Hatz Biplane Association

I expect to finish building ribs about late March, so starting to think about my next parts order. Where did you buy your parts (spars, wires, tubes, brackets & hardware...did I miss anything)? BTW, took the EAA welding class last weekend; intense. I thank you in advance.

I bought the spars from Wicks and I was very pleased with the quality, rather a long lead time, about 6 weeks. I got the tubes for the compression struts and the .090 4130 from Aircraft Spruce. I later discovered that McMaster Carr carries 4130 and I got a 12" x 12" .125 from them for a few of the smaller brackets along with the PEM nuts and a tubing cutter.

The wood can be purchased from Wicks, A/C Spruce, etc. Some folks have gone to local/regional lumber suppliers and obtained spar material that meets the specs regarding grain, slope, knots, etc. I bought my tubing from Dillsburg Aero (now out of business) and any additional 4130 pieces from ACS. Hardware (nuts, bolts, washers, etc.) I bought from ACS. Not sure what you are referring to re: brackets... but the rest of the metal parts need to be fabricated.

McMaster-Carr carries the PEM nuts, but I ended up making my own since I was already making the threaded plugs for the compression tubes.

Drag/anti-drag wires will need to be fabricated unless you choose to have someone make them for you. These are not "off the shelf" parts.

All spruce spars were bought from Overall aircraft, Jeff Paulson....http://overallaircraftservices.com/
Plywood was purchased through Anderson International Trading for the spar doublers, leading edge skin, wing walk and full ribs etc. I found a local wood shop that had nice Ash wood already dried for laninating the tip bows. Jeff Shoemake constructed my compression tubes and all other tubing was purchased from Charlie at Dillsburg. All hardware and flat 4130 was purchased at Aircraft Spruce and a local shop with a water jet cut all the fittings. Drag/anti drag wires where purchased through Steen Aero Lab. If you decide to buy through Steen you may want to check to see if the group order being put together by Sam and Hans would also apply to these as well, could be a big savings if so.

Not sure what you are referring to re: brackets...

On page 6 the spar fitting lugs need to be .125 and some other small pieces. I didn't notice this when I cut all the .090 stuff but I was happy to discover that MacMaster Carr could supply small sheets of 4130 sheet. The company that I work for has an account with MacMaster and I could get it overnight with no shipping cost. They can't supply tubing over 6' but helpful in a pinch.