Hatz Biplane Association

To me, shaping tip bows is the #1 pain in the rear when building wings. I used a block plane, surform tool, rasps, super-coarse sanding blocks and muscle to get two of them done. A couple weeks ago I was watching an episode of"How It's Made" on TV with segment shot at the WACO factory about building new biplanes. Here I saw a woodworker building wings for a YMF using a spokeshave to shape the tip bows. Looked good to me. I bought an old English-made Record spokeshave on Ebay and I'm here to post that a spokeshave is THE tool for the job.

I used my hand held belt sander with coarse paper which worked well. Just a matter of taking my time and shaping to a shape pleasing to the eye.

Any one consider using tubing for the tip bows? Other designs do and I am thinking about it but I can't find any of the past postings or back issues where it has been done. Any one have any thoughts? Would it add weight or save weight. I am thinking thin walled(.025) 4130 and maybe 5/8 dia. Do the tip bows actually add structurally to the wing? As a metalworker it looks like a lot of work to make them out of wood.
Thanks
Dan

I have heard of guys using tubing, but you just don't get the same smell when you're working with metal! I used pine from a local lumber yard. They allowed me to pick through their straight grain yellow pine for the best wood. Made my stringers outta these also.

Good article on forming tip bows in the latest EAA Vintage magazine. Covers the layup process. The artistic part includes comments about the unde-rcamber necessary for the particular project that was the subject of the reconstruction