Budget built MiniMax 1100 Ultralight

[Little Scrapper]

I'm building it per plans. It's tight quarter sawn spruce. It will be fine. Boards come 1" thick. The piece is 1-1/4", I'm not ordering a 1-1/4" block so I can mill it down.

Engineering isn't done with grain location, it's done with material.

Edit: it's stronger than the plans because I could use pine.

 

[don january]

Not to be picky... but that scarf would be stronger if your grain was going in the other direction, that is, vertical. If you don't believe that, take a cut off piece of that spruce and break it and see which direction breaks easier... just say'n...

I happen to agree with Rob. It seams the longeron is not glued in place and splice is not cut on front longeron piece yet so if the piece is square why couldn't it be rotated 90 degrees to get the grain supporting the load's in vertical stress such as landing? What does the print say on grain direction on the ply sheeting that cover's the Fus. side? This is one of those little thing's a new builder must be aware of and is good to be brought up. IMO DJ

 

[Little Scrapper]

The structure gets covered in plywood, I'd imagine it's extremely strong regardless of grain.

The longerons are 5/8" x 3/4" so I'd literally need to go buy material which will not happen.

I'm satisfied with what I did here. I'm not an engineer by any stretch but like I said above, they base engineering off of material numbers not grain orientation numbers unless it's specified.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

The structure gets covered in plywood,

which makes grain orientation at that juncture irrelevant

Wayne Ison knew what he was doing.....

 

[don january]

which makes grain orientation at that juncture irrelevant

Wayne Ison knew what he was doing.....

Grain orientation is always relevant in my opinion even with plywood covering. But wait maybe John Taylor was not up to par as Ison? But I do see Scrapper's point on the 5/8 x 3/4.

 

[TFF]

Where grain orientation is going to play is putting the sides together to make the fuselage. When pulling the tail part together, you will either be fighting the grain or not. Wood usually flexes better in one grain direction. Make sure both sides are built the same or it will end up with a banana shape to it.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Grain orientation is always relevant in my opinion even with plywood covering. But wait maybe John Taylor was not up to par as Ison? But I do see Scrapper's point on the 5/8 x 3/4.

I agree with what you are saying but I think Wayne Ison designed the juncture with consideration given to the fact end grain would be the mating glue surface in that joint.

Like built up ribs, cut the rib stock square or miter to fit? Historically, plans show rib stock mitered but now we know it does not add any strength over square cut. It's hard to accept that because it just goes against what we are used to seeing.

 

[Cy V]

Just saw this on the Team MiniMax Facebook page:

We regret that we can no longer give the free digital plans out. time needed to help those with download issues in combination with no factory support. Make the cost to high for us to continue. The Printed plans are very detailed and worth the low price we offer them for.

Please order printed plans as this may make us available to support your build.

Free digital plans No longer Available

 

[Chris In Marshfield]

Just saw this on the Team MiniMax Facebook page:

I just posted the same in the wood section.

 

[pictsidhe]

The download issues are due to their website...

 

[don january]

Little Scrapper family: I hope you get some time over the weekend to glue some part's and swing a camera around for some more video's. Later on we can talk about getting a toilet in my T-mono. :gig: Also hope to see how the Cassutt is coming along.

 

[Little Scrapper]

Little Scrapper family: I hope you get some time over the weekend to glue some part's and swing a camera around for some more video's. Later on we can talk about getting a toilet in my T-mono. :gig: Also hope to see how the Cassutt is coming along.

The Cassutt is in my shop and I just peck at it once in a while. I really should update with some photos.

But honestly, as much as I love working with metal I'm having a blast working with wood. Everyone here knows about my metal experience, I was a committed metal only guy until I started cutting wood longerons.

I'm pretty pumped. It has opened new doors for me. I'm no stranger to wood ribs and wood wings but that's really not the same thing as a fuselage. This is really fun. It's a quiet, soothing, relaxing way to build.

It's amazing how many wood pieces you can get out of a big board. I can't wait to get this fuselage together!!!

Part of the fun is just the simplicity of it. I have thousands invested in metal working tools and equipment in my main shop. With wood I'm using cheap simple tools and there's just something magical about that. I'm not sure why but it just pulls at my heart strings.

I think there's a Model A Pietenpol in my future. In fact, probably after the MiniMax.

 

[JIC]

Looks like I just down loaded the 1550 V-max plans just in time. I down loaded them three days ago.
I just looked, they will cost $99.00 now still not a bad price for a set of plans.

jic

 

[rbrochey]

The Cassutt is in my shop and I just peck at it once in a while. I really should update with some photos.

But honestly, as much as I love working with metal I'm having a blast working with wood. Everyone here knows about my metal experience, I was a committed metal only guy until I started cutting wood longerons.

I'm pretty pumped. It has opened new doors for me. I'm no stranger to wood ribs and wood wings but that's really not the same thing as a fuselage. This is really fun. It's a quiet, soothing, relaxing way to build.

It's amazing how many wood pieces you can get out of a big board. I can't wait to get this fuselage together!!!

Part of the fun is just the simplicity of it. I have thousands invested in metal working tools and equipment in my main shop. With wood I'm using cheap simple tools and there's just something magical about that. I'm not sure why but it just pulls at my heart strings.

I think there's a Model A Pietenpol in my future. In fact, probably after the MiniMax.

The force is strong with you Luke... you have found your path!

 

[Little Scrapper]

Looks like I just down loaded the 1550 V-max plans just in time. I down loaded them three days ago.
I just looked, they will cost $99.00 now still not a bad price for a set of plans.

jic

$99 is cheap. I printed off my set and it cost me $63 at a place that does printing for blueprints.

They don't make money on those plans.

 

[Twodeaddogs]

when you printed them off, what size did you go for and did you get just one copy?

 

[Little Scrapper]

That was for 1 copy. I have 3 MiniMax plans that I printed, the 1100, 1030 and the HiMax.

The $40 difference is worth the factory support.

 

[poormansairforce]

The Cassutt is in my shop and I just peck at it once in a while. I really should update with some photos.

But honestly, as much as I love working with metal I'm having a blast working with wood. Everyone here knows about my metal experience, I was a committed metal only guy until I started cutting wood longerons.

I'm pretty pumped. It has opened new doors for me. I'm no stranger to wood ribs and wood wings but that's really not the same thing as a fuselage. This is really fun. It's a quiet, soothing, relaxing way to build.

It's amazing how many wood pieces you can get out of a big board. I can't wait to get this fuselage together!!!

Part of the fun is just the simplicity of it. I have thousands invested in metal working tools and equipment in my main shop. With wood I'm using cheap simple tools and there's just something magical about that. I'm not sure why but it just pulls at my heart strings.

I think there's a Model A Pietenpol in my future. In fact, probably after the MiniMax.

Welcome to the dark side. Noboby wants to build with wood anymore but every time I compute bang for the buck wood always wins. Once you learn where to find the wood and how to grade it then it's just some tools as you mentioned. Now if we could get some designs out there that use minimal amounts of aircraft ply....

 

[Pops]

Built 3 wood airplanes. Not only do I like building with wood, I like flying a wood airplane. Quiet and smooth with the wood absorbing the sound and vibration and warmer in the winter with the insulation effect of wood and less air gaps + the varnished wood is beautiful and smells good.

 

[plncraze]

Stan Hall wrote two articles about building with fir because it is more available. RS Hoover was a big fan of box store wood. Once you know what to look for it is everywhere.