Templates for Fly Baby Parts
February 2009
Fly
Baby rib template by Marco Pinto (Color added)
The photocopier is one of the more ubiquitous items in the modern
world, but most folks don't know their dirty little secret: They
distort the images they copy.
For the most part, this distortion consists of a proportionate
enlargement or reduction of the item they're copying. In plain
English, the image is slightly bigger or smaller than the original.
This doesn't make much of a difference if you're copying page 293
of a physics textbook. It does make a difference if you're
making a copy of a template of a Fly Baby part!
Pete included a lot of templates in the plans, but he always included
the actual dimensions of the part the template represents. If you
slap a ruler on the template, you may well find that the template
dimensions aren't quite right.
This gets worse the larger the part. The largest part templates
in the plans are the ribs...and they can get quite far off.
Here's a picture Tim Roska took of one of the plans' rib templates laid
against Marco Pinto's CAD rib template. I've "colorized" the CAD
template equivalent of the plans template. Note how the plans
template is definitely smaller than it is supposed to be.
You should always check the
template dimensions prior to cutting out the part.
Several Fly Baby builders have drawn Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
templates of key Fly Baby parts, and have passed them to me for use by
others. If you follow
the special instructions below, you'll find that these will be a
lot more accurate than what is contained in the plans set. Plus,
you won't have to cut up your plans to make parts, since you can print
these on your own printer and just run another set if you botch the
part.
First off, let me establish a disclaimer, and give you the special instructions needed
to use these.
Disclaimer
These templates were not drawn by
professionals, nor have they been checked and verified to the degree an
aviation manufacturer would require. It is the responsibility of
the builder to check the dimensions of the templates prior to making
parts from them. No claim of suitability nor accuracy is made.
Special Instructions
There is a key factor that has to be considered when you print these
templates: Your computer printer may not necessarily print them
at the proper size.
Printers usually
automatically adjust the size of the printed image to match some
internal standard. If you allow your computer to do this, the
template will not be the proper dimensions.
Prior to printing, you need to either bypass this automatic
adjustment. You'll usually find it in the "Page Setup"
menu. You may have to then click the "Printer" button (and
probably the "Properities" button) to get to the page that lets you
adjust the print size.
The appearance of that page differs between printer brands. You
can see the adjustment page for my Epson printer on the right. I
have clicked the "Reduce/Enlarge Document" button, and set the
percentage to 100%.
If I hadn't done that...the printer prints at 97%, EVEN if the
"Reduce/Enlarge" control isn't checked.
Once the template prints out, check the dimensions. If it's too
small, you'll have to increase the percentage, and vice-versa.
The setting holds throughout your print session, so if you're printing
rib template sections, you shouldn't have to re-set this for each
page. UNLESS you exit, and re-start the program, of course.
Many of these templates require that you print multiple pages and tape
the results together. Index marks are provided to help you align
the pages.
Templates
The templates are all in Adobe Acrobat (e.g., .PDF) format.
Unless your computer really dates from the stone age, you should have
Acrobat Reader already.
Best approach is to RIGHT-click the links, then save the files
somewhere on your hard disk. If you do a normal left-click, it'll
probably open inside your web browser. Don't print it from the
web browser! But you'll probably be given the option to save it
to your disk at that point.
Wing Ribs
The wing ribs are the largest templates in the plans set, and the one
most vulnerable to dimension errors. Plus, in the most-recent
printing of the plans, the templates are actually reduced to fit on a
single 8x10 page rather than the 11x17 fold-out.
Marco Pinto's rib CAD files are great. They're for the main ribs
in the wing (ribs 3-11) and include the alterations for the false ribs
that only exist in front of the spars. On each page, he includes
a little map that shows where, on each rib, the template goes.
Here's a sample:
One thing you'll notice is that Marco providee a set of horizontal and
vertical indexes on each page, 10 centimeters apart. Check these
measurements to ensure that the drawings printed out the proper size,
then tape them together.
Now, I know
the plans are in English measurements. I'm as addicted to the
inch-foot -miles system as any American. But using 10 centimeters
as the index makes things a lot easier, because you won't have to do
any decimal conversions of fractions of inches to adjust your
printer. Say your ruler measures the 10cm index marks as 10.1 cm
apart. Your printer's printing large, so you need to set your
size percent to 10/10.1 or 99%. If the index marks were four
inches apart (for example), and you'd measured 4 3/32", you'd
have to convert that fraction first.
Marco generated two types of rib drawings. The first
outputs the ribs on standard 8.5x11 paper, and consists of six
files. I've packed them into a single ZIP file:
Standard Paper Rib Template
He generate the second on my request. Many printers can print on
what is called "Banner feed" paper...and endless string of
standard paper attached end-to-end with perforations between
sheets. He built this file based on using two banner sheets
(e.g., 8.5 x 22 inches). With this method, you only have one
taping to do (two separate banner sheets for the middle ribs).
You can buy banner paper at any office-supply store.
Banner-Paper Rib Template
Note that each of the two files above individually has all the
templates to build the entire rib. You don't need to download
both (though they're only about 200 kb in size).
Marco also drew up a layout showing where to drill
the ribs to clear the internal bracing wires.
Also, I generated a set of dimensioned Rib TIF
files. These depict all ribs and are packed into a single ZIP
file.
Combined Rib Templates
OK, this one ought to do you. This has FULL SIZE rib templates
for both the Monoplane and the Biplane, in Powerpoint format!
Save the Rib Powerpoint File to your own hard
disk by right-clicking it. Transfer it to a thumb drive and take
it to your nearest "Big Box" office store. You want them to print
this on ARCHITECTURE D paper (e.g., "ANSI D"), FROM POWERPOINT, and make sure that
no
re-scaling options are selected (some printer drivers automatically
re-scale drawings to fit the paper size...you want this turned off).
I emphasize "From Powerpoint," because my local shop recently printed
me a set that were mis-sized. When I spoke them them, they had
converted them to PDF to print. They thought it would scale the
same...it didn't.
Have them print the first page, then check that the squares are 1"
apart. If everything's good, print the last two pages.
Airfoil Shape in Excel
I've taken the airfoil ordinates that Pete included in the Sport
Aviation
articles and plotted them in an Excel
spreadsheet,
along with the stock 4412 airfoil.
Steel Parts
Ted Cannaday took the time to draw up layout
diagrams for the steel parts. These show how you could
arrange
all the 4130 steel parts of a Fly Baby on 4130 sheet to maximize
efficiency
when you cut them out. The file is 36 pages long, including
several pages of instructions at the start.
Within the PDF file are full-size layout drawings for all the .063”,
.093” and 3/16” fittings for the Fly Baby as shown in Pete Bowers’
plans book, along with one of the 1/4" parts. They are arranged to fit
the standard available sheets in sizes 9” x 18” and 9” x 9”, and
1¼” strips in the case of the 1/4" material. Since these sizes
cannot be printed on commonly available printers, each layout sheet is
divided up into two or three printed pages which should be ‘assembled’
before use. To this end, registration marks and dashed assembly lines
are provided at the 6” and 12” points, along with rulers along two
edges of each sheet and strip.
List of Materials
Materials List. An Excel
spreadsheet
with a stab at the total materials list for building a Fly Baby
Questions? Email Ron
Wanttaja
.
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