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Shaping an aluminum engine cowling for a 1929 bi-plane
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0:01
all right it's Ray from Pro shaper
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Workshop in Charlton Massachusetts what
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you're looking at is not a big bra but a
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cowling for a
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1929 oneoff bip plane it was restored by
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marck who's from uh the Chicago area
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west of Chicago and uh he's been working
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on this project there a Total
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Restoration of this plane which was made
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in
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Delaware
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and it's been a a long
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haul he's done other jobs too he's not
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been working on this for eight years but
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this is one of the final pieces he had
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to do was to make this cowling that fits
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over
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ox5 uh V8 aircraft motor uh it's a
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Curtis ox5 it's a famous aircraft motor
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and it has U stagged heads on it and uh
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these is the this is the cowling that
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allows the Airstream to run over it and
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Mark designed this by using a wireform
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he watched my videos previously he had
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made a wood buck and tried an attempt at
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it and he didn't like the the other
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result so he used the wireform to
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wireform with plenty of clearance around
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all the cylinder heads and everything
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and this is the shape that evolved it
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form follows function and and this front
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has got some incredible reverse curves
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on it and Mark had never done anything
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like this before and he's learned the
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new the process that I taught them and
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these are two left and right side and
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um they're all shrunk into place
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essentially and he's done a superb job
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there is a stagger on the head there's a
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little asymmetry because one head's
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further forward than the other and then
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another another uh student John from
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Pennsylvania helped Mark with these
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front pieces here well actually the're
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the rear pieces and these have uh some
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really complex comp reverse curve
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complexity as well and these are going
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to need a little more attention but uh
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Mark is now uh up to speed on all the
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techniques to be able to make really
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complicated pieces like this so he's
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going back to his shop in
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Illinois and he's going to make this
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Center section which will be two pieces
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so all total there'll be six pieces in
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this
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cowling and uh he'll weld it together at
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his shop and I'll bring Mark in just for
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a second let him make a few comments
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Mark you want to come in and say he's
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been here eight days to do this and uh
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he he did I think quite an achievement
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in eight days so go ahead Mark um yeah
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so the eight days were really good at a
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lot of new techniques um shrinking
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aluminum was something that I didn't
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think to do I've done it on steel but um
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yeah pretty much the whole front of that
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is shrunk which and we didn't anal it as
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well either yeah it wasn't analed it's
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050 um
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50,000 3003 was what we used he go ahead
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so uh yeah so the uh there's really not
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any thin spots in it uh it's basically
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shrinking makes the metal thicker so uh
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it's pretty amazing um yeah started on
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this airplane uh for a customer about
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eight years ago as a as a fill in
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project for the shop and the last two
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years um worked on it pretty extensively
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so it was kind of a groundup restoration
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for a gentleman out in California that
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has a pretty big airplane collection and
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likes um the uh old airplanes to be
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looking like they did when they came out
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of the factory or when they were built
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back in the 20s and 30s so all my
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techniques are 20s and 30s type stuff so
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um yeah that's about it and you had to
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build the wings all brand new and the um
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I got a uh a Fus Lodge tubing I got an
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upper Wing that needed to be reworked
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and I had lower wings that were original
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and were in really bad shape and um uh
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they asked me to save as much of the
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wood as possible so I rebuilt the bottom
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WI
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um he gave me he gave me that those
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parts and he gave me three pictures and
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he said make it look like the picture so
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the airplane had flown and what's the
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manufacturer's name now the the uh Sano
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sarapin Sano okay built the airplane in
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about 1929 I think it was finished in
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1930 and he was a um he worked I believe
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for Curtis in the very beginning and
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then he was a an engineer for Blanka and
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he built the airplane and he was going
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to certify the airplane and never did um
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1929 with the depression and all that
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stuff I think everything just kind of
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fell apart so it was a oneoff
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airplane and when he um he built it with
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the with the ox5 and then it was
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modified to a u Continental a radial
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engine for a little while and then it
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kind of
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disappeared
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and excuse me got highly ified uh it had
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a uh spring landing gear on it it had a
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160 or 145 or 165 Warner which is a
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radial engine more modern engine uh
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modern from the 40s um and it flew all
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the way into the mid
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1980s and when uh the customer that I'm
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working for um bought it he wanted to
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put it back to the original ox5 1929
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configuration so that's what I ended up
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doing
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and it's been a really interesting
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project too um there's just so many
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aspects to it yeah it's I I built the
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whole airplane off of the three pictures
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that he gave me yeah and did did you
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have to replace most of the fuselage too
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which is no the fuselage was in really
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good shape the only thing I had to
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replace was a little bit of tubing in
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the tail the tail post okay and a couple
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of luns in the back um and the Fus the
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Fus Lodge was in really good shape but
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there was another inside the fuse Sledge
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there were no seats scoreboards controls
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all that kind of stuff so I had to
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fabricate all that stuff from the
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picture that he sent me fortunately the
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one of the pictures was um the airplane
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completely uncovered so I could see what
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was inside the airplane and I scaled
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everything off that picture and built
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the parts for it okay now in the in the
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future if you have to do something like
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this you feel that you have now got the
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skills that you can tackle just about
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anything I would believe right I yeah I
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mean a lot more than I did eight eight
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days ago um I still you know have to
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think through the process but I have a
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really good background now and
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understanding of you got to internalize
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it yeah yeah kind of stand back and look
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at it but U yeah one of the big things
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on this calling was I think I probably
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could have done it on my own I would
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have made a lot of scrap and um so
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that's why I've been watching race
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videos for a long time and I wanted to
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come out there and I thought this would
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be the perfect project for it to um you
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know build up my skill set and it seemed
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to work because uh it's pretty amazing
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how all this stuff came out yeah and
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this was the first wire form you've ever
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made this was the first wire form yeah
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and that was a big eye opener right back
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it was uh and what I did was uh I I
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built the perimeter
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structure um on the airplane so just the
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perimeter and then these shapes here um
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so I could clear all the cylinders and
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clear all the internal parts and then to
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get this shape and the back shape I
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couldn't quite visualize how it was
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going to look so I put foam in there uh
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foam core from I bought it from Home
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Depot uh I hot glued it together in
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sections and formed it with u a saw and
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uh and a die grinder and that was just
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to give you the visual to give me the
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shape and then the wires that I made for
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the front of this came off of the off
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yeah we'll show that styrofoam over here
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he made one for the back and one for the
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front so this is the way he worked out
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the actual surface
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flows and then took the uh bent the
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wires as you can see he's got like
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stations there and he made templates and
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bent the wires to all the templates off
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of that want take just
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off there's the wireform and uh we uh
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strengthened up the wire form quite a
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bit and put some legs on it we're
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running adjustable height table here so
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it was really user friendly and one of
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the best things about the wire form is
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you can actually see how the panels are
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fitting and uh you can't do that with
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the one of the Wood Station bucks which
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are it seems that everybody makes Wood
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Station bucks and the wireform is the
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way to go if you haven't tried making a
9:35
wire form make a wire for I think I've
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got a sold customer in Mark he'll be
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doing it again I'm sure so I think
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that's all for today thanks for
9:48
watching uh this is that's mark saying
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goodbye and Ray from Pro shaper
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Workshop see you soon thank you
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bye good deal
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