DISCOVERY JET
Construction - Session 6

Ahead to Session 7 or Back - Session 5

I went by Lowes today and purchase a new 3 blade interchangeable hand saw. To cut out the landing gear support spars I used a hack saw blade and that seem to work great. I now planned to cut the channel for the main wing spar and so I decided a new hand saw was in order. Instead of using the hack saw blade I opted for the flush flexible cut off blade. I figured since it was wider it would do a better job...Not!!! Even though it came out ok, next time I will stick to the hack saw blade as there are a few areas wider then they should be along the spar groove because of the flexing in the blade. I'm not worried though because I plan to use Gorilla glue to fill in the gaps after I tack the spar in place with epoxy.

Here I'm as using a ruler as a guide. Make sure to tape it down along the spar line. This method works very well.

The front section is cut out, now I'm setting up for the back section. The front section is a bit wider because a joining former will be glued in later when it comes time to join the two wing halves together.

Done! The first wing is done. Everything looks good and I'm going to do the next wing the same way.

After the wing spar channels were cut I now needed to trace the wing spars onto paper so I could then trace them to 1/8 plywood and cut them out.

Here I'm tracing the spar with a pen. I'm not too worried about getting exact because I plan on cleaning up the edges with my belt sander later.

Here is the completed spar traced out.

I use masking tape along the back of the spar trace to give a little more thickness to the template.

Using scissors I carefully cut out the spar template.

Another shoot of me cutting out the spar template.

I also traced out the center wing end cap that has the cut out for the wing hold down mounting plate that will later be glued in place.

Now I tape the template on 1/8 plywood and trace out the pattern.

With the two wing spars done, I start on the wing end caps and trace them too.

Now it's on to the band saw to cut out the traced patterns. I try to get as close to the line as possible leaving just a little excess. I then use my belt sander to sand down to the traced line. This method works for me and leaves a nice smooth edge. Because it was getting dark I did not get a chance to shoot any pictures of the sanding. Perhaps next time.

I dry fitted the spars into the wings and everything looks good. In the next session I will epoxy the spars in place just enough to tack them in. Then I plan to use some Gorilla glue to finish gluing the spar in place since it has some foaming action that will fill any gaps between the foam and wing spar. The Gorilla glue is strong, and easy to sand. Plus it is lighter then epoxy.

Stay tune for Session 7 to be posted soon!

Ahead to Session 7 or Back - Session 5