Harry Twist

Thanks Phil, hope you get your Sabre on the go soon. General question to Sabre builders out there, has anyone tried any fuselage sheeting or part sheeting? or is everyone planking all round? I think there may be some part sheeting opportunities in a couple of places such as the rear underside or forward of the canopy. I'm not there yet but may look at it. Any comments appreciated!

Hi Martin, this is a very minor one, not really a "gotcha" but thought it may be worth adding. The parts come with an occasional minor triangular shaped "pip" on their edges (presumably where they are released from the parent sheet). It's no problem at all to sand them off prior to use. A surface that perhaps may get missed from this sanding is the inside square section of F2 and F4 where the battery box sits on the internal flat portions of those formers. Easy job to do before the fus is jointed. Its no great shakes if it gets missed - just helps with a flush/ tight joint between battery box and formers. Edited By Harry Twist on 30/11/2019 19:16:10

Hi Chris & Mark, thanks for your comments. Ref the planking - I added 10 planks on the first half before adding the second half in sections. Each plank is 7mm wide, they were all butted together, but distributed above and below the fuselage centreline. ( I started on the centreline and worked down by 5 planks, then back to the centreline and worked up 5 planks). I reckoned that the combination of planking and stringers, plus adding the top spine (which doubles the spine thickness) would minimise any warp risk. I think its further helped by adding the substructures of the second half, one by one, allowing drying in between. Anyway - I don't think its warped yet! I'll carefully plank the non planked side, then do alternate side planking until I'm done. Edited By Harry Twist on 30/11/2019 19:17:43

Hi All, I've moved the fuselage on a little more. I have been worried about the major "glue up" required to join two part planked fuselage halves in one go. This involves, applying glue along all the major joint lines of the top and bottom spines, and along all the former joint lines, gluing and fitting the wing bolt plate, then aligning and clamping, all  in one gluing "event". I did'nt trust myself to get this all square and had visions of glue everywhere and an out of line fuselage! So I tried an alternative. I part finished one fuselage half to the point of adding 10 planks (7mm wide). I then built the second half, section by section, onto the part planked first half. I starting by adding the straight top keel, then worked front to back, adding each sub structure in turn and allowing drying between each stage. At the end I added the stringers and the small part bulkheads of F3 and F5. Photos hopefully show all! Nose and battery box added, after top keel Central crutch and wing bolt plate, I adjusted the plate to move it back approx 5mm to sit against F7   Tail unit, clamps and more clamps   Last addition- lower curved spine   End product Edited By Harry Twist on 29/11/2019 23:23:23

Hi Chris, Great progress with the wing there. Regarding the waffles... you've not just chopped up your wing jig and grilled it have you? Edited By Harry Twist on 29/11/2019 22:51:27

Good tips there Chris, here's another that may help for trimming false leading edges (and false trailing edges). Take a steel ruler and sit it immediately behind the false le and sat on top of the ribs, with a scalpel cut through the part of the false le that sits above the ruler, then cut along the ruler with the blade flush and flat on the ruler surface. This leaves you with only the thickness of the ruler to plane down flush. Cut from in front of the wing. Staged photo shows what I mean ( wing in photo already trimmed). Hope it is of some help!   Edited By Harry Twist on 27/11/2019 10:23:48

Looks like an absolutely 100% perfect launch to me....😁... The wind gods were very much on our side that day! Edited By Harry Twist on 27/11/2019 00:17:04

Hi David, looking very tidy.

Hi Chris, that's very very tidy, nicely done!

Hi All, I've moved the fuselage on a little, well one half of it anyway! I cut the spines from sheet and decided to cut them slightly oversize at 8mm x 3mm. This was to ensure that the very top of the formers sat on the spine and not slightly below it. I used the straight top spine as the starting point, pinning it to the plan and ensuring all the touching formers sat in location and square. I then pinned, clamped, glued and weighted the combined nose unit / central crutch / top spine and the tail unit. Once dry I added the curving bottom keel as one piece, curved and pinned. Again, once all dry I added the F3 F5 formers and the longitudinal stringers. So for me, the fuselage framework ended up as a three stage assembly process. I did have an issue with the lower stringer, which at full length along the curve just about sat on F1 and F10, but not enough for me to be happy that it was secure front and back, so I scarf jointed a piece in, with the joint sat on the double former F4/F4a. The other two stringers were fine. Now onto the planking, prior to planking I sanded gently to ensure all the stringers sat flush with the formers. I've cut my planks 7mm wide, parallel full length and have so far added 4 planks. I'm taking my time over this - trying to align the planks carefully and trying to visualise how it will look. It's great to see and read all the ideas, guidance and sharing of information that's going on in the Sabre build blogs. Happy building!   Bare framework completed - one half only   Short scarf joint at F4/F4A- the dark lines at the former /keel joints are not gaps they're blue pen ink lines delineating the locating/gluing boundary! Long view - curving keel, one piece of 8mm x 3mm.   First planks - plank width here is 7mm, planks parallel nose to tail.     Edited By Harry Twist on 23/11/2019 23:43:32