All Rib Sections cut out

All the rib sections (minus a couple) for the tapered part of the v5 wing

Right before leaving for England for the BHPFC Rally, I got about 3/4 of the wing sections cut out for the tapered part of the v5 and v6 wings (outer panels).  The day I returned, July 3rd, I cut the rest of them out.  The pink foam (Foamular 150) are for the regular 6 mm wide ribs, and the white 1 pcf (pound per cubic foot) EPS foam is for the core of the hard ribs used on the ends of the wing sections, and in some mid positions where the cross bracing terminates.

We cut it on a larger industrial hot wire, and could fit 5 wing rib sections in one 40 X 48" X 2" wide sheet of foam.  For the outer wing sections, we cut the washout angle into the bottom of the shucks, and positioned the airfoils vertically in the shucks so that we should be able to use the bottom half of the shucks as alignment guides to build in the proper washout angle for the ribs.

We use a digital code on the undersurface of the wing rib, so that we can easily identify the ribs after they have been sliced off on the bandsaw (which will slice off any writing on the side of the rib section).  There is a start bit and stop bit, and the 5 bits in between for Rib 0 through 31.   (Rib 32 is identified by start bit only).

First of 5 wing ribs for this panel cut out, washout on shuck being cut

Pausing before the next cut to remove the first shuck

Cutting the first rib & shuck from the foam block to make room for the next cut

Clamping setup

Starting a cut on the white foam (for hard rib core)

Closeup showing rear doubler alignment marks, and digital rib code (rib 3)

Most of the ribs sections for the v5 wing, plus a few for v6

The Empty shucks, including hard ribs to the right