Basic biplane Jig

[Beardie]

I was asked about my little jig so here is a post with pics of the assembly for anyone who might be interested.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this so if I am incorrect would a moderator move it to the correct place.

The jig is based on a wooden box with sliding lid for a game of Pickup sticks that I bought for £2 out of one of those high street cheap stuff shops.

The sliding lid of the box serves to hold and offer up the top wing to the lower wing/Fuselage assembly.

http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag339/Beardieweirdie/Jig2_zps9941f2c6.jpg

As you can see the fuselage/lower wing assembly is held by rubber bands onto two pistol grip quick clamps.

http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag339/Beardieweirdie/Clamp_zps044e62f4.jpg

I sawed off the front part with a razor saw and glued a small piece of wood at the bottom with superglue to snag the rubber band and hold the assembly in place. The part that the moving part of the clamp butts up against can be turned around and remounted on the other end of the clamp to form a stable foot to stand the clamp on when securing it into the box although I just glued the metal rod of the clamp to the wooden odds I have glued into the box.

The top wing clamp is simply a tongue depressor and various pieces of wood glued onto the sliding lid of the box with sawn parts of the Pickup stick game superglued on to provide a retainer for the top wing to butt up against and to provide points to hold it in place with rubber bands.

http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag339/Beardieweirdie/Jig2_zps9941f2c6.jpg

http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag339/Beardieweirdie/Jigwithplane1_zps689e820f.jpg

The advantage of my little device is that you can sight align the fuselage/lower wing against the upper wing and gently squeeze the triggers to gradually draw this assembly back against the fixed upper wing until the degree of trail is approximately correct against the top wing and then the struts can be installed one by one.

The jig isn't perfect yet, Among other things I need to develop a way to adjust the lie of the top wing as, being curved, it dosen't necessarily sit parallel with the bottom wing. I am thinking of a plastic grub screw that can push down on the trailing edge of the upper wing to make it parallel against the lower wing.

Having said that I have found it much easier than the wrestling match with extra cursing that always arose from trying to fit the top wing without some nifty means of holding the parts while I fiddled with the struts and I have found that holding the model vertically makes it much easier to see what is going on between the wings.

All in all it took about twenty minutes to create (Although I have gone back and forwards tinkering with it to alter the design) and the materials used came to about £5. No screws pins etc. were used only super glue and it is rock solid.

Any suggestions as to improvements that could be made will be greatly received.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Beardieweirdie

[Buster213]

Awesome, will give that a go beardie and thank you. We could always patten it..... this time next year we could be millionaires LOL Many thanks

[Alfisti]

Hi Beardieweirdie,

interesting jig there,like the idea of placing it vertically so that you can see the struts and their locations.Was thinking that perhaps instead of some form of grub screw to push the trailing edge of the top wing into position,(I would think that would put undue pressure on other parts,maybe leading to fracture or distortion of other parts!),you could incorporate a concave or shaped piece that would allow equal loads over the profile of the top wing,maybe even line it with a soft material that would minimise damage to any paint/decals.

Being of the older generation,we used to have those type of boxes at school to keep our pencils/ruler/rubbers(and for those across the pond,a rubber was something that was used to erase pencil marks!),and for larger scale models,you could use and adapt a wine box that fine wines are sold in.Good luck with it,and looking forward to your progress on this.

Dave.

[Beardie]

Forgot to mention for reference that the model in the jig is a 1/48 Albatros D.III from Eduard. The idea of a concave area for the top wing is one I had contemplated, the problem I have wrestled with in that regard is that the curve of the wing varies from model to model and of course some have bits and bobs molded onto the upper surface which interfere. The top wing is not held that tightly by the rubber bands. One of my big considerations in creating the jig was to try not to place stress on any part of the model during this assembly, aiming rather for gently holding it in order that, as much as possible, the parts fall into place. Another issue I am wrestling with is a method whereby I can control the movement of the sliding part as I have had one or two instances of picking up the jig and sliding the top wing back out of the way to do something on the fuselage/lower wing side and gravity has caused the top wing to slide back down and collide with the lower parts. I now use a spring clamp on the sliding part when I do this to stop it moving but something similar to the quick clamp action would be ideal to inch the wing into place and be able to slide it back and hold in place if necessary. Just got to think of the ideal way to install such a mechanism.

[Beardie]

Thought I better add as well that use of this jig depends on the struts, and the angles at their ends, being correct in the kit you are making (I did have a fair bit of trouble with the Eduard camel until I discovered the error in the instructions about the interplane struts).

If you are needing the absolute accuracy against windsock files etc. to the original aircraft then something along the lines of the Aeroclub jig is much more appropriate where you can set these things into the jig. But if you are looking for something that will help you get the kit together out of the box this gizmo should give you a helping hand.

[Beardie]

Just wondering if anybody has built themselves one of these gizmos and if so did it prove useful?

[Troy Smith]

might be easier with the images in the thread. There is an image box, just copy and paste the photo URL into it.

interesting idea. Thanks for sharing

HTH

I was asked about my little jig so here is a post with pics of the assembly for anyone who might be interested.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this so if I am incorrect would a moderator move it to the correct place.

The jig is based on a wooden box with sliding lid for a game of Pickup sticks that I bought for £2 out of one of those high street cheap stuff shops.

The sliding lid of the box serves to hold and offer up the top wing to the lower wing/Fuselage assembly.

As you can see the fuselage/lower wing assembly is held by rubber bands onto two pistol grip quick clamps.

I sawed off the front part with a razor saw and glued a small piece of wood at the bottom with superglue to snag the rubber band and hold the assembly in place. The part that the moving part of the clamp butts up against can be turned around and remounted on the other end of the clamp to form a stable foot to stand the clamp on when securing it into the box although I just glued the metal rod of the clamp to the wooden odds I have glued into the box.

The top wing clamp is simply a tongue depressor and various pieces of wood glued onto the sliding lid of the box with sawn parts of the Pickup stick game superglued on to provide a retainer for the top wing to butt up against and to provide points to hold it in place with rubber bands.

The advantage of my little device is that you can sight align the fuselage/lower wing against the upper wing and gently squeeze the triggers to gradually draw this assembly back against the fixed upper wing until the degree of trail is approximately correct against the top wing and then the struts can be installed one by one.

The jig isn't perfect yet, Among other things I need to develop a way to adjust the lie of the top wing as, being curved, it dosen't necessarily sit parallel with the bottom wing. I am thinking of a plastic grub screw that can push down on the trailing edge of the upper wing to make it parallel against the lower wing.

Having said that I have found it much easier than the wrestling match with extra cursing that always arose from trying to fit the top wing without some nifty means of holding the parts while I fiddled with the struts and I have found that holding the model vertically makes it much easier to see what is going on between the wings.

All in all it took about twenty minutes to create (Although I have gone back and forwards tinkering with it to alter the design) and the materials used came to about £5. No screws pins etc. were used only super glue and it is rock solid.

Any suggestions as to improvements that could be made will be greatly received.

[Beardie]

Ah now that is handy thanks, guess I missed something when I was following the advice on the forum about placing images from Photobucket not something I have ever done before. Used to work with computers for a living but now I am going retro and can barely navigate round ebay these days.

[Beardie]

The model in the pics is now finished by the way. Used the jig as described. I glued the Cabane struts into the locations on the upper wing waited a minute for the glue to start taking hold but not set, sighted along from the fuse end and adjusted it's height to approximately the correct position then brought the upper wing along to the fuse, wee blob of poly cement on the fuse ends of the cabanes and tweezered them into place on the fuse. once they set glued the V struts into the top wing then blob of poly on the other end and into the lower wing. (I don't paint my struts until they are in place to ensure as secure a bond as possible with the fuse/lower wing) Once the struts are in place I use a nifty angled brush from Royal Langnickel to paint the struts,unless there is just no space above the fuse in which case they have to be painted beforehand.

[Buster213]

Jig almost done with a minor modification. I left the top jaws on as I stuck the top end in my cheek ( twice!!!, you would think I would learn after once). It may be Heath Robinson but I can see already how its going to save a tremendous amount of frustration. Couldn't find a pencil box in local shops but got one on Ebay £2 and clamps from Amazon £3.50. Job done. Thanks for sharing this great little jig.

[Beardie]

Hope it works well for you Buster. The only thing to watch out for is securing the sliding part when you are doing anything with the lower fuselage in place, like painting struts or such once they are glued in place. I have taken to using one of those little clothes peg style clamps to hold it when I need to do anything to the lower part of the model.