Radicaldude1234
Well-Known Member
As much as I tried with my design here: https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28817&highlight=, I failed in designing something that is completely flat-wrapped, mostly with aesthetic reasons.
While the wing/fin tips, wing fillet, and cowl can be made of composites, the highlighted portion of the fuselage would preferably be made of metal. It smoothly transitions between two flat-wrapped panels.
To that end, I went to Harbor Freight and bought this while it was on sale:
Still learning it, but it seems adequate for anything less than trying to create a suit of steel armor to face the English at Agincourt. It'll probably take a couple hundred bucks to retrofit it to a professional standard, but that's still thousands less than any other machine with the same capacity.
But the English wheel is an artist's tool and, despite technically being a millennial, I used to be a production engineer so I don't believe in all that hipster artisan crude. I'm simplifying the design as I'm thinking of creating a kit out of it, so I'm just wondering if there's a more repeatable way of producing that particular panel.
I'm thinking of creating an experiment with a metal frame that I warped during welding. I'm going to mount a $40 8-ton hydraulic jack from the Harbor and then mount a wooden compound curved buck on top of that. Finally, I'm going attach sheet metal to the sides of the frame.
The theory is that the jack will push the buck into the sheet metal and deform it. If any wrinkles appear, I'll beat them out with a rubber mallet or sheet metal slapper.
So, any observations that my experiment will not go the way I think it will? That and any tips on the English wheel will also be appreciated!
While the wing/fin tips, wing fillet, and cowl can be made of composites, the highlighted portion of the fuselage would preferably be made of metal. It smoothly transitions between two flat-wrapped panels.
To that end, I went to Harbor Freight and bought this while it was on sale:
Still learning it, but it seems adequate for anything less than trying to create a suit of steel armor to face the English at Agincourt. It'll probably take a couple hundred bucks to retrofit it to a professional standard, but that's still thousands less than any other machine with the same capacity.
But the English wheel is an artist's tool and, despite technically being a millennial, I used to be a production engineer so I don't believe in all that hipster artisan crude. I'm simplifying the design as I'm thinking of creating a kit out of it, so I'm just wondering if there's a more repeatable way of producing that particular panel.
I'm thinking of creating an experiment with a metal frame that I warped during welding. I'm going to mount a $40 8-ton hydraulic jack from the Harbor and then mount a wooden compound curved buck on top of that. Finally, I'm going attach sheet metal to the sides of the frame.
The theory is that the jack will push the buck into the sheet metal and deform it. If any wrinkles appear, I'll beat them out with a rubber mallet or sheet metal slapper.
So, any observations that my experiment will not go the way I think it will? That and any tips on the English wheel will also be appreciated!