wiggles08

Ok so I have never built a plane from scratch but I have flown them. I have a plane that I am currently transfering radio equipment into from another one. I fly helicopters mostly, but I still love my planes. I have really wanted to get into building them from scratch. If anyone has any advise on tools, equipment or literature on building please post it on here. The big question I have right now though is how to monokote a plane because I am tearing the coating of the one that I am fixing and want some new coat on it. I need advise on tools and techniques if anyone has any advise.

Ram Jet

I think a heat gun will help you remove the old covering easily.

Bill

jmwright75

wiggles08 I just recently got done covering my first plane. Minnflyer did some really good videos on covering. There is a link for it in the begginers thread called First time covering. I think that it helped me a lot.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4385133/tm.htm this is the videos that he did. Sorry i dont know how to do a link though


john

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

To remove covering you just start peling it off and when you feel a spot that is really on there then you grab up a heat gun and warm things up until it peels off nice and clean. Scratch building is really quite easy and doesn't require a lot of high end tools, mostly just standard building tools. There is a lot of input about scratch building vs plans building but I think of it as one and the same. True scratch building is designing the plane and drawing the plans and plans building is buying plans and building from someone elses design and drawings. I don't buy into it. I have done it both ways and think of them both as scratch building. All you do is build a kit and assemble it without instructions or if you get plans with instructions they don't help a great deal. My main tools are the belt sander, the scroll saw and a big vise, sometimes a drill press and grinder. On my building board and work bench I also have a small dental hand piece that gets a lot of use and a dremel tool. After that it's just what ever you want or find a need for. The vise and drill press are used mostly for when I build a Bipe, I hand bend a lot of my own LG and struts so a big vise is needed.

Ram Jet

Holy cow, your building area looks like my kitchen. At least until my girlfriend moves in.[&o]

Bill

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

That's funny, my other shop was a 1000 sq. ft. mobil home that I had before I built my new house. It took a long time to get used to tossing stuff on my nice new carpet and balsa dust all over my drapes. This new shop is really small and I was just finishing up working on two planes and starting a scratch build on a third. I have severa; boxes of wood opened and planes all over the place. These benches are from my old dental lab that have been with me for a while and move from place to place. What is your girl friend going to say about all the balsa dust and shavings? Wait until you do a glass job and she discovers a new kind of stink!

Ram Jet

I'll let you know what she says. Espacially when she sees my 1:18 scale static models of the P-51, P-38, F4U Corair, P-40, Cox Curtiss Pusher and Extra 300S, and die-cast Stearman biplane hanging from the ceiling in my 1000 S.F. mobile home. I will retire to the second smaller bedroom soon to be my workshop with a compound miter saw, drill press, mini air compressor and table saw. What's good material for a workbench surface? Keep your little black book handy, I might need a new girfriend. Maybe a chick who is a scratch builder?[sm=72_72.gif]

Bill

wiggles08

Speaking of Shops, as I was asking earlier about tools, I have an empty 800 sq. ft shop, if any body has any tips on tool setups and what needs to go in there. I know it seems like a dumb question but like I said I have never built one from scratch.