To recap my story real quick: started my build in 2016, by drawing a bunch of parts in CAD, then in 2017 I glued my first rib together, once the brand new shop was set up. In late 2018 it became obvious that I was going to have to move and lose access to the shop, so rather than start assembling my first wing, I packed it all up into a storage unit while the pieces were still relatively small and manageable. Sold that house, bought another in mid 2019, which has a great detached two-car garage (over 2x the floor space of the previous shop), but which needed some work before it could be a shop. August 2019 to about February 2020, I worked on turning a bare garage into a shop.
Then, in January and February, I was negotiating getting a new garage door installed. I'm stuck with sheets of drywall taking up a bunch of floor space and the final dominoes ready to fall, but still waiting on that garage door install before they can go. Somehow, it took two months (including a month of waiting for USPS to return a color sample that they couldn't deliver despite having exactly the correct name and address on the envelope) from first contact to getting the door ordered, and I'll bet you can guess where that puts us: yep, smack in the middle of the biggest global pandemic since 1918. The garage door is ordered, and will probably be installed about as soon as it's ready, but who knows when that will be. Once the garage door is installed, I can finish the drywall work, and finally completely claim the shop space that's been waiting for me.
My theoretical next task is to shape some spars (which I fortunately already have, so no more waiting for that) and start assembling wings, but I am reluctant, again, to have a wobbly half-assembled wing ready to break a bunch of ribs when I have to move it for some random shop-finishing task.
So, instead, I figured I'd tackle a smaller job with all my newfound free time and 3/4 free shop.
I've been racking my brains on and off for years, trying to figure out what this hieroglyph was trying to show me, and my intention was to post here and ask you all for advice, but something about looking at it just now has made it clear:
I thought, during that entire time (until just a minute ago) that this was intended to be some sort of a cutting guide, that it was showing a plank of spruce, which I was supposed to cut like this, somehow. This drawing is showing the wedge blocks, which are necessary to allow 90 degree fittings like compression tubes to work with the 10 degree sweep of the wings.
What I finally grok (maybe this will help someone else out who's as inexperienced as I am) is that this is not cutting instructions. This is a shorthand way of drafting six different sizes and shapes of wedge block in two pithy drawings, rather than drawing out twelve individual profiles.
In other words, if I want to make a -239 wedge, I need to use the corresponding dimensions, like so:
It's up to my own madness how exactly I want to cut six -239 wedges that are 5" long, 1/2" tall at the 2 1/2" ridge, and 3 1/8" wide.
This is a surprising weight off my mind. Saw kerf alone was driving me insane when I thought this drawing was showing cutting instructions on a single plank.
So, my personal epiphany aside, anyone have advice on cutting 10 degree wedges on a 10" tablesaw or 10" compound mitre saw, without lopping off fingers? I'm going to brainstorm on jigs for holding the wood, but if there are commonly-known solutions, I'd love to hear them. A bandsaw is on my short list of tools I'd like to have, so I'm interested in bandsaw jigging/cutting or purchasing advice as well.
Then, in January and February, I was negotiating getting a new garage door installed. I'm stuck with sheets of drywall taking up a bunch of floor space and the final dominoes ready to fall, but still waiting on that garage door install before they can go. Somehow, it took two months (including a month of waiting for USPS to return a color sample that they couldn't deliver despite having exactly the correct name and address on the envelope) from first contact to getting the door ordered, and I'll bet you can guess where that puts us: yep, smack in the middle of the biggest global pandemic since 1918. The garage door is ordered, and will probably be installed about as soon as it's ready, but who knows when that will be. Once the garage door is installed, I can finish the drywall work, and finally completely claim the shop space that's been waiting for me.
My theoretical next task is to shape some spars (which I fortunately already have, so no more waiting for that) and start assembling wings, but I am reluctant, again, to have a wobbly half-assembled wing ready to break a bunch of ribs when I have to move it for some random shop-finishing task.
So, instead, I figured I'd tackle a smaller job with all my newfound free time and 3/4 free shop.
I've been racking my brains on and off for years, trying to figure out what this hieroglyph was trying to show me, and my intention was to post here and ask you all for advice, but something about looking at it just now has made it clear:
I thought, during that entire time (until just a minute ago) that this was intended to be some sort of a cutting guide, that it was showing a plank of spruce, which I was supposed to cut like this, somehow. This drawing is showing the wedge blocks, which are necessary to allow 90 degree fittings like compression tubes to work with the 10 degree sweep of the wings.
What I finally grok (maybe this will help someone else out who's as inexperienced as I am) is that this is not cutting instructions. This is a shorthand way of drafting six different sizes and shapes of wedge block in two pithy drawings, rather than drawing out twelve individual profiles.
In other words, if I want to make a -239 wedge, I need to use the corresponding dimensions, like so:
It's up to my own madness how exactly I want to cut six -239 wedges that are 5" long, 1/2" tall at the 2 1/2" ridge, and 3 1/8" wide.
This is a surprising weight off my mind. Saw kerf alone was driving me insane when I thought this drawing was showing cutting instructions on a single plank.
So, my personal epiphany aside, anyone have advice on cutting 10 degree wedges on a 10" tablesaw or 10" compound mitre saw, without lopping off fingers? I'm going to brainstorm on jigs for holding the wood, but if there are commonly-known solutions, I'd love to hear them. A bandsaw is on my short list of tools I'd like to have, so I'm interested in bandsaw jigging/cutting or purchasing advice as well.
