPAIR ? FIG 81 CORSAIR HANDBOOK /​ SECTION 7'.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/158267512? ... =172509704
Photographic glass plate negative, engineering drawing of aircraft "leading edge stringer repair", Chance Vought Corsair aircraft, Clyde Engineering Pty Ltd, Australia, 1939-1945 A rectangular black and white silver gelatin glass plate negative in portrait format. The imaged depicts engineering drawing of aircraft repairs. Handwritten text on envelope with negative reads '1971 /​ LEADING EDGE STRINGER REPAIR /​ FIG 64 CORSAIR HANDBOOK /​ SECTION 7'.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/158267511? ... =172509703
Photographic glass plate negative, engineering drawing of aircraft repairs, "fabric retaining wire installation", Chance Vought Corsair aircraft, Clyde Engineering Pty Ltd, Australia, 1939-1945 A rectangular black and white silver gelatin glass plate negative in landscape format. The image depicts an engineering drawing of aircraft repairs. Handwritten text on envelope with negative reads '1970 /​ FABRIC RETAINING WIRE INSTALLATION /​ FIG 11 CORSAIR HANDBOOK /​ SECTION 2'.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/158267496? ... =172509688
Photographic glass plate negative, engineering drawing of an aircraft "typical leading edge O.P. skin repair, Chance Vought Corsair aircraft, Clyde Engineering Pty Ltd, Australia, 1939-1945 A rectangular black and white silver gelatin glass plate negative in landscape format. The image depicts an engineering drawing of an aircraft typical leading edge OP sign repair. Handwritten text on envelope with negative reads '1967 /​ TYPICAL O.P. LEADING EDGE SKIN REPAIR /​ FIG 62 CORSAIR HANDBOOK /​ SECTION 7'.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/158267510? ... =172509702
Photographic glass plate negative, engineering drawing of aircraft "typical leading edge former rib repair", Chance Vought Corsair aircraft, Clyde Engineering Pty Ltd, Australia, 1939-1945 A rectangular black and white silver gelatin glass plate negative in portrait format. The image depicts an engineering drawing of aircraft repairs. Handwritten text on envelope with negative reads '1969 /​ TYPICAL LEADING EDGE FORMER RIB REPAIR /​ FIG 69 CORSAIR HANDBOOK /​ SECTION 7'.

sdennison you are sharing, in the best way, something worth bottling.

That is cool information. wish I could make it work as well. Thank you for your kind comments.

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

just hoped someone might have known how to access that stuff; maybe the Darwin guys?
Mareeba being a local call for me could try that mob ...

So, here's a little trick you may already know about but if not... To add a flange allowance for a wing rib or in this case, the formers, find or make a washer with the proper width for your needs. In this case, I add 5/8" to the pattern for my form blocks to allow for the flanges.



Just using a pencil in the center hole, roll around the edge of the template and add the flange allowance to the pattern. Now I have a paper pattern to make my blank template from.

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