Topic: 1/2 scale Sopwith Triplane

Hey guys got word from jaime my ribs shipping this week so thought nows the time to start the thread. these are based on my triplane planes. a few of ya have seen the plansets for it I just enlarged it to 1/2 scale.

Rough Idea on  it

13.5 ft wingspan
60 inches tall
length 113 3/8"

Engine DA 150
Weight 60-80 lbs

IE one Big Honkin Plane

I started on the inboard struts. got them cut out and sanded now have to carve to shape and router out the bottom area as per FS

What you gonna do for cowl?  A nice spun ali one or glass and painted?  This should be a very interesting build 

I dunno I think I might go glass cowl for now and use flitemetal on it as Binky had alum cowl and front panels. then after I have got it going and stuff and if I am working again see about having one spun for me. its still up in the air as its the last item i will need for the plane so between now and when its finished maybe me and jaime can work something out. who knows maybe 2 or 3 ppl will want to build a monster this size which would then offset the plug making costs. we shall see.

I started planing the airfoil shape todaw wished I had a draw knife it would probably make things easier but this Aspen is really nice to work with and I got a lot of it worked down already on the LE just have to work it back towards the center now

following this one with interest 

following this one with interest 

Me too!

Prof,  as you appear to be making the struts from two laminations can I suggest the method I've used on my mere tiddler?

That is, stick a lamination down to the edge of the bench with double sided tape and then sand the strut to shape with an orbital sander starting with some nice coarse paper and then progress to finer stuff.  When it comes to remove the strut rotate it horizontally to shear the bond i.e. don't try lifting the strut upas you will just bend and probaly break the wood.   

Going to rout out the spars as well then?    And no, I'm not making a half scale Rotherham Pump

Alan

Joe,

Have a word with Glenn Torrance, IIRC, he supplied the 1/2 scale cowl to Barry Vogel and friend for their 1/2 scale D.VI


Mark

I talked to glenn before he doesnt have any more cowls those were a 1 or 2 time thing and he doesnt have any more as theres no call for them.

Alan my struts are not laminated as thats the one thing I didnt think should be these are solid peices 1/2 inch thick. I am currently in the process of routing out the struts now just took a short break to check  email and let dog out. I almost have 1 finished so in about an hour or less will post the first pic. also I called dad and he still has his draw knife so I will be grabbing that from him probably to do the tapers

Alan my struts are not laminated as thats the one thing I didnt think should be these are solid peices 1/2 inch thick.

Perhaps they should have been - makes it dead easy to get them symetrical and no bother holding them while you do it    

IMO two bits laminated with an appropriate adhesive would be fine.   After all, they laminate wood together to make fullsize props and they don't fall apart and are very highly loaded.

Just an idea ......

Alan

lol yea but I am gonna get them with a draw knife which i am abt to goto dads to pick up. the nice thing with them being thicker is I can screw blocks to the ends to hold it while I draw it out

Abt to post router pics as soon as I resize them

Well I got back from dads with his draw knife. For those of you youngsters scratching yer heads wondering what a draw knife is, the first pic is of an old belguim draw knife dad let me borrow. The cool thing about using a draw knive on these struts is that more than likely thats what the craftsmen used to shape the struts on the original airplane.
 
As you can see a draw knife is basically an 8 inch wide hand plane but uses 2 handles to "Draw" it to you and makes for some really nice curly cues hehehe
 
As you can see from the second picture I got the shape pretty close just need to spend some time hand sanding the edges in so that they are all even. From the end view it looks thicker than it actually is. For the mose part it is a knife edge but I didnt want to go all the way to the end and chance taking a large hunk out
  

Looking good, that's a modern draw knife, my dad has one (soon to be mine as he is blind now  ) that is all one piece of metal, forged and has ball end handles.  He also has an adze which i used years ago to make some large pieces for a 1/2 decker sailing boats tabernacle.  when you get used to using these old tools you can really move some wood with them.  I do love a good sharp spoke shave.

lol its an old modern one though rofl it was my grandads and dad reminded me when I was a wee lad how I got the scar on my hand from playing with it and to not cut myself and that was 40 some odd yrs ago

ok kiddies my wing parts arrived sat from the post really funny it took 13 days to arrive looking at the postmark but it is a priority package and supposed to only take 3 to 4 days tops no wonder our post office going bankrupt noone wants to use them because they so inapt and slow.

Anyways I got lots of drawings yet to finish for a couple of you chaps so I will only get to work a couple hours a night for a couple more weeks til I get some  other stuff done.

plus the fact I have a billion ribs to capstrip but will doing my special method to get them looking realistic.

will post some kit pics etc soon

Joe

spent time yest cutting parts out from the sheets. lol when I enlarged the plane I forgot abt the little tabs that keep parts in sheet so they little larger than normal would be so I have to use my xacto rather than just pop out. lol should hopefully  finish getting them all out today. then theres prob gonna be 3 weeks worth of capstripping all the little riblets and reg ribs hehehe.

theres also the cardboard patterns for bending my 1/4" alum tubing for fin rudder wingtips and other BS

Now that looks very nice Joe     Of course 1/3 scale would be much better

Alan

the originals are 3rd scale but this is for our rendevous 2011 to go up against this beasty

Not a chance against a D.VI  , but a good chance against the color scheme 

Not a chance against a D.VI  , but a good chance against the color scheme 

Pa - Sopwith Triplanes laugh in the face of DVIs   That does look good though!

Maybe we should have a word with the Tap and t' Committee?  Scrap the DP and start again at 1/2 scale   (joke)
 

lol or ya have someone do a tripehound and a DRI at half scale and put on a special dogfight routine

finally finished popping out my parts. the sheet in the back didnt quite get all the way cut so ill do that later on the band saw

dont have all my ribs down stairs yet but heres a shot of almost all the full length ones and all but 6 of the ailerons

well guys heres another pic of my wing parts thats abt 95% of them. I started the top wings center section today so I can work out the wing attaching which is basically an extension coming out the spar on the outer panels into the spar of the center sections and then having to have a straight hole drilled to run a rod through to attach the panels.

Also I started on the vertical fin. Due to having to bend it down to insert it into the front post, it kinked a little but not bad. when I get everything lined up nicely I will use Metyl Weld to glue it all together and will fill the little kinked area in and when it cures its sandable so will sand it smooth. I have a couple other pieces to add but it looks great right now

I should mention just for ref that the rear finpost is 22" long and at the bottom of it is where the steerable landing skid attaches.

the next tube in is roughly 14" tall which will tell you the height of the thing.

Prof, if you clamp 2 pieces of steel together, about 3/4" thick and drill through them both so 1/2 hole in each piece 1 can be clamped in a vice and the other may be used as a die to gently tap the kink back into some sort of shape negating the need or reducing the amount of filler needed and may bring back some of it's strength to.  It may be necessary to file the bottom die to remove the sharp edges and give a slightly curved hole if you know what I mean.

Yea I know what ya mean someone else long time ago told me same thing. the thing with this is that it looks worse in the pic than it actually is and since I have to use the metal weld to weld it together its nothing to use any leftover just to fill the bad spot as I could dip it on a Que tip and just wipe across it to fill it. and only reason I will be filling it is just to be safe so it wont show when covered otherwise I wouldnt bother with it. I even had the tube filled with salt and corked when bent. but when I had to really bend it to get the short piece in it gave the little crease. I think the salt kept it from getting too bad.


as a PS does anyone Know how Margaret Ken's wife is doing?

Thanks for your conserne Joe. Margaret is still in hospital and still has discomfort and they are reluctant to operate because of her underlying condition.I will have to start getting the house back to normal soon as it looks like an aircraft factory in the dineing room full of bit built d.xii parts and when she comes home seeing this lot all over the house may not be the best idea ive ever had.That triplane is going to be about five ft tall when finished, definatley a sight to behold.looking good Joe. regards Ken  ;copper;

Ken, sorry to hear about Margaret, hope she's better soon.

Joe, looking like an aircraft factory, nice 

Steve

thought be good idea to post a link to the bonding product I use for bonding metals together Metl Weld Site

Here you can see how smooth the Metl Weld gets on its own. then after 48 hrs it will be max hardness and I can sand it into a nicer smoother shape. Also posted some pics with a spray adhesive can to give it some perspective as most ppl have seen or used a paint can before and this duro is same size

Well I got the Rudder Epoxied together and slid the box spar pieces into place on the top wing Mid section. Now wife has a baseball bat and wants my butt back in bed (got the flu bug but hate lying round in bed.) so will try to get some more stuff done later tonight

well wife let me out of bed for a few finally so I had her take a pic with me holding my fin and rudder for some real perspective

Hi Joe
Like I said this is going to be a monster, that metal glue is of great interrest, (Does any one know if its available in the UK and if so by what brand name?) I note on the photo of the central wing section you have drawn in the cross brace wires , but there seems to be a part which is mounted to the inside of the rib and a second cross brace wire, or am |I reading the photo wrong ?
just being nosey

there are 2 compression strut type things to add yet that the center section mounts to the struts with and the wires attach to them