Carlson Skunk Works

January 22nd, 2009

AMF-14 Maranda SN:1026 Jan 22, 2009

Posted by Roger in AMF 14H Maranda SN1026, news

Well it has been quite a while since I last posted to my Maranda blog. Progress has been slow, but there has been progress. The main thing that got in the way was building a new dresser for my wife and myself. The one we had been using was bought at an unfinished furniture store well over thirty years ago. So it was time.

The dresser is made from white oak that was cut on my father’s farm in Minnesota. He has been cutting saw logs and having them made into lumber, then he stores them in some of his sheds to dry. So to give you a peek at my handiwork, here is a picture of the finished product.

Now on to the topic that you are really interested in; the Maranda.

As I mentioned on the Maranda list, I am getting ready to build my wing spars. Since I am building the 14-H model, the wings use built up spars. Built up spars require some type of table or jig on which to build them and since each one is about sixteen feet long, the kitchen table will not work. Therefore, I decided to build a special table just for making the spars on.

With a long time of consideration I came up with a way that I could build the table out of one sheet of plywood. Well, there are a few additional scraps of wood that will be incorporated, but for the most part it all comes out of a single sheet of ply.

Starting with a nice, clear sheet of 1/2 inch plywood, I cut two strips that are 11 1/4 inch wide and 8 feet long. This width was chosen because that is the widest that my table saw will cut. One of these days I will invest in table extentions, but that is what I have now. After these two strips were cut, I cut the remaining plywood into strips 4 inches wide by 8 feet long. In this picture you can see the strips laid out to show how they will be assembled.

To assemble these, I first laid two four inch strips end to end and laid a third four inch strip on top of them so that the third strip was half on each. Then I used one inch long sheetrock screws to fasten them together. I drove some of the screws from each side of the assembly.

Next I turned my attention to the top. The top is comprised of the two 11 1/4 inch strips fastened end to end. To fasten them together I scrounged around in my garage and came up with a piece of left over half inch plywood about six inches wide and two feet long. I marked a line along the center in both directions on both sides. Then I marked the center line of the long strips on the bottom for a bit over a foot on each one. These lines are used for alligning all of the parts. Then, with the top pieces laying bottom up on the floor, I screwed the small plywood board to them. Now there are only three pieces.

The next step was to set the four inch strips upright, place the top on them, and screw them together. I made sure the uprights were snug against the center patch, then measured the distance to the edge of the top. I addes 1/2 inch to the measurement and marked it on the top to show where to place the screws. This works for the four feet on each side of the center of the table.

The next step will be to get some more material to build some legs and a bit of reinforcement for the finished assembly. However, even at this stage it is quite solid and stiff.

That is how things are going at this point. Hopefully it won’t take so long to post my next update.