Fuselage Jig (oz16421)

About this Plan

Fuselage Jig.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Quote: "Fuselage Jig. You know all those fuselages you carefully built only to discover they looked like a banana, that brought naughty words to your lips? There is a cure for that, and the best part is the cure is free or darned close to it. If you build Guillow type models with rounded fuselages using bulkhead and stringer construction, you need a fuselage jig.

To make the jig you will need five, five-gallon sized paint stirring sticks, generally available free for the asking at paint and home improvement stores. These sticks measure approximately 1/4 x 1-3/8 x 21 inches. Minor size variation will not matter as long as all four sticks are the same size. If you build larger models you might want to use yard or meter sticks along with the paint stirring sticks. You will probably have to pay for the yard/meter sticks. You will need 2 long pieces, 2 six-inch pieces and 8 three-inch pieces.

TOOLS NEEDED: square, Zona or coping saw, pencil, ruler.

I cut my sticks off at 18 inches and 6 inches. The butt joints are reinforced with 3 inch pieces of stick. Other 3 inch pieces are used for the legs. I cut a notch in the legs and the long pieces to fit them together. It will help if you make sure everything is square.

IN USE: cut some 1/8 x 8 inch sacrificial Balsa strips. Since it will only get used once and then destroyed, use the gnarly stuff you didn’t know what else to do with.

Using a side view of your fuselage, mark and glue the 1/8 strips in place to support the fuselage bulkheads in position. Note the position of each bulkhead along the strip and spot glue the bulkhead to the 1/8 strip with the center line aligned with the top edge of those 1/8 inch strips. If your model has top and bottom keels, lightly glue them in place on the 1/8 Balsa strips first, before the bulkheads. You will want to release this joint later, so be sparing with the glue.

Install the stringers on alternate sides of the bulkheads. When the glue has dried, cut the 1/8 strips away from the fuselage jig and carefully remove them from the bulkheads. Sand the remaining bits of 1/8 Balsa away from the frame and you are ready for next time.

Sight down your fuselage. Smile at how straight it is!

There is an excellent YouTube video that shows a fuselage jig in use: https://youtu.be/4hJpafuvz5w" [see pic 004 on this page for a screengrab from that video].

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