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Date:  4-16-2009
Number of Hours:  2.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Pulling parts off the parting boards

Bill Scheunemann's wing kit is spectacular. Have I said that enough? Don't worry - I'll probably say it again. The spars, leading edges, wing tip bows, etc. are all cut to finished dimensions. the gussets, nose ribs, spar doublers, and all other 1/16" or 1/4" ply parts are all CNC cut. He staples 2-4 layers of ply onto a sacrificial parting board made of chip board. When I opened the box, I saw hundreds of parts, perfectly layed out and like parts of EXACTLY the same dimensions. I was pleased. Now to get them off the boards... I really didn't want to damage Bill's beautiful parts by being a bonehead as I removed the bits.

The technique is simple and involves a window glazing tool and a large pair of slip jaw plyers or vice grips. I started with the vice grips but moved on to the slip jaw plyers. Thank god for learning curves!

You slide the glazing tool under the edge of a stack of gussets, pry gently, and pop it off the board. Then use the plyers to pull the nails out. When you put the plyers on the nail, get as close to the board (or gussets if the nails stayed in the gusset) as possible, then roll the plyers (on the rounded back side of the plyers) across the wood and pull the nail out.

Vicky (pictured below) proved to be much better and pulling the gussets off the boards than I was. She was a great help. Then she talked one of her students, Greg, into helping her and the two of them made huge progress. In fact, the two of them removed 95% of the parts of the boards.

For a total of 4 man (and woman) hours of labor, we now have over a thousand gussets that are perfectly shaped and ready to be used on the ribs. We also have hundreds of other parts ready to use.

Bill always has multiple layers of either 1/16" mahogony ply or 1/4" aircraft ply layered on the parting board. So in the third photo you'll see me popping a couple of aileron nose ribs off the parting board.

1,600 gussets to go.
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Vicky and a parting board partially cleared.

Vicky and a parting board partially cleared.

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Tools to make life easy.

Tools to make life easy.

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Prying a nose rib off.

Prying a nose rib off.

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