Jig for J-3, PA-11, PA-18 and widebody PA-18. His jig for the PA-12 is out being sandblasted and painted
Organization
Jay has been experimenting with different welding techniques for his tanks. He then bends and tests to failure. He is about to get this finalized.
Fuel tank baffle
Lip inside the tank gives more contact area for the weld. Less failure prone.
By putting an angle on the front of the tank you can avoid welding the tube in for the aileron cable.
Jay sells a very nice sight gage
A whole box of sight gages
Organization
More organization
Flap and aileron parts. Jay was buying ribs from another vendor but made his own dies so now he can make this part in house saving time and money.
Flap/aileron nose rib die
And FINALLY, while I was there we opened the first boxes of wing rib parts. These have been a long time coming for a variety of reasons.
Wing ribs. YAHOO!!!
Part of the reason it has taken so long to get past this hurdle is there are a LOT of parts to this. There are a lot of different ribs and even more combinations. This is a partial diagram of the combinations depending on if it is round or square tipped, 13 or 16 rib, flap or no flap, left or right, 18 or 24 gal tank, etc etc. LOTS and LOTS of parts here and they all have to be just right. We weighed an old Smithcub wing panel while I was in the shop, and a new panel, and there is going to be about 25 pounds difference per panel in the wings. And these have been stress tested (a little more to go in that area), to 2200 pounds.
So the wing ribs are in and I anticipate Jay will be building wings soon. He is well aware that he has some orders that need to get filled in this area. I believe that around the first of the year he should be caught up and then in a position to fill orders in a more timely fashion. The quality is, and will be, outstanding.
It is fun for me to visit the shop and I am always amazed at the amount of detail and the number of parts required to put this all together. To those guys like Christian, Don Paddock and others that are scratch builders, I am once again in awe of your ability and determination. It is another level up when you try to set up to do this over and over, as in production, and to make sure that all the parts are exactly alike and dimensioned the same so they are interchangeable and reproduceable. My hat is off to Jay.
Hope this helps
Bill