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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: ron young on October 18, 2011, 05:37:53 PM
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Hi all a while back a bought a used tuter dont know if it is a tuter 11? or not .I am new to hobby but have the bug to try and fix this plane it wont be perfect but i think it will suit my flying skill ok.When it crashed it cracked/broke fuselageat the back of ply doublers and broke the wing in the center the very center rib and the one next toward the lines also top balsa sheeting in that areaim not sure i can reconstruct this rib accuratly i cut the wing in two to remove from fuselage,te.and le. are broke i wonderd if anyone would be interested in trying to offer some detailed thoughts on how to repair this is there full size rib details out there or am i out of line asking anyway seems like it is fixable it hardly even touched the monocote also because no lines are square meaning te,le being slanted not sure how to get all true and back together.Again just asking for some thoughts on this project i am not a very experienced flyer so it doesnt have to be perfect
Thanks
Ron
ps sorry cant do pictures
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Pictures would have been nice.
You can trace the next out ribs and use that as a guide to making your center rib. You'll have to "fudge" it bigger.. It doesn't have to be perfect.
You may be able to just glue the fuselage back together, or to glue it together with splints across the weak spots.
When you've got it back to the point where you have a wing and a fuselage waiting to be mated, slide them together then measure from side to side to make sure the wing is centered (I hope it's an equal-span wing!). Then choose a well-defined spot (like where the spar meets the outermost rib) and measure the diagonal distance from that spot to a well-defined spot in the center of the fuselage (such as the tip of the rudder if it isn't offset, or the tail wheel, etc.). Squiggle the wing around until those measurements are equal, and double check that the wing is still centered. Eyeball the wing and elevator to make sure that they're level with one another, or use a machinist's level to make darn sure of it.
Once you know exactly how things match up, then slide the wing out a bit, apply glue, slide it back in, and do all those measurements again (use a slow cure glue). Then again. When you've measured all around three times and it looked good each time, then stop fiddling, lock your workshop door, and let the glue dry.
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Ron, on my trainers that need serious repairs, i often use gorilla glue. Lightly moisten the parts to be glued together with water and apply the glue liberally. As the glue dries and expands wipe it down smooth as much as possible. This will fill voids and makes a very strong bond, although it will add some weight. Good luck.