Fuselage Station 2

Today's progress - I made the straps that hold Station 5 together. I have to cut the ash to size yet, and make the ash spacer.



Interestingly (above) the ash piece is 1 1/4 in square as per the only drawing I could obtain of the station. When I made the first strap, I bent it around my 1 1/4 in. forming bar. But, the longeron at this station is 1 1/2 in. !! It did not fit, so, I had to make another one. This left another interesting problem. How does the smaller ash cross brace fit into the wider longeron?

I searched through my pile of drawings and found one that outlined a radio bracket (of all things) that showed a cross section of Station 5. The smaller ash piece fits flush with the top of the longeron and a 1/4 in. ash doubler makes it flush with the bottom. Now it will all fit!



Above are the fitting that Dave Daugherty had cut with a water jet. They are Station 2 top and bottom, and parts of Station 5.



I bent the Station 2 Top piece on the forming bar.



I also finished routing the Station 2 wooden verticals. Here they are with the fittings in place. Luckily, I had an original piece to copy.



It's not exactly in place, but here is how Station 2 Top fitting will go.



Also bent Station 2 Bottom fittings. They are not complete. Another bracket will be brazed to them soon.



Here's where Station 2 Bottom will go.

More later. Enjoy

Brian

Station 5

Been a busy week, but I managed to get some shop time today. OK - some Jenny differences here: At Station 5 (the rear of the front seat) the cross brace angles back to give the poor guy in the front seat some room. I guess that's the reason. Anyway...



Here's one way they built the Jennies - this is how Paul Dougherty's really authentic JN4D looks. Notice the rather complex bend flared to square at the ends.



Here's another way they built them. Several companies built Jennies under license during the war years. Each one seemed to build them with subtle differences. The picture above is from Phil Mintari's JN4D. I decided to build mine the same way.

So, I started with a drawing of the fitting and cut the parts out or .100 sheet steel with the bandsaw.



Then, they were bent to accept the turnbuckles and the holes were drilled.



Here is the fitting in place.



The wood at Station 5 is ash (as seen above) . The entire assembly is held together by a steel strap. I hope to build this over the next weekend. Till then

Enjoy

Brian