Airplane restoration guy

[Mark79]

Hi all - I found your site searching info about shaping aluminum. Read the whole thread about scratchbuilding an art deco roadster. It really grabbed my attention. I'm restoring an alum airplane, but found many ideas that carry over. The whole mentality of the car building community is very much like that of aircraft homebuilders and restorers. No one asks WHY do you want to invest so much time into designing and making that thing or why that panel has to be perfect! It's all about sharing ideas on how to do it, what looks good, works good, and constructive solutions. I look forward to reading more forums.

I'm about to buy an English wheel and maybe a planishing hammer. I need to form complex fairings and a tailcone for an experimental 1951 Super Chipmunk. It's highly modified. I'm pretty good at bending and riveting 2024 T3: successfully made a new turtleback, tapered fin leading edge and hand formed a windscreen fairing (from 2024-0 using mostly a slapper and a wood buck I built). But my forming skills are very limited. The tail fairings are complex, with some mild reverse curves and lots of little bumps to fair over bellcranks and such. I bought some 6061T4 .025, 6061-0 .020, and 7075-0 .025. Will experiment with which works best. The current fairings are dead soft and formable with your fingers! They have lots of little dents and tears. I know I don't want that, unless I can get them smooth and they work harden so they stay smooth and don't crack.

I may be able to save the original tailcone which is a little harder alloy, but it's very beat up. Anneal and planish?

I like this kind of work and look forward to new tools and skills. I've looked at the Harbor Freight wheel and planishing hammer, but the prices are so low compared to the professional stuff I wonder if they've give me a good result. Went on the hunt for a used Mittler Bros 24" planishing hammer based on watching Youtube videos, but have not found one. I'd appreciate help with what equipment would be the best value - will search the threads to see what people have already posted. This is my first restoration but I expect there will others so don't want to buy single-use equipment...may try to ease into a third career as a semi-full time restorer. Many old airplanes have LOTS of complex metal shaping!

I'm in Annapolis, MD. I'll be glad to provide pics of the airplane if anyone's interested (I can figure out how to do it). Thanks! Mark

[Joe Hartson]

Mark, welcome and thanks for the introduction. Hope you find the site enjoyable and helpful. Thanks for joining us.

6061 and 7075 are structural alloys they bend but don't shape well. You might want to try 3003 alloy, it shapes well and will work harden. The 2024 is not a weldable alloy.

[Peter Tommasini]

HI Mark welcome to the forum
Peter

[HEATNBEAT]

Hi Mark and welcome !

[Mark79]

Thanks all. Do you have any recommendations on a wheel and planishing hammer?