Warbird Information Exchange

Whilst I ruminate on the best approach to the RH version (as I don't have a sample to tool from and have to use the "RH opposite" philosophy), I jumped on something easy with a little help from my friends who made the extrusion available.

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

VS-17005's finished today.

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

Little after hours job thrown in. These are stall computer adjuster screwdrivers for the T-37 Tweet as well as the A-37. They screw onto the computer box and while flying, the pilot can adjust the positioning of the stall "brakes", air flow upsetters that give the pilot some stick input that the stall is imminent.

Stainless housing with drill rod screw drivers. The spring mechanism allows the tool to be installed without effect. The plunger is pushed so that the blade engages the adjuster. Then the knob is turned to fine tune the stall brake. The brass tubing is just there as a stop to keep the driver from coming out of the tool in flight.





When the plunger is pushed, this driver blade engages the adjuster screw head. Otherwise, the driver is heald out of engagement by the spring.

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

Left Hand shown, right hand opposite...easy for them to say. The two aft oil cooler saddles are symmetrical and were pretty straight forward to make. The left hand forward saddle was a little more complicated but I had the sample to look at and tool from. I have the print "LH s, RH o" but no angles were called out for this part on my drawings. So after some middle of the night analysis, I thought that since I had the mounts for the saddles made and had the original outer mounts in the wing section, just build to fit the actual location and dimensions.

These sections are symmetrical left and right,


These upper sections for the right hand side were modeled in aluminum first, then in .050" chrome moly sheet.




So fit in the wing section, the inboard end will be sandwiched in between two aluminum mounts, one side is shown left center of this picture.




Ready to tack the rear plate


Modifying the fixture to hold the reverse side for welding and reduced distortion.

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

Guess who's out of the cradle division? Yup, finally finished all four.



Left hand shown, right hand opposite...




Squirted some phos primer on the last one tonight. Will post some painted pictures soon. On to more bits.

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

Thanks for taking the time to share your work with us, Scott.

Mac

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WWII Naval Aviation Research - Pacific
https://www.ww2nar-pac.com/

Thanks for the kind words Mac.

Finishing the forward cradle inboard mounts.




Ahhh, now I get it. Left hand shown, right hand opposite.

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

Outstanding thread and outstanding work Scott. Please keep the updates coming.

Like!

Seriously, great stuff. Really enjoying this Scott

Andy

Independently from the amazing work you are doing..........

And BTW a huge tks for taking the time for posting these for the WIX crowd.

I am flabergasted that these small pieces where mass produced ( and engineered and put together ) in a large scale not so long ago..........

Hats off to the old guard......with a lot of respect.......

Makes you humble in regards to the tools they had back then......a pen and a ruler...

Tks again for sharing with all of us...sincerely!

Michel

FSP, flexible surface pattern. I used strapping tape and alternated with straight runs and angled runs, all edge to edge with no overlap. There are five layers, trimmed after each layer. This is the missing leading edge for the upper inlet section, LH side. When I flip the pattern over, I should be close to the RH side.





I used some (really old) talc powder to clean up the adhesive side so no sticky left.

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

There are two leading edge reinforcing ribs inside this leading edge. They only attach to the leading edge, not the main leading rib and are both riveted and spot welded. I decided to make some squash forms in order to reproduce the actual contour of the leading edge at that location.

Clear packaging tape protects the wing and acts as a mold release agent. MDF is cut close to the contour shape. Mix the bondo and play the waiting game until it nearly sets up. Schlurp it into the mdf and press and hold on the wing while it does set.


Pulled off and trimmed.


Fit checked.


The aluminum patterns now give a very accurate replication of the skin outer profile. Tomorrow, I will trim them down by .064" (.032" for the leading edge skin and .032" for the section of the rib) This will then give me the shape of the PVC form block required. More to come

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

Can't wait to see the next installment.

Very interesting tricks of the trade that now won't be lost, but can be used by a newer generation of mechanics coming up.

Thanks again for sharing.

Mac

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WWII Naval Aviation Research - Pacific
https://www.ww2nar-pac.com/

Next installment...

The PVC form block based on the aluminum template that compensated for the skin and rib thickness from the last post. High tech Craftsman router and carbide bit. Works magic on aluminum as well.


Also discovered that with this PVC material, a light touch on the polishing wheel removes all sanding marks easily transfered to "0" dead soft material.


Post rout


This is an important note. If the clamp block is smaller than the root of the radius, the material can deform back during the process


So, pattern developed, template made, blank made and tool made


rib formed


another view


Please excuse the beat up old hand but this is a check in the squash mold with a .032" shim that mimics the skin. Looks good. The fit, not the old fart thumb...

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

Such a fantastic thread. Every morning's routine starts with this thread. (Along with the three 'S's of course)

Scott I also have to thank you for that really nice last photo as I collect photos of 'thumbs'. Perfect shot! Lol, Seriously, thanks kindly for your efforts here. It's fun to learn

M

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“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”