More wires and other Jennies

Wires! Wires! Wires! I won't bore you with picture after picture of wrapped 1 by 19 cables, but that's what I've been doing lately. Sorry it's not more exciting. But, if you want to build a Jenny, you gotta like making wires and cables.

Some pictures of todays work: Four hours equals four cables!



Stop laughing, Paul. You remember!



Quite often, I hear from other people out there interested in Jennies. Some of them are modelers building scale Jennies. Some are building their own Jennies. Some just like Jennies. Either way, I'm glad they contact me.

Several months ago, I told you about a group of retired Minnesota craftsmen who build a static Jenny for the Minnesota Historical Museum in St.Paul. Well, they have an extra set of wings and they would like to sell them. Anyone interested, contact Ken Rovie 651 777 6653 and he'll tell you more about it.



I also heard from Scott Gregersen in Pocatello Idaho. He is building two steel tube Jenny replicas (see below) and plans on putting an automotive engine up front. His wings are built and covered and you can see he's well on his way with the fuselage. His plan is to fly the airplanes a bit and then offer them up for sale. Anyone interested in one, feel free to contact Scott 208 232 3891 or e-mail sctt_gregersen@yahoo.com



As for me - I'm gonna go back to building wires! I'll post more when I have a bunch of them done. Till then...

Enjoy

Brian

Wire wrapping

Finished building 4 wires today. They are the cross wires on the fuselage sides between Station6 and Station 5. This is the first transition point from the hard wires to the cables.

I found that my new tool worked very well. I also found that keeping the wire level as you wrap really made life simpler. That's why you can see the loose end clamped to the board on the right.



Here's a closer view. This picture shows the point just before the wrapping was slid up tightly to the thimble. It closed the gap in the cable and made things neat and tidy. After that, the wrapping continued followed by the traditional soldering.



Here's the completed fitting at Station 5 upper.



Nothing exciting to report here - just lots more cables to build!

Enjoy

Brian

Spar carry-throughs

I wanted to finish the spar carry-throughs today so I could begin making the cables around Station 4 and 5. Since these pieces hold the lower wings in place, I was critical of their alignment. I used the original wing section to line things up. Remember - the end fittings screwed into threaded rod inside the big tube for strength. Then, the end fittings needed to be brazed in place.

This was todays job - braze the ends. Plus, the entire assembly was given a coat of temporary paint. Sorry I didn't take any exciting pictures. By the time I remembered the camera, the brazing was done and the paint drying.



I went to my home airport the other day to work on my Bucker Jungmann when I met a nice guy named Daryl Matthews. We chatted about the Jenny and some other flying topics and I wrote down his e-mail address. Well, yours truly lost the little slip of paper. So Daryl, when you read this, could you e-mail me at briankarli@bellsouth.net?

Enjoy

Brian

Station 5 fitting

All the bracing wires behind station 5 are single, solid hard wire. However in front of station 5, the wires are cable and doubled. So, a transition has to be made. Here's how I did this.



The original fitting was a piece of thin steel bent around the bolt. I decided to make the fittings differently. I took some.125 in steel and welded it to a steel tube. Here are the pieces after they were tack welded.



Then they were cut on the bandsaw.....



....and shaped on a grinder. The hole was drilled on the drill press to clean out any welding slag.



Here's a trial fit before painting. Now you see where it goes. Hope to make the cable this weekend. Stay tuned.

Brian

fuselage progress

The wires are all built from the tail to station 7. Mindless and tedious, but necessary! I was surprised how easy it became to make the fuselage square and straight once each bay was completed. I was also surprised how ridgid the entire structure became once everything was tightened up.



Also got some more fittings back from the local water jet cutter. The main pieces will become the front landing gear sockets. Other pieces include the throttles and a transverse wire fitting bracket that goes in the cockpit area.



Enjoy

Brian