Wing frame

I built some wing frames today. The plan is to build the wings on these frames which will keep everything nice and straight, as well as providing a handy place to store the wings when they are finished.

I bought some 90×90 treat pine posts, some 120x45x1.8m treated pine, a couple of 1.25m galvanise lantels, some square brackets, a length of threaded rod and some nuts and bolts. First I laid out the materials to roughly in position.

I then cut 90×90 posts to a height of 1.1m (I used the ribs as a guide to work out this height) and drilled bolt holes in one end. I then used wood tech screws to fix 1 length of the 120×45 to the bottom of each post as a cross brace.

Next I used wood tech screws to attach the remaining lengths of 120×45 to each post to form a T. I haven’t fixed these new lengths to each other yet so I can still slide each end independent of each other. I’ll use the wing spars to get the separation distance. I then put the lintels onto the bolts and hand tightened the nuts on the post bolts to hold them in place. Using some clamps, I roughly placed the angle brackets into position (one on the lintel and one on the post – each end) and drilled holes in each. I fixed the angle brackets to the lintel using some spare nuts and bolts I had lying around, and some wood tech screws into the post. Next, I hand measured the length of threaded rod and cut a length for each end. I then drilled a hole in each bracket for the rod. Finally, I screwed on washers and nuts onto each rod and inserted them in the holes between the angle brackets. I then placed more washers and nuts on the outside of each end of each threaded rod fixing the rod in place.

Using this arrangement, I can screw the nuts on each rod and finely adjust the lintels so that they are perfectly level cross ways. I can then use shims on each lintel to ensure the spars are perfectly level length ways. This will make it much easier to build the wings straight and square.

Build time approx. 3 hours.