box car

sure setup an old man for the kill, its not the first time I have been had

have a nice one
Ken

LesUyeda

I hope this uploaded:-)))

Les

p.s., Apparently it did.

jwrich

My Feedback: (17)

Thanks for posting this, I have it somewhere. I saved the PDF file this time.

Thanks
Rich

SunDevilPilot

Mating the wings to the fuselage has begun. Balsa USA calls for the front of the lower wing to secure to the fuselage via a dowel. While not ideal I saw no reason to reengineer the mounting method.

In the photo the wooden dowel is in the process of being glued into the wing. Once the glue dries I will add a wooden block to the top side of the dowel locking it into the wing. Again, this is somewhat a strange method of doing it but why not.

After the dowel is done I will install the rear wing bolts. Balsa USA calls for you to drill and tap the wooden blocks already installed in the fuselage but I will modify this to include some metal blind nuts.

Starting to look like a plane!

SunDevilPilot

SunDevilPilot

Tiny modification to the forward dowel. The instructions tell you to use a tapered balsa block to cap off the dowel and secure it to the wing. Weight gain being minimal I went with a plywood block to box in the dowel. First I drilled a hole through the block with the drill press then tapered it on the spindle sander to match the curvature of the wing. Fits perfect and seems plenty strong.

Visible in the photo is the completed dowel and the piece of balsa provided by Balsa USA intended for dowel.

I feel a lot better about the structure of the mount after the modification.

knucklebutt

I'd have gone for the ply as well: Question:: is that ply piece glued to the leading edge sheeting or is that area solid ???


Denis

SunDevilPilot

The double center rib had a notch in it to receive the dowel, which goes into the wing up to the spar. The block on top extends from the solid leading edge to the area where the sheeting attaches to the spar. It feels plenty strong now but believe me, I was skeptical going into the process.

Per the plans, and even after my minor mod, the dowel relies greatly on the sheeting.

Balsa USA definitely goes with the minimalistic approach to construction.

Phil

SunDevilPilot

Oops, quoted myself!

box car

engineer's goal of "Doing more with less", is the minimalistic approach

LesUyeda

"Thanks for posting this, "

If you were talking to me, your welcome.

Les

SunDevilPilot

Today I got the lower wing bolts installed. First I drilled the wings (That was scary). Then I put the wings on the fuselage, checked the alignment with a string from the tail to each wing tip. Then I marked and drilled the holes onto the fuselage wing blocks. These holes were drilled slightly oversized allowing me to do some final adjustment.

At that point I made some tapered blocks with blind-nuts installed. The taper countered the taper on the top side of the wings allowing the bolts to enter straight. Once these were ready I reinstalled the wing, put one bolt and block in dry.... Glued up the second block and tightened it down locking the wing in place. Alignment was checked then the second block was removed, glued, and reinstalled. One final check of alignment and the plane was left to dry.

Per Balsa USA you should drill and tap the wooden block, I didn't like the idea of that. Will their method work, sure, but I like the idea of a blind-nut.

Simple!

After the bolts block glue hardens I will remove the wing. Next I plan on inlaying some ply into the wing in the area of the bolts heads. The balsa sheeting around the bolt heads will likely crush over time when the bolts are tightened. Simple modification.

SunDevilPilot

blazer293

SDP whats going on with the n28? I haven't seen any new posts in a while.[]

SunDevilPilot

I'm a little outta sync with my new work schedule but I have done a little work behind the scenes. I made the jig for installing the upper wing which, fingers crossed, will get used this coming week. It is not forgotten, just temporarily slowed.

SunDevilPilot

SunDevilPilot

New skill alert!

Today I soldered up the center cabanes. I started off using my butane torch to get the wing bolt brackets installed. This worked really good getting the solder to flow but it really burned up the jig. Not wanting to burn up the fuselage I switched to my solder iron for the cross brace wires.

Once I learned to tack the copper wire to the cabanes, install the cross wire, then wrap the copper wire around the joint it all went smoothly. First I was just trying to wrap the copper around the joint but I needed a third hand for that method.

The solder iron, a Weller Pencil type with a broad tip installed, worked really well at heating the joints. Iron was set at 700 degrees.

For solder I used the Bernzomatic "Metal Work" solder which has some silver in it. This stuff worked great!

Alignment came out perfect!

**** Photos to follow, 500 - Server Error ****

SunDevilPilot

SunDevilPilot

Still can't post photos... Considering moving this thread to RC Groups....

SunDevilPilot

SunDevilPilot

I decided to move the thread... Really frustrating trying to post pictures and getting server failures. Been going on a long time on RCU.

I didnt want to take the liberty of moving all your comments to a different board so, unfortunately, some of the good discussion content was lost in the move.

I hope you will all subscribe and continue to provide input into the new thread located here:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1842442

SunDevilPilot

SunDevilPilot

Just a small update.... I have been posting on RC Groups and the forum use is much improved compared to RCU. However, everyone at RC Groups is foreign to my builds so I plan on posting some minor details as I progress with the build here too.

Interplane Struts Done.

SunDevilPilot

LesUyeda

Looks like you got the soldering down pat.

Les

SunDevilPilot

I've been neglecting the Nieuport build. Been flying a lot and playing with some new tools. I'm still learning the lathe but I recently got a mill too. Metal working is a lot of fun.

Who doesn't need a T6 billet aluminum screw tray?

Today I acutally did some woodworking on the Nieuport. On goes the belly pan.

Once that is complete the gear gets addressed, then onto the tail.

SunDevilPilot

SunDevilPilot

Mark Thomas

Just finished gluing on the windshield and machine guns. Hopefully I will be able to do intial balancing, this weekend, to find out how much lead and where to put it. With the DLE 30 sticking out further than it should I am thinking it might be nose heavy which would be a major suprise as any body who builds this type of plane always has to add nose weight.

SunDevilPilot

Finished up the center sheeting on the top wing. This was left off until the wing was mounted so I could get inside the wing to install the blind nuts.

And... the gear is soldered up. Couldnt resist popping the wheels on and seeing what she is looking like.

(The bags will come off before flight!)

SunDevilPilot

malitape

My Feedback: (213)

But if you keep the bags on, and it rains, the wheels won't get wet, no?

SunDevilPilot

Im getting the tail prepped for installation onto the fuselage this weekend. So far I have made the hard-points for the tail brace wires. The plans call for just holes in the balsa but I didn't want to do it that way. I figured the balsa would just crush when the tail brace wires are bolted together.

So, I drilled 1/4" holes at the attachment points on the rudder and elevator and installed some 1/4 hard-points I made out of red oak on the lathe (Just had the wood sitting around). You can see the bit of red oak I made the hard-points out of.

I could have gone to the store to get some hardwood dowels but why to that when I have a wood lathe!

Next I need to hinge the surfaces and start thinking about where to attach the control horns. Hinges will be the smaller Robart hinges.

(No photos for now, Server 500 Error)

SunDevilPilot

planedriver_2

Sundevil,
Remember the conversation we had way back about the incidence on the tail section....... Please go back and find it. I not the worlds leading experty but my airplane needed to be modified after it was built to change the tail incidence to make it fly properly....It really helped a ton. This was and is still a Top Gun quality flyer and it shows since the change was made. I believe i posted the numbers for you or e mailed them.... Hope this is all for not and you haven't bonded the tail feathers on yet ........Good luck
Plane