Longeron bending methods?

[Thermos]

Hi all,

I'm finally ready to bend the longerons. I've been reading and re-reading Vans' instructions and have a pretty good feel for the process (I think).

But I've also been watching the Orndorff RV-7 fuselage construction video and saw that George uses a different approach for bending - he clamps both longerons together and bends them at the same time, then bends them apart for the downward bend at the forward end. Seems to me that this might work a little better in keeping them from twisting. But I usually get in trouble when I stray too far from Vans' instructions and this is something that needs to get done right the first time.

Has anybody tried the Orndorff approach, have you all stuck with the tried-and-true, or has somebody tried a completely different approach?

Thanks,

Dave

[bruceh]

I just did this a couple of weeks ago. It is not that hard. Here is what I did.
I did both of the longerons together. I took a couple of pieces of wood (leftover cutouts
from the aileron/flap holding jig) which had a nice gentle radius and put
another piece of wood in between to provide enough gap for the clamped
together longerons to fit down between. I clamped this in my woodworking
vise, then used it to make the bends by hand pressure. Another block of
wood at one end to hold one side down helps here. I worked back and forth
over the bend area and checked it against the template until it got close.
You do have to work some of the twist out as you go, but clamping them
together keeps this to a minimum. The nice thing about this set up was the
ability to go back and forth between bending and checking without having to
reclamp anything. I didn't need to use the dead blow hammer much on the curve, but it did come in handy to make the downward bend.

[Spike]

The two best things I can say about the process is have patience, and really, if you do the whacking method, dont whack too hard. Its really not as difficult as you would think. Whacking too hard means you will have to undo the whack. Don't ask me how i know ....

[airguy]

I used the Orndorff method, worked like a charm.

[BSwayze]

Well, I know there are more elegant methods, but I used the caveman method on mine. That is, clamped them in the vice and beat the crap out of them with the hammer. Just like Vans says. They turned out great, too! The only bad thing that happened was that I actually broke my cheap vice. It's all on my website.

Let us know how it goes, okay?

[Thermos]

Thanks Bruce, and thanks everybody...I think I'm gonna at least clamp them together as I bend to keep the unwanted twisting to a minimum.

The bending and pounding starts tonight...stand by for more info!

Dave