propbuster

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Guys, I'm going to reproduce an old fiberglass fuselage Curare kit and will be starting with an old Quality Line Kits glass fuse for the mold plug. Anyone interested in a build thread as I go along with the project? Prop

dreadnaut

My Feedback: (5)

Of course.

Go for it!

bruce88123

Yeah, should be very interesting. Always liked the Curare.

dreadnaut

My Feedback: (5)

Here is something I have tried, and it works pretty well. The down side is that it can be a little labor intensive to get it just right*. Instead of making the hole in the parting board a little over size and filling the gap with clay, I try to get the plug to fit to the hole with no gaps. I have done this with wheel pants, but nothing as large as a fuse.

I also use dry-erase marker board for the parting board. Last I checked, a 4'x8' sheet is $10-$15 at HD-Lowes. The attached illustration shows how I mark the cutout in the parting board. Cut the hole about 1/16'' undersize and use a dremel and a file to fit the plug into it.

*It took me about an hour to fit a wheel pant from an Goldberg Ultimate.

propbuster

My Feedback: (1)

dreadnaut, The fuselage is starting to come apart at the seam at the top of the vertical stab and I'm almost thinking of cutting the whole thing down the middle and then securing each half to a piece of masonite. Thus eliminating the whole clay filler deal on the parting board. I can also put the alignment pins right on the masonite before laying up the mold halves. Here's the fuse after some 150 grit and a couple of hrs. Removing the old paint has revealed some old patches and small stress cracks which I'll take note of for when inside bracing/bulkheading comes into play.

RRW_SOAR

Keep it coming propbuster...

Hey dreadnaut, nice trick to draw an outline, thank you very much.

Warm regards.