Spent several hours attempting to correct the bend of the three skylight ribs, per text manual.
Apparently I do not have the correct tools or techniques.
How does the factory match the airfoil shape? If the factory can’t do it, how can “Joe-bag-o-donuts” like me do it? 😂
Kit #34
We did it by making a bending jig from the airfoil shaped cutout left over from doing the wingtip gluing board.
Initially I tried the 12" radius speced on page 127, item 4 of the current online text manual. This probed to be too large of a radius to make any useful corrections.
I cut the front 9" or so off the airfoil shape scrap and mounted it to another piece of scrap a foot or so wide, and around two feet long. Then I mounted a holding block next to that to capture the end of the rib. I was able to relocate the capture block as needed to get a different radius for different areas of the rib.
I found that I had better luck working from the tail of the rib toward the nose, gave me better leverage.
When all is said and done, you will not get the very front to match. I spoke with Randy about this, and he said it was normal.
Would like to put up a photo of the bending jig, but have not had any luck with trying to do so. I can send you one via email if you want. mjstarkey 4 8 at gmail dot com
One more thing, IMHO this should be the #1 site for getting answers to Rans questions, but it seems to be almost totally unused. Rans Clan, and the F/B sites are helpful, but this forum should be the go to location ------ too bad your post went almost a full day without any factory reply.
Rant off.
@mjstarkey48 could not agree with you more.
Started with a setup similar to you but gave up.
Ended up getting help from a good friend and master aircraft mechanic. Also a metal Wizard. The ribs turned out well. Of course the right tools help also.
That’s Steve Pierce, Well known in the Fat Tire community as the Super Cub expert