Would-be-builders, don't despair, it is not necessary to spend a lot of
money on saw blades or table saw. When I built my KR2 airframe in about
1974 I did not have a table saw. I built what amounted to a small box
out of particle board, screwed a used Skil circular saw to the inside of
what would become the top and plunged the blade through. The blade was a
7 1/4" Sears hollow ground cabinet blade (not a carbide blade). This
blade is very cheap, cuts a surface as smooth as a planer and you can rip
all of the spruce for a KR2 without sharpening (A few years later I used
the same blade in a table saw, without sharpening, to cut all of the rib
caps and fuselage material for a Pietenpol.) The fence was a straight
board clamped to the top. My taper sled was a straight board with a
block attached to each end. A nail was driven through the block and into
the end grain of the spar material. The result was a good glue surface
on a very accurately cut spar cap. You can spend a lot of time and money
on tooling that you only need once--better to spend both on the actual
construction of the airplane.
Dick Hartwig
Waunakee, WI
rhartwi...@juno.com
