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Building a U-2

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Anymouse

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2010
Messages
80
Location
Pretty much homeless. My location varies from SW A
I've been working on the U-2 off and on for roughly two years. It started in a Motel 6 room, but moved into my hangar when I finally got one with electricity. During that time, I managed to get a bunch of trailing edge ribs done, but that's about it.

Recently, I took a good look at all the ribs that I had done. I didn't like what I saw. They probably were fine, but what I was seeing was a lot of gaps. The instructions say to pull the rib out of the jig after stapling and while the glue is still wet. Supposedly the staples will hold everything together. It sounds good in theory, but in reality, the top and bottom capstrips pulled apart everytime, and I never really did a good job of getting them back together when stapled the other side. The result was simply ugly.

With all that in mind, I decided to take a trip down to SNF and talk to a couple of experts. Everyone I talked to said the same thing. Leave it in the jig overnight and let it cure. After curing, pull it out and do the other side.

Bottom line, I decided to scrap all the other ribs and consider them all practice. I probably wasted less than $50 on materials, so in the grand scheme of things, it was a cheap lesson.

Of course, losing the time I invested was disappointing, but what can I do other than move ahead. Knowing that I probably wouldn't have much time in the States to devote to the project, I decided to build it while at work. I got a big ol' box and stuffed it with what remained of my capstrips, some scrap wood, tools and glue. It took a bit of doing, but I got everything packed in there so it wouldn't shift around and do damage. After taping it all up, I heading to the post office and sent it all to Afghanistan.

Ten days later, it arrived (yesterday!!). I had the day off today, so I set about getting a work area established. Unfortunately, tools are limited just now, so I couldn't build a suitable work table. Instead, I put what will eventually be the table top on the floor and started working.

I was initially planning on starting with rib #12 and working back to rib #0. Rib #12 is one of the ribs that supports the stabilator and requires a support block that's made from 1/4" plywood. As mentioned earlier, tools are limited and that includes the lack of a jig saw. There was one here a couple months ago, but no one seems to know what happened to it. Rib #12 is stalled. The good news is that all the capstrip material has been cut and will be ready to glue as soon as I get the jig saw I ordered today. I rubber banded all the pieces together so they won't wander around.

Since I still had plenty of time, I went ahead and started on rib #11. I got all the pieces cut for both of them, then glued up the first one. We'll see how it looks tomorrow afternoon when I get back from flying. In the mean time, here's a picture of the day's work. Notice the #12 ribs banded together at the rear.

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BTW... This is cross posted to the Purple Board if anyone is interested.
 

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