February 20, 2019

Mike has been forming turnbuckles. He reports, "Halfway home with the turnbuckles. Was not able to source 1/2" .063 4130, so I'm milling down 5/8" strips. This is tedious. Many thanks to Ian for his very helpful how-to for the turnbuckles. One variation that's working well for me, and perhaps would work for others who don't have access to a lathe: Instead of turning down a hex rod to form the bending jig, I simply screwed a 3/8" bolt tightly into a hardware store-bought hex coupler, then cut off the bolt head and drilled and tapped the shank as Ian suggests (in my case for a number 8-32 caphead screw)."

February 13, 2019

Mike has been busy building ribs. As shown below, he has been using his table saw to cut the leading edge notches with a dado blade. He also has a Rotec R2800 that has been overhauled and is just waiting for a place to mount.