Today I had some school work to take care of so I didn't get much done on my project. I know that I need to get my Master's degree finished up in the next couple years, so I am going to make sure I dedicate enough time to that. I did, however, take some time to build a rib-straightening tool. I'd seen this on Van's Air Force and after trying to straighten a few ribs by hand, I decided it would be worth my time to build one of these now. The flanges of the ribs come out of the manufacturing process being a bit off from the 90 degree angle to the web which they have to be. So it's up to the builder to bend these flanges to the 90 degree angle. This tool makes doing that very quick, easy and accurate. I used some hard wood and cut an 11 degree angle in the wood, as suggested by some other builders on the Van's Air Force forums. This allows me to straighten the flange while still allowing for some spring-back that happens in the metal.
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| Side view of the rib-straightening tool |
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| Another view of the tool |
I was pretty happy with how the tool came out, though there are a couple improvements I plan to make to it at some point in the future. I misdrilled one of the holes for the bolt that attaches the steel to the handle, so the handle is offset a bit. No biggy for now... I used it to straighten all of my empennage ribs after I finished it and they came out great.
