Saturday, April 5, 2014

And So It Begins!!!

I actually started today. I figured I better have some progress to show when I meet the other Bearhawkers at the Texas STOL Roundup next weekend. I didn't want to be the guy that just talks about building a plane (which is what I was quickly becoming!)

Last weekend I picked up a sheet of mdf to start making the form blocks. Today I lined up some sheets if carbon paper and taped them together. Then I taped it to the mdf. 

Next, I taped drawing #7 to the top and carefully traced it out with a tiny fine tipped screwdriver. I took quite a while to go over everything. After I finished I removed everything and retraced the lines left from the carbon paper with an ultra-fine tip sharpie. 

I used my jigsaw to cut outside the lines by about a quarter inch. Then I started sanding it down to the line with a drum sander in my drill press, but I'm going to finish it up with a good, slow hand sanding. The drum sander is very hard to get a smooth uniform edge. If you are not super careful and light on the pressure it will dig in and make a rolling, curvy edge.

So, to finish the day, I don't even have one form block 100%, but I HAVE started!