Airplanes & Sewer Clamps

To All:

I recently mentioned laminating the bow of a rudder using 'sewer clamps.'
(See: 'Whittle Your Own Airplane.')

Standard stuff if you're building a wooden airplane. Wooden strips, eighth
inch thick, slathered with glue, bent around some nails or form-blocks
protected by waxed paper, clamped together and to the form blocks.

SOP for making the curvey bits. Wing tips. Elevator. Rudder. Turtle deck
bows. Lotsa curvey bits on a wooden airplane which is why making such bows is
common stuff.

Including the use of sewer clamps, which are nothing more than a 10' length of
4" diameter plastic soil pipe sliced into pieces three-quarters of an inch
wide. After the slicing comes the slitting then cleaning off the furze. You
end up with a ring of tough plastic, slit at some point so you can pry it open,
clamp it onto things.

Bandaw is the weapon of choice. Takes mebbe half an hour to make yourself
about 150 clamps. Like a politician, sewer pipe clamps are cheap, easy and
common :-)

But obviously not as common as I thought. I've since received half a dozen
queries wanting to know whathell a sewer clamp is.

Nowyahno :-)

Sewer clamps come in several sizes & flavors. Little ones, you make outta PVC
water pipe, use them for making little stuff like ribs. Big ones you make
outta BIG pipe, ABS, PVC or even fiberglas. You can even make yourself a pair
of Sewer Clamp Pliers, allowing you to open and set the clamp with one hand.

Need more pressure? Slice it thicker. Need more reach? Find a bigger pipe.

Building on the Cheap, you can't just throw money at a probelm, you have to
outwit that sucker. Sewer pipe clamps are a nice example of outwitability :-)

-R.S.Hoover