brsseb

Im gonna cover the tail surfaces before gluing them. But is there some small tool or special tequique to counter this problem? If not, i guess the only thing is to go VERY slow and being carefull. I guess adding thin CA on the place of cutting afterwards might help in areas where the wood might be hurt. I guess trimming holes for gluing on the covering BEFORE ironing it on might work also, but be just as tricky to lign up properly.

waagbuck

My Feedback: (1)

a hot soldering iron works perfectly for this.

newbieT

I'd say follow the directions, the methods they say to cover those surfaces, but instead of doing it after they're glued, to it when they're not There's three things I can think of, 1 is the v.stab doubler cutout on both sides, 2 same...doubler on the h.stab cutouts and the bottom of the h.stab for gluing, 3 the notch and gluing of the top of the fuse for the v.stab. I'd bet you'd get great results covering the tail surfaces, and the top of the fuse and just cutting out what you need to glue. I had great difficulty not only with the tail surfaces, but also covering the top of the fuse around the v.stab and sides near where the h.stab hits the fuse...I would've done it differently had I known. Good luck!

brsseb

Barely got to test my newly ordered Dubro Hinge Tools before heading off for a holiday trip. Got the hinges on the stab and fin very nice. The elevator surface itself got a bend in it, so i guess ill have to soak it in something to avoid the "snap" it does right now.

Well, 2 weeks and am back to the workshop again. Missed it . Got some more small parts on the trip; 8oz tank, wheel collars, fueltube, more hinges, proper T-pins and an covering iron. No engine yet , though.





The wings was joined yesterday and are looking good. Its probably not the most strait wing in the history of kit bulding , but it looks ok from all angles. Feel nice and solid.



Last thing before starting sheeting was to glue the center forward and aft rib parts between the CJs. There are still some small gaps here and there in the join due to me not getting the ditheral angle perfectly sanded, but ill add some balsa filler and/or (?) epoxy/CA in the small gaps to counter any weakness in the joint.

Hehe, its pretty fun to build this kit. I can see why ppl got serious issues with ordering too many kits to built. Im already drooling over more of GreatPlanes kit...good thing im almost broke (and still one engine short).

carrellh

You're making great progress. I spent about 7 months building my PT-60. Any gaps at the wing joint should be filled with epoxy, not CA or wood filler. Some people run a layer of fiberglass cloth (bonded with epoxy) around the wing center for extra strength. My PT-60 didn't call for that and I didn't do it. I'm confident my wing is plenty strong. My instructor is a former pattern flyer and likes to use aerobatics as a teachig aid. By trying those maneuvers, as a beginner, the plane gets in lots of attitudes that require recovery and I think it helps. I fly around pretty well; so we've started concentrating on takeoffs and landings. Someday, I'll solo.

brsseb

Thanks. The kit comes with a small piece of fiber glass cloth to glue to the wing. Gonna add that. Got the wing all sheeted now, just got to slot hinges for the alierons and do some sanding on it and its done. Pics tomorrow.

ELTIGRE

some fiberglass on the wing center section is nearly always a good idea. you may think the wing is strong but the forces in a dive are considerable and can build up quickly. stress is also cumulative. as far as on the life of the structure. hinges- have you ever heard of monokote hinges? they do workand are fairlyeasy to install and if done properly will last the life of the plane. make 1-2 inch wide &as long as needed to overlap on to main surface & control. two pieces, tacked to each other adhesive sides together for 1/4 inch or so overlap in an open "s " shape. then attach to one surface , pull through gap, snugg tight & tack to control surface. also you want to be careful with slotting kits not to dig out more than is neccesary for the hinge to fit . before installing the CA type easy hinges , it would be a good idea to monokote the hinge line &overlap by about 1/8 inch or so. this will make for a neater covering job.same for the intersection of the stab &fuselage joints . that way any shrinkage of covering will not be noticed. plane looks very nice so far.

brsseb

Wing sheeting




Starting on the top, the sheets were cut out, glued and pinned down. Had to do some sanding on the ribs, due to the sheets didnt fit down into the fuselage as it should. Got do to some extra sanding here and there



Cut the hole for the servo seat. Plenty of room here for it



Then epoxied the two rear centers holding the wire and tube for the ailerons. Made sure that i didnt use too much epoxy this time, so the wire moves smooth.



Wing sheeting all done. Got to hinge the ailerons, add the wingtips and sand it all. At the last leg of wing construction, and in need of an engine to continue. Money for it next week, hopefully. The O.S 46AX cost like $150 over here, but what the heck. Importing one comes with extra tax and cargo expensive, so I guess the price is ok all things considered.

Tribum

I notice you are going with the standard single aileron servo. I am about to start building the kit and am considering a dedicated servo for each aileron to mix in flaperons. How effective would flaperons be on this kit? Is it worth the effort? Any advice on the mod would be appreciated.

brib

Hi,
I'm builidng a PT-40 MKII myself and have a coule questions....

What filler did you use to fill around the control tubes (where they exit the fuse)? Who makes it?

Also, how do you plan to fuel proof the engine bay? I assume it requires fuel proof paint (used to be called dope I think?) ?

Thanks,
Brian

brsseb

Im a beginner so I cant say much about modifing kits like that. I would like to find out the same thing since having flaperons would be really cool to have on a trainer. Hope some old`timer can answer this for us

The filler im using is "NHP MICRO-FILL BALSA", brought in my LHS. Not sure if its the best, but it does the job quite nicely (can be abit of a struggle to get the d*** sticky off your fingers/tools and get it to stay on the surface though). Im about 60% or so done covering (the main wings left, still got some sanding to do too), and I think ill do fuelproofing after that. Ill just ask my LHS about what kind of fuelproofing stuff he got in store (maybe next week), and ill post what Im using here.

(Damn the university. Taking up too much of my time [&o]. Must get working on the kit again soon, though. Must...find...time...[:'(])

newbieT

Fuel proofing can be done with any epoxy (10 minute or so) and thinned out with some denatured alcohol. I'm sure you've got epoxy, and the denatured alcohol you can get at any hardware store, or home depot-type place. About $3 for a quart or something. Just mix the epoxy together, then mix in some of the alcohol until it's a bit thin. Then you can paint it on and it'll sink into the wood a bit. Be careful, though. The mix of epoxy and alcohol REALLY stinks and should be used with MAXIMUM vent.

tucker1865

My Feedback: (6)

BRSSEB....I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU. AREN'T YOU CONCERNED WITH THE GLUE ON THE FUSE SIDES, OR IS THIS UNAVOIDABLE. SANDING MIGHT BE A PROBLEM. MAYBE IM OFF BASE BUT WOULD LIKE TO HEAR YOUR OPINION.. DAVE

brsseb

CA-glue might be very strong, but not even Epoxy resists the power of sandpaper . I didnt find it to be a problem. Im sure i didnt get it all down, but as my covering job so far is looking like a dogs breakfast, remaining glue is the SMALLERS problem . But hey!, its just a trainer! It will look rubbish after the first early flight anyway. Maybe when/if I get more experience i can do an overhaul on it, maybe repair any damages, recover it in another more stylish color and make some modifications to it. But thats for later. Now i just want to get it into the air!

tucker1865

My Feedback: (6)

Hey...Your contribution to this forum is outstanding, you are to be commended. The photography and diary are very informative. I recommended it to a couple of the people who are asking you questions. Keep up the good work and be happy. Thanks to you Dave

newbieT

It looks to me like you used the lower dihedral, and let me say, you're going to be happy you did. I did the larger of the two, and it's a freakin bear to do anything over circles in the air...sure you can do inverted and rolls (they're all barrel rolls with that high wing), but you'd be fighting it pretty hard. The lower dihedral should take you through some basic aerobatics pretty well...hopefully you'll have that thing covered and RTF pretty damn soon! Keep up the good work.

-Dave

brsseb

Thanks tucker1865 and newbieT. Sorry for lack of pictures so far, but its been going very slowly these days with little construction time. Hope to get more done in the following week.

Btw, newbieT, i would love some photos and info about how you solved the trike gear problem

[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_1973148/anchors_2085541/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#2085541]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_1973148/anchors_2085541/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#2085541[/link]

newbieT

Right, I posted on the other thread how I solved it. I ended up mounting the needle on the cheek of the fuse. It was a very tight fit, I could barely get to the muffler screws and the engine mount screws, but it was out of the way enough from each part, including the trike control horn, that everything worked out.

-Dave

Tribum

I have been working on the same problem for the last five hours. I resolved it by mounting the remote needle valve behind the firewall (in the fuel tank compartment). About 7mm of the needle protrudes out of the left fuse side, in line with the refueling valve. It looks good but took some precision wood routing. Hopefully the extra 40mm of fuel piping between the needle valve and carb isn't a problem.

brsseb

Ok, here are some shots from the past weeks limited construction time.




The fibercloth is now in place using Thin CA. It went around the wing nicely, even though the CA wasnt very cooperative (running all over the wing)...ended up just soaking the cloth from the top and letting it drain down to the balsa. Also made some drastic cuts in the cloth to get it past the aileron controls, making sure that the damn thin ca didnt went into the control holes gluing the ailerons stuck. Looks kinda messy but i think it does the trick.

The covering job is well underway, with main wings and some other details remaining. The final trimscheme is now gonna be like this:



The fuselage got a red bottom and white top, with the colors meeting at the sides, kinda seperated by a black line (normal stickers on 2.5meter rolls, not covering).





So its white, black and red at the top, and all red at the bottom of the aircraft to give me a decent look at whats up and whats down in the air.

Got a little [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_2234318/anchors_2234318/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#2234318]question[/link] before I start covering the wing..:

brsseb

Ok, did some heavy work on the tail section today:




Glued the stab with 30min Epoxy after making sure that it was somewhat properly aligned. Did the measuing tricks the manual told me to use, and everthing seemed fine with only a milimeter or so out of place. Looks really flat and solid now.



The fin went into its slot vey nicely after minimal sanding. I used two 90degree blocks on each side to check for any vertical misalignment, and after studing the end result from many angles Im happy with it:



Looking good, eh [8D]? The triangle reinforcements were covered before gluing. Had a hard time aligning the covering and black stickerline, but it finally looked decent enough to be glued on. Only need the windows and some tidying up here and there and the fuselage covering job is all done. Getting the ("smelly" after what ive heard) fuelproofing next week so i can start putting the engine and radio gear in. Also more covering material for the wing.

Bjørn (brsseb)

brsseb

Ok, first of for today was the windows.



Went very fast, its just the trick of coming up with an ok idea for shapes, draw then onto a transparent paper and cut the window decals from some leftover covering material. Just remember when cutting two pairs of windows at a time to make sure that the two pieces are inverted, meaning that they FACE their shiny side (the plastic that you remove before covering), so you get two mirrored sets, one for each side. I forgot the first time and was left two left side windows..



Then the damn CAing of the tail feathers. Think i did all right, but wont know before they snap off mid-air after the 10th flight or so...I added abit more than the 6 drops the manual chatted about, though. Just to be safe. Flexed it alot during gluing to make sure that i didnt glue the pieces together.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

An easy way to get around this is to tightly pack some beeswax into the holes and around the wires before you glue/glass. I've done this for years when I'm glassing the center section. The beeswax keeps out the glue/resin/epoxy, and is easy to dig out when it's all cured. Any beeswax you can't get out doesn't get in the way and acts as a lubricant. It's also good for pinned hinges where you don't want glue to get into them. Just pack them full in the hinge barrels and pins and you not only get good glue protection, but you also get a good lube job as well.

You do have to be careful that any solvent you might use won't dissolve the beeswax before you glue.

brsseb

The fuelproofing of the firewall and fueltank compartment is done, and the installation of hardware is started.




Added the servos to the servo tray. I didnt like the idea of having the servo tray doublers as pure balsa..it should have been plywood like the servo tray itself. Cracked two of the doublers when drilling/installing screws and had to do some CAing [:@]. Also, ran ouf of screws ...



Added the small plastic tubes for the rudder and elevator control rods. This will keep them from bending all around inside the large tubes for better servo presision, while still remaining just as flexible! Isnt this a clever hobby or what?



The horns were easy to add. Just marked the holes with a T-Pin, and use a self-tapping screw to make the holes before inserting the two final machinescrews and the backplate. Must remember to file the screw ends down and add some thread lock on those screws later, though.



The steering-problem is finally showing itself..As you can see that the 46AX is pretty big and has an vertical, rearmounted needle which makes for little or no room for the nose gear steering arm to move. But with the idea that "a little goes a long way" with trikes, im confident that it will be enough once i get the wheels on and can do some testing.

brsseb

Ok, todays work summary:




Got the needed servo screws to finish off the servo tray. Damn the crappy doublers again...cracked another one. Had to trim the edges on the elevator and rudder arms so they dont interfere with each other. No flipflop needed.



While trying to flatspot the area where the wheel collars goes with a Dremel tool, sparks flied and I had to go outside just in case. Notice sunglasses for eye protection [8D].



After a quick-check of ground stance, some flatspotting and using screwlock-glue on the collars the gear was all set to go. Feels very solid. Had to flip the nose gear so that the spring coil are facing forward, otherwise it would tear into the fuse. Hope it dont ruin the suspension effect.



Ah..starting to look like a plane now, doesnt it ? If only my LHS could get the next shipment of covering soon so I can finish the wing...

BTW: Got a [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_2256517/anchors_2256517/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#2256517]fueltank question [/link] that I hope someone can answer