Curtiss Jenny Restoration

Welcome! We hope you enjoy following the restoration process of a 1918 Curtiss JN4D Jenny. Once completed, the aeroplane will be flown and displayed at the Candler Field Museum in Williamson GA (30 miles south of Atlanta). You can contact me below by clicking on "VIEW MY PROFILE"

: Name: Brian Karli; Location: Peachtree City, Georgia, United States

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Saturday, March 17, 2012

Bead Rolling

The other night, John Kuck met me at the hangar and we did some burnishing on the lower cowl.

We got about half way done when I got a call from the wife - kid #2 was home from school with a sore throat and she was taking him to the doctor. So I quit burnishing for the day in order to pick up kid #4 at preschool. Oh, well. It happens. We decided to finish the cowling later.

Thursday night, Ron, Brian and I met at the hangar. They put the stitching tapes on the upper and lower ribs of the second wing.

Ron continued with the wing - pre-punching all the holes for the rib lacing. Meanwhile, I decided to make the beads around the cabane strut openings on the front cockpit cowling.

I was really worried about this. We spent hours burnishing the cowls and the bead rolling around the opening had to be done by hand. I didn't want to screw it up at this point.

So, we made two practice pieces with some scrap aluminum.

With the same cutout pattern.

A 5/16 inch line was drawn with a compass. The bead roller depth was set and we tried making the first one.

Keeping the curve on the line was the tricky part.

Practice makes perfect, or so they say. The second attempt turned out alright.

Now for the real cowling - while we were practicing, Larry Enlow stopped by with some friends. Larry is an FAA inspector in Orlando and he was here flying Ron's DC3. He brought two other FAA inspectors so they could get proficient in the DC3 as well. The three visitors hung around awhile taking pictures and joining the conversations.

OK, back to the cowling. We were not dealing with little test pieces. The cowling is bigger and bulkier. Brian and I started beading when it was obvious more hands would be needed.

So, our visitors became quite useful. On the left is Steve Stewart from Anchorage, Alaska. He graciously held the light so I could follow the line.

Because if the throat depth of the tool and the size of the cowling, we made the bead in two sections. They joined right about here.

The bead turned out perfectly!

When we looked at the other side, it became apparent that the cowl would not fit the same way we made the first one. So, we had to change the dies - put the male end on the bottom and flip the cowl upright. A line was drawn on the outside...

And we rolled this way.

What an operation ! Brian Eberle slowly turned the crank, Steve Steward held the light and I made an attempt to keep the cowl on the line. Another visitor, John Boatright from Lubbock, Texas helped maintain the curve of the cowling.

I was happy with the results.

If you notice where the two beads meet, the bead is not seamless. This is how the original cowl looked.

Kid #2 is feeling better and we have a baseball tournament this weekend on the east side of Atlanta. Of course Kid #1 had a baseball game in the other direction on the same day. Some days, I feel like I need a taxi sign on the car. Meanwhile, Kid #3 is going to a friend's house. Kid #4 is going with me to the game. So I won't get anything done on the Jenny until Monday.

Expect an update then.

Enjoy

BK

Friday, March 09, 2012

Progress

Not a lot to report this week - wife was away in NJ taking care of an elderly aunt so I had full time kid duty all week. Needless to say, with four kids, I didn't spend my usual time at the shop. Plus Ron has been busy all week getting all the myriad of details together for the museum's benefit dance: www.peachstate.com

But, some progress had been made. The first wing is now completely stitched!

Normally, the surface would receive the first coat of Poly Brush prior to rib lacing, but because of the under camber of the wing we were worried about the fabric "bridging" or pulling away from the ribs. So, we decided to do things a little differently.

First, we shrunk the fabric to 200 degrees. Then strips of Poly Brush (about two inches wide) were painted down each rib. Reinforcing strips were run and the ribs stitched.

It worked! When we shrunk the fabric to the required 350 degrees, the fabric stayed tight to the ribs.

I wanted to share more Jenny stuff with you. Remember I mentioned a website about Ivan Wheaton? Well, Kurt Wheaton has been doing a marvelous job publishing Ivan's scrapbook pictures. Even better - he researches the history of each picture too.

Check this out: www.http://ivanpwheaton.blogspot.com

I especially liked this picture. You can clearly can see the early Deperdussin style control wheel in this early Curtiss.

This poor Jenny didn't fair so well.

Hope to publish more later next week.

Cheers

Brian

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Beading the cowl

After beading the cowl door the other day, I got to thinking about the process. The door was little so keeping the lines straight was no big deal. You could easily eye-ball them.

But the cowling was another story.

Paul Dougherty mentioned using a bigger guide to keep the long beads straight. So, last night at the shop, we did some experimenting. I got a big block of wood and affixed it to the table with wood screws and angle iron.

You can see below how the sheet metal rides along the wooden block. It worked pretty well on the practice pieces. We used an L Square to keep the block parallel to the beading machine and set the depth to 1 3/16 inches for the inner bead.

Hey, it works! The outer bead is 5/16 in. from the edge. According to the Curtiss drawings (and the original cowl) the inner bead is 7/8 in from the center line of the outer bead.

OK. Deep breath. It is time to try it on a burnished piece. If you screw it up, don't worry. It's just another few hours in front of the drill press burnishing another piece.....

It is much easier if one person guides the sheet metal and another slowly turns the crank.

The set up worked perfectly!

Here is a joint at the front cockpit.

Here is the 90 degree turn. We made this bead in two directions. Later, I'm going to go back over the intersection with a 3/16 rod (with a rounded end) and make it look seamless. This is the best you can do with the bead rolling machine.

Interestingly, the original cowl shows the intersections like this. I just want to make them look better, that's all.

A few weeks ago, film maker Dorian Walker flew down to Atlanta to see the Jenny. He is making a documentary about the Jenny to be shown on PBS in the fall.

Dorian interviewed Ron, me and my wife for the documentary. We had a great time and I thank Dorian for including us in the project.

Funny. I spent so much time in front of the camera, I forgot to take pictures! Luckily, John Hess took a few. Here is my wife Cricket having her interview.

I'll keep everyone informed about the documentary's progress. Can't wait to see it on TV.

More soon

Brian

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Bead rolling

I kinda got sick of burnishing so I decided to do some bead rolling. Before I screwed something up that had lots of time consuming little swirls on it, I double checked the dimensions of the Curtiss drawings with the original side cowl.

This is an Eastwood Bead roller I got for a fair price. It's not the biggest, baddest or stoutest bead roller out there, but it was what I could afford.

My #3 son Geoffrey volunteered to help.

The first thing we did was practice. Remember, I didn't want to have to remake something with time consuming little swirls on it! With some scrap aluminum, we tried various bead depths. Too little pressure made shallow beads. Too much pressure made deeper beads, but cut the aluminum on the sides.

Geoffrey turned the handle. I guided the metal....

Enough practice. Gathering courage, we made the first beads on the little cowl access door.

Interestingly, the beads make 90 degree angles. I tried rotating the sheet metal in the die but that distorted the metal. What you have to do is make one line, release the pressure of the die, rotate the sheet metal, put the pressure back onto the die and make the next straight line.

I did not like the way it looked using this method. I wanted a continuous, smooth, seamless bead. But when I examined the original cowl, the beads looked the same way. Guess that is how they did it back then.

That was enough beading for one night. The rest of the time we spent trying to build a jig to make the windshields. More about that later.

Till then...enjoy

Brian

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Still burnishing...

Been a busy week at work so the Jenny had to wait a bit, but today burnishing resumed on the rear cockpit sheet metal.

A couple more swirls to go!

The reinforcing wire was installed next. Start by bending the flange up...

...then tap it around the wire.

Done. The wire will be trimmed at the top and bottom.

Getting close.

Yesterday, John Hess stopped by the hangar. It was wonderful to see a face from home. John has a Cessna 170 that he keeps in Central Pennsylvania and he reminded me that I taught his private pilot ground school many years ago! Had it been that long...?

John was visiting Atlanta for the National Cessna 170 Convention and he made it a point to come and see me. That was a nice gesture. We caught up on old times and it was really good to see him.

My good friend and Bucker Jungmeister Airshow Pilot Jerry Wells sent me this Jenny picture from his phone:

This is Jim Nissen's old Jenny now proudly displayed at the Hill Museum in Utah. Thought you might like to see it too.

Off to work again. More later this week.

Brian

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Tonight's progress

Hooray! The left side cowl is burnished!

Here is the cowl in place. I'm holding the original cowl so you can see the louvers and beading we have to make yet.

We also lined the bottom cowl for burnishing.

Lastly, John and Martha Cole sent me this neat old picture. Look how they are stitching the wing - the same way we are doing it...except they are better dressed.