Upper Wings #2

Our final Fall camping trip

We have been having phenomenal weather this Fall, so we had to play hooky on the LP project and do one more camping trip.  Our daughter Melanie and her boyfriend joined us.  We had a great time!

Mark busy on the grinder

What little work I have gotten done has been on the fittings.  There are about double the fittings on the upper wings, so it's a major undertaking.  It will probably be a couple of weeks until they are all done.  My friend Mark, who's been a lot of help on this project, even gave up his day off - Columbus Day - to help with them.

Wing attach fittings

I started with the fittings that attach the two upper wing halves together.  Not difficult, just a lot of cutting and careful bending.  These are all made from .100" 4130. 

Upper wing strut fitting

I believe I mentioned in other posts that most of the upper wing fittings survived although not in great condition as seen with this one.  According to Andy, the wings were stored outside and a prairie fire destroyed portions of them as seen on this charred piece of rear spar.




Back to the shop tomorrow and starting on the cabane and interplane strut fittings.  Last Friday, my friend Mark and I drove my engine parts to Hart's Machine Shop in Ohio.  They will be doing all the babbitt work on the main and rod bearings.  Have not used this shop before, but left with a good feeling about them.  Several gray-haired employees with lots of antique engine experience.  A busy shop with a 6 month lead time!

Upper Wings #1

Bottom wings are done.  Aluminum on leading edge
is just there to distribute the weight while in storage

With the bottom wings done and stored in wing stands, I'm getting a good start on the upper wings.  After doing the lower ones, it's in many ways like starting all over again.  All the fittings are different, and no wing walk area at the root of the wings.  Fortunately, the ribs, internal bracing, wing tip bow and ailerons are the same as the lower wings.

What's left of original upper RH wing

More of the upper wings survived the years of storage.  This makes for a little less engineering involved in figuring out angles of struts and wires.  Most of the fittings survived too, which will be useful as patterns.

Spars with rib locations marked

The spars for all the wings were made at the same time, so the first step was to lay out all the rib locations. Andy and Dennis finished all the ribs, therefore it's just a matter of gluing on the triangular glue blocks and attaching them in their proper locations.  But first, I need to make all the fittings and brackets to properly locate them on the spars.

Original cabane and wire fittings

Here's what I have for original brackets.  These will be useful for patterns, but that's it - none are useable.  All will be made from .100" 4130.  On some, it was fairly easy to flatten them out.  On others, I'll just take dimensions to duplicate them.

These are the fittings that attach the two wing panels
together in the middle (there is no center section)

It can't be all work and no play.  We've had great weather this fall, and the leaves are just about at their peak colors, so we took the mighty Funk out for some sightseeing.

Nickel Plating on the OX-5

As I've mentioned in previous posts, all the steel components, including most of the hardware on the OX-5 was nickel plated.  The aluminum parts, i.e. crankcase, sump, intake tubes, etc. were left natural aluminum.  Makes for a beautiful engine when properly done.

Research indicates the original process used was Watts nickel plating.  This particular method of plating was developed in 1916 by Oliver Watts.  Makes sense, as these engines were built just a few short years after that date.  The Watts nickel plating bath uses:

• nickel chloride
• nickel sulfate
• boric acid

Plated parts look very different from what most people think of with nickel plating.  The parts have a very dull, silvery, gray look to them.  

The Watts nickel bath is still very popular today for nickel plating, but with the addition of brighteners and other additives.  This gives the nickel its characteristic shiny, chrome-like appearance which most people want.  Unfortunately, not too many platers even offer the basic Watts process anymore as it is just not very desirable.

Armed with all this information, I prepared a cylinder to take to my plater (that is only about 15 miles from my house!)  I explained to him the original process was Watts nickel and his reply was - "I can do Watts."  He said he uses the original Watts process on aluminum parts that will be chrome plated.  The nickel apparently provides a better base for the chrome.  He said he normally does not like to do steel parts in this bath as it will contaminate it, but agreed to do my parts.  I was jumping for joy inside - here's a plater, only 15 miles from my house, doing a very old plating process that very few shops do anymore.  Some things just seem to work out nicely!

Here are some shots of the final product.  I have OX-5 parts that still have the original plating and these are a perfect match.  So now I need to get the other cylinders and parts ready for plating.  My plater wants to do all the parts at the same time to reduce contamination of his nickel bath.  

I'm also starting on valve guide re-work.  I'm preparing tooling and fixtures and will put in a detailed post once I have things figured out.  In the meantime, I've got a good start on the LH upper wing and will put in a post soon.

October 3rd Update

The lower LH wing is done - fully assembled, trammed and varnished!!  So now it's on to the top wings.  Once I start, I'll post more photos since the construction will be a little different.  The upper wings have no center section, they simply bolt together in the middle.  Andy and Dennis are busy making all the ribs - they are a great help and time-saver!

Crankshaft mounted in Magnaflux machine

 I got a little more accomplished on the OX-5... I was finally able to Magnaflux the crankshaft, cam, and connecting rods.  Everything came out good.  That being done, in 2 weeks I'm taking parts to my babbitt guy for the bearing work.

Re-wound Berling magneto coil

I sent out the coil/armature from the Berling magneto several months ago and just got it back.  The original coil looked fine, and even tested good, but I was told it probably would not have lasted long.  I am glad I decided to get it re-wound.  A new condenser was installed too.  Final assembly will be a good winter project.

My nickel plater has the cylinder done he wanted to experiment with.  I'll pick it up next week, put in a photo and talk about it in my next post.