Electrolight

I would like to build my first foamie. Here's the situation.

I have a design, the foam, a 2 channel remote w/reciever, 3 servos, and a battery.

I dont have a foam cutter, a motor or a prop.

I have never built any air plane. I was wondering if anyone had advice on what motor or prop size (Including which website I can buy it from) to use on the airplane (follow lnk below)

http://www.qnet.com/~skif/plane.html

I want to use ailrons (rather than rudder) and elevators. I will have the motor turn on (on full speed) when I turn the plane on and then I will throw and fly it. If anyone knows how to make a foam cutter and has pictures, a link, or a detailed description this would also help me. If you think I should use another desighn for a begginer post a link please.


So now you know what I have in mind it would be great If anyone has any ideas or input.

Thanks for any input!
Electrolight

calvino

I made a foam cutter out of a piece of wood, two bolts, a few nuts and a piece of .010" manel wire. Worked just fine. Power came from a 9V. 1 amp power supply. I would also check out the "free plane plan" by critterhunter, on the first pages you can see people who have made foam cutters and also went into more details about it. That plane design looks prety popular. That seems like a nice beginners plane.

Electrolight

Thanks! What kind of power supply though? A computer Power supply? And wire thats that thin? Where can I find that Will home depote have it?

calvino

I would try using a battery charger, or some other device capable of producing high amps at a reasonable voltage. By varying the distance between the clips on the wire, it would be very easy to vary the heat. The closer the clips the better as this will yield a nice clean cut with out ridges... For the wire, most people used fishing leader wire atached to large guage wire and then to a 2x4. That way, as the wire stretched out due to the heating process, it could be tightened. Also, like I said, check out critterhunters posts in this form, he has lots of valuable informaion as well as others.