PT-17 new build

[trvlntxn3]

Hello all, I am building a PT 17 and I’m having issues separating the parts from the balsa I’ve tried sanding and using X-Acto knife my major problem is that I have Parkinson’s so it makes it very difficult to cut out the pieces. Is there anyway to get the parts laser cut?

[MikeCallender]

trvintxn3
I, too, had a hard time getting the parts out, so you are not alone. I used a very small file after I cut the parts out. A user named "heywoood" seems to know what he is doing sent photos of his PT-17 Build via another website. His advice was to not over think it, notches dont need to be perfect, on sufficient. My kind of advice! Good luck, so far it seems like a pretty big project.

Michael

[trvlntxn3]

Thanks! Yes I definitely have to slow down and take my time. Found some great ideas on the forum and I cannot wait to try out!

[trvlntxn3]

Ok starting on wings. Plans Say, pin to plan and cement all E and G Parts Pin leading edges into position do not cement these parts at the dihedral joints at this time, what are the Dihedral joints? Second question when setting up the dihedral for the wings is it only the bottom wing that has dihedral?

[heywooood]

Yes - the top wing of the Stearman is FLAT - no dihedral.
The lower wing has dihedral but the wing is assembled with a center section - the center section is FLAT because it passes under the fuselage. The dihedral occurs at the wing root ( the base of the wing where it meets the fuselage sides. Therefore the dihedral is from the root of each wing panel (left wing / right wing) where they join to the wing center section. The plan is telling you not to cement the stringers to the wing ribs AT THE WING ROOT CONNECTION where they join to the center section. So those stringers (the center section stringers and the left/right wing panel stringers are ONLY cemented to the other ribs but NOT to the ribs that are at each side of the center section. This is so that when all other connections are set and you can unpin the two outer wing panels, leaving the center section PINNED DOWN, you can lift the wingtip of each panel the 1/2” or so - place an object underneath ( I use 1/2” wood dowel under each wingtip at the first rib in from the wingtip) to set the dihedral - THEN glue all the stringers to the center section wing panel connections to secure that dihedral. I hope this is clear it was a shirtload of typing

[trvlntxn3]

Thanks heywooood! Yes this helps so much. That was definitely a shirtload of typing thank you again. Joining this forum has been incredibly helpful.

[heywooood]

Ok thanks - also please double check the height of the wingtips as shown on the plan because I do not recall the actual scale dihedral for this model. I was using 1/2” as an example. I use two 5” long sections of 1/2” diameter dowel ( one for each wing panel) on all my builds because they can be used for any dihedral - you just set them closer to the wing root the higher you need the wingtips to be. Just set them equally distant from their respective wingtips by measuring or using the ribs as reference.

[trvlntxn3]

Thanks! Working on wings now.