conradj87

My Feedback: (1)

I finished my Sig SE. All thats left to do is balance and tweak it a bit. I've had it since about july, working on and off for quite a while. I thought it went together really well, besides the occasional screw up on my part(mounting the firewall and first fuse former upside down, with epoxy). I didn't have any big problems with the original design, but i did put solid pushrods in and a different tailwheel assy. in. I had the framing done in less then 2 weeks, Mounting the engine was one of the harder things to do. The directions don't really cover it, or i missed that part, and the fuse was so cramped around the engine i had a hard time getting a finger and screwdriver in there. I ended up mounting the engine to the mounts outside of the plane, and screwing it in with a long screwdriver. Covering probably took me the longest. Originally it was going to be blue and white, like on the box, but my blue Ultracote wasn't working well, and i didn't have the money to go get some monocote, so i used the red roll my brother had given me. The engine is a 46 AX. i ran it up in my driveway and it is awesome. Its hard to set idle because the plane wants to roll no matter how low i go.
Here are some pics, I'm going to buy a aluminum spinner, the blue one was just so i could break in the engine.
Lemme know what you think. This is my first kit and covering job.
There are alot of smears on it from tweaking, some of them are a bit dark, it was in my basement.
Gotta find a good pilot

F-16WpnsTech

Great job Jomamma (or is that, JoPappa?, hehe). Could you post a closeup of the tail wires and the material you used for 'em? I'm got a Sig SE under the bench to put together after I finish my Venture 60. Thanks.

Irish R.Seer

My Feedback: (1)

Very nice SSE. Just one thing, make sure the rubber band holding the wing halves together is secure. Mine stretched the rubber band enough to pull the wing off the locating dowels, and it hit the ground pretty hard. [] Good luck, it's a great plane to fly.
Bill

Safebet

My Feedback: (12)

Jomamma: You have done a great job. It looks good, you have a right to be proud. I am new to RC and I am going to start building a Contender 40 in the near future. It will be my first. I am nervous because the only experience I have is repairing my mid aired trainer, an Alpha 60. But, as everything else in life, "if nothing is ventured, nothing is gained."

Look forward to seeing your post on the results of the initial flight. Good luck.

conradj87

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks guys...
The wires were interesting. I could not get a good picture, i will try again later. First i drilled out the clevises, this is easier said than done. I guess i picked out a bad drill bit, but i snapped the bit in half,holding both the drill and the clevis in my hands, it left a nice little gash in my hand. Then i set up my dad's drillpress, and couldn't find another drill bit the right size, i picked up the 3/4" left of the old one, and cranked it into the press. There was no problem in the drillpress. GO SLOW!. Especailly with the black clevises, they are the only threaded clevises that will fit. i tore apart 2 or 3 clevises because the torque of the press. Next i bent 6 of the 8 clevises just big enough for the screw head to fit. Be careful with this too. Its better to bend them less than you need rather than more, if you bend them too far too fast, they will snap. The other 2 i put on the bottom of the fuse and marked them where the sides hit, bend those 2 at the marks. Then i tried to screw on the clevises. I put the 4 black clevises all on the horizontal stab, so it looks better. I found the screws that came with the kit to be too small, so after over 1 hour of trying to make those screws fit, i ran to the hardware store and bought new screws and nuts for like $.50
Once i got one end of the rod screwed into the black clevis, and cut the other end to fit, i soldered them.
Do NOT lay the plane on your lap to solder it. burnt my hand and my shoe pretty dam goodI would reccomend taking the wires off the plane to solder them. I thought of that then decided against it because no matter how many times you check and recheck it, they will be the wrong length. If i could do it again i would have taken them off the plane. There are small burn marks here and there, and i melted thru part of the tailwheel mounting bracket. Thats how i did it, im sure there are better ways.
If you need any more info let me know.
Put Loctite anywhere metal touches metal.
There is supposedly some chrome dip you can put these in and color them, i plan on doing that sometime.

Daryl_y

I also have an SE I recently finished and I feel your pain on the flying wires drilling out the clevises was one of the hard parts of building this kit (which is a complement ) what in the hell does sig make them out off? HSS? I made it through all of them with only one drill bit but it was toast when I was done.

conradj87

My Feedback: (1)

The clevises left burn marks in the piece of wood i was drilling ontop of my drill bit is definetly toast, it has ridges in the tip
I forgot a part of making the wires, no biggie, just cut the half of the clevis off before doing anything else. Bending them off with some pliers might be easier than cutting them off, i used a metal wire cutter and it ended up throwing the end i wasn't holding onto across teh room.

submikester

My Feedback: (6)

Here's mine - I just have to secure the receiver and battery, balance it, set the throws and then secure the canopy and it'll be ready to go. Maybe next week sometime - weather's been a pain here.

CafeenMan

If you have a good, low idle and the plane is still rolling you can maybe use a lower pitch propeller depending on what you're using now. You can also try tightening up the wheels a little if you take the time to make sure both wheels are the same and not so tight that the plane noses over.

Nice job on your first build!

Sukhoi_Madness

Phat!!!!

conradj87

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks Cafeen, i like that idea. The prop is a 12 * 4 i couldn't go much bigger than the 12 because its already close to the ground, and i think if the pitch were less than it would over rev.
Nice plane Mike, what kind of landing gear is on that? Are you going to put the tail wires on?
Just curious, how did you guys put the canopy on? i just used some double sided tape on parts, then covered the whole seem with red electric tape.

submikester

My Feedback: (6)

The landing gear is from a Magic Extra (you can order it through hobby people). IT really goes well with the model and it allows for a very large prop (I plan on using a 14x4W). I used 4 screws to secure my canopy and I did install the flying wires - they just aren't in that picture.