SonexBuilders.net

I had a question for those of you that have already bent your Sonex forward fuselage wing attach angles (F14-08 & 09). I've had moderate success with the vice / mallet to close angles and the angle clamped to bench and opened with a wrench....but, quite often, I have to throw out my first attempts until I get it right.

Because the wing attach angles are so long (over 20"), I wanted to know if there are any tips that you could offer up, or did you just bend one small section at a time.

Also, when bending angles pretty much only 1 flange bends, the other remains fairly flat. Because this is a main support for the wing spar, would you suggest that the flatter side face toward the spar? or face the side of the fuselage?

It's times like these I wish I had the Sonex angle kit ;-)

Thanks,
Frank Alvarez
Sonex #800 - Scratch Building

I've no idea if this is a good idea or not but it seems to have worked for this builder.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sonextalk/message/31617
Mike

Thanks Mike...the post at that link was what I was looking for.

For some reason when I searched Sonextalk for F14-08 I didn't get any results. Not sure how you found it ;-)

Thanks,
Frank Alvarez
Sonex #800 - Scratch Building

Don't tell anyone,but I keep one finger crossed behind my back when I push enter. ;)

Here is what I did for bending the angles. In the past I had overshot the amount of bend with the press so I used the pry bar method. I cut a slot in a 3/4" thick aluminum bar and used that to bend. It worked out OK. After the bending, I tried filing and sanding out the concave/convex legs but that was too much material to take off to get the bent leg flat so I stopped with some curvature remaining. The curved leg will be for the spar bolt as I wanted the flat leg on the fuselage skin. Hopefully, I run into no problems down the road with that curvature. I figure if I do, then there is always JB Weld available to fill it in.

Rick Caldwell
Xenos 0057