Actually the production line really started a couple of days ago when I sealed up one end of a piece of plastic pipe and filled it with hot water to soak overnight the first two 1/2" x 1/4" spruce strips that form the top and bottom structure of the ribs. Yesterday these were then clamped to wooden formers to form the bends which shape the nose section of the ribs and allowed to dry overnight
. At the same time the next pair of strips were put in to soak. So today I had a pair of dry shaped strips that could be inserted into the wing rib jig, a pair drying in the former, and put the next pair into soak. The rib construction jig is a piece of MDF onto which the outline of the rib was copied from the full size wing rib plan. This was done by fastening the plan to the board and then pricking through the outline and internal structure with a compass point. Then small blocks of wood were pinned and glued to the board around the outlines of the various rib structures. Finally, at each point at which the rib structures are glued, 3/4" holes were drilled through the MDF so that the glue used to make the rib won't also bond it to the jig.With the top and bottom strips in place, the internal strips could then be cut to length and fitted. The seven upright strips and front and back blocks were then mass produced (24 of each) to cater for the full requirement. This was done using the bandsaw with its mitre guide to cut the correct angles top and bottom. Finally, two off of the 5 diagonal braces were produced. These have to be finished individually using the disc sander so each day I will use the extra set as a template for that days rib. Next job is to fabricate the gussets that glue over the joints to support them. 48 each of these needed (one either side of the 24 ribs) so I'll try and find a convenient way of mass producing them as well.
