Carlson Skunk Works

The Skunkworks has moved to Kansas City for this week. I am setup at a Marriott Courtyard near the airport. The primary reason for being here is to attend a class for work, but since I have some long evenings available, I have taken the opportunity to cut gussets from the plywood that I have available. So far things are going quite well and I should have enough gussets ready to allow construction of the ribs to begin once I get back home.

Last Saturday I cut the sheet of 1mm plywood into strips. This week I have been cutting the strips into gussets. There are two main sizes of strips to be cut for the gussets; 105mm and 40mm. The 105mm wide strips need to be cut cross grain and are used for the nose and tail gussets. All of the other strips should be cut with the grain.

I took a walk yesterday at Lowe’s and found a clamp that I had never seen before. It is a 2 inch plastic hand clamp that has a locking mechanism that is very easy to use. There are softer plastic pads on the tips of the jaws that keep from marring the material being clamped. At $5 each I thought they were a bargain, so I purchased two of them.