Tony Hallo

I decided to lay out the engine box in a similar manner. I constructed a line at 2 degrees and the proper distance back from the front of the cowl, the sides were marked. The box was finished off with 3/8" basswood sticks. No more 1/2"X5/8" maple blocks for this size aircraft.

Tony Hallo

The original model had a foam turtledeck. On my last build, I melted a spot on the turtledeck while covering. You will find posts that suggest the forumla for Monokote has changed, I don't know if it in fact it has, but I do find it more difficult to use than Ultrakote. I do like the way Monokote endures the test of time, I found my on previous planes covered with Ultrakote, frequent re-srinking was required.
I decided to install a built up turtledeck on this plane to eliminate the problem. Starting with the outlines traced from the original turtledeck, I constructed the internal formers. They're not exact but close enough to yield good results. It's difficult to achieve CAD like results when using a drywall square and the edge of the workbench as the drafting table, but hey it works. The formers are 1/8" lite ply with 3/16" stringers. It took a complete evening and several Miller Lites to cut the formers. I plan to sheet the deck with 3/32" balsa.

prgonzalez

I am about to conclude that a few ML's improve the cut/glueing process.

Tony Hallo

prgonzalez

If you talking about fingers, then the answer is yes. They are either glued or cut!

I sheeted the turtledeck with 3/32" balsa tonight. I used Gorilla glue on the stringers to fill in the voids. I can crank up the heat on this turtledeck when it is time to cover. I will use built up turtledecks in future builts rather than foam cores.

huck1199

Tony: Nice wall of tools.

Tony Hallo

Work has begun on the tailplane. Pretty standard stuff here, 3/8" balsa and spruce. The horizontal trailing edge is spruce.

Tony Hallo

For fitting the braces I made this little tool out of two price of 3/8" spruce and a piece of 1/8" plywood scraps. The tool butts against one of the 3/8" sticks forming the angle that will receive the brace, the end extends over the joint. This allows the brace to be held and place and marked, I normally just sand to the marks leaving a little long, then slowly finish sand for a perfect fit.

Tony Hallo

I cut the leading and trailing edges long while building. Before removing from the bench, I leave the nails in the extended edges and sand the top side with a long bar, this holds the piece in place and flat against the bench. The balsa and spruce sticks are normally slightly different in size so sanding required.

blikseme300

My Feedback: (118)

Tony,

The little tool for marking the braces is one I have never seen before. It is brilliant. Thanks for sharing.

BTW - nice job you are doing.

Bliksem

Tony Hallo

Bliksem,
Thanks for the compliment.

Back to work, I plan to use Sig Brand XX hinges for this build. One thing I hate about this style of hinges is slotting, the spruce trailing edge makes the job all that more difficult.
I found small saw blades at a flee market last year and decided to try them out. They are not very accurate and vibrate on high speed but they did the job. I still had to do a little work after cutting with the saw blade but the most important part of the slot accurate. I set the blade as close to the middle as possible then cut twice, once from the top then the bottom.

Tony Hallo

The horizontal stablizer is held in place with 1/8" plywod plate and 2 4-40 screws. I remember the first time I used this method on a Ace Extra 230, this was back in 1991, I was worried about the strength of the connection, I used it many times since then and it's never failed. I milled the slot with a Dremel tool with a router attachment and end cutting bit.
The stablizer is captured in the rudder base and holds the rudder on. Dowels in the tail post and on the front of rudder keep it in alignment.

Tony Hallo

Try as I may, I couldn't make the original cowl mounting work out. I ended up cutting a sliver off the back side of the cowl, 0 at top, 3/8" at bottom. This resulted in a new firewall and re-fitting the engine. I'm happy with the result.
At this point the fuselage and tail are just about completed, a couple more details remain. It's time to move onto the wings. The wings will be jig built foam rib construction. The last time I was at the local Lowes, I noticed the 1/2" foam sheeting was light green in color. I've use pink and light blue before, I kinda excited to see how the green stuff cuts, I don't really expect any difference.
I need to take a few days off to get my Extra 200 readly for the maiden flight. Be back soon.

Tony Hallo

Fall is in the air and for something completely different I decided to mount a Zenoah GT80 in the plane rather than the ZDZ 80 that was already there. I know the Zenoah isn't as powerful and weights a little more, but it's smoother operating.
The GT80 was mounted in a Giles 300 when the propeller broke in flight, crank was bent as a result. I flipped the crank end for end and cut the bent stub end off, installed a RCexcel ignition, and made a custom mount. Test run proved the engine good to go. This will be a nice combination, and every fits in the cowl. Need to find a home for ZDZ 80 now.
Once this modification is finished I will start the foam rib wing construction.

Tony Hallo

I transfered the measurements from the original wing onto the wing jig, then laid out the rib locations, I added one additional rib to reduce the center to center spacing, the ribs are now 3 3/4" o.c.. I made up two fiberglass tubes just like the one for the fuselage. Next move is to make the hot wire templates. Fall has arrived in western PA, let the building begin.
I gave the wing jig a coat of light latex paint before I started, there were too many other lines on the surface from previous builds.

Tony Hallo

I make my templates out of Formica, in my opinion this works better than plywood or sheet metal. The wire gets stuck in the grain when using plywood and the metal templates cool the wire near the contact area. I like to use two template method rather than the single airfoil shaped template, this is personnal preference.
The inner most parting strips are nailed down using a brad nailer, this make short work of the process.

Tony Hallo

The blue foam has plastic on both sides, I assume it acts as a vapor barrier. I remove it for no good reason.

The rib blanks are installed in place and squared up. Once this is done, I tack each rib to the parting strip with glue.

Tony Hallo

The inner most blanks are installed on both sides of the wing.

For cutting the wing tube socket holes I make templates from scrap plywood. These are drilled together so that they are same height above the jig surface. Both wings are cut together. This operation is done before the remaining rib blanks are installed so the I can get the sockets and tube in.

gene6029

Tony, thanks for showing your wing build. Very interesting to me. I am originally from Pottstown Pa., now liveing in NC. Still building and flying though!. I am following your build, nice work you do, reminds me of an old friend who is passed on now, (Ray Kline). He built my first Godfrey Lazer 200 & used the foam wing ribs & i always wanted to see it done....Gene

Tony Hallo

Thanks Gene. My first foam rib build was a Urley Lazer, the plans a showed a geared .60 glow motor for power, the plane was designed in 1981.

Here the wing socket holes are cut with the hot wire. The bow is homemade powered by a low voltage lighting transformer. The wire is .025" steel MIG wire, nothing fancy.

In my opinion foam rib wings are lighter than foam, cheaper than balsa, and build straight. They do however take more time, but that's why I build.

Tony Hallo

I make stops for the wing tube out of 1/8" liteply, these are glued in with thick CA. Both sockets are glued in with Probond poly glue. Each wing could be done individually, I perfer doing both together because is minimizes the building error.
I just noticed that Elmers changed the name of the glue to Ultimate, it's no longer Probond.

Tony Hallo

The rib blanks are cut long, once all the blanks are in place, they are trimmed to size. I make 90 degree templates out of previous wing tube template or whatever I can find. The finish is not critical since 1/2 " foam will finish off the leading and trailing edges. This is glued on with 3M 77 contact cement.

Tony Hallo

The wing platforms are taking shape, the rib templates are marked with numbered stations. My better half does the small side of the wing while I do the large end, I call the numbers out as the wire moves through the foam, she follows along.

Tony Hallo

Top half cut, the actual cutting takes about 2 minutes, while several days were expended before hand getting ready.

Tony Hallo

Again templates are used for cutting the spar slots. The template near the wing tube is made to fit over the socket because the spar is about 1/16" from the socket. I save most of the templates from previous builds and many are reused, it's a good day when one works out of the drawer.

Tony Hallo

This plane will use 4-40 screws to hold the wings on, I pre-drilled .110" holes and add doublers where the holes are located. You can argue that this isn't necessary since the holes are in the tube area but what the heck, the rear doubler will support the half moon shaped balsa for the covering.
The spruce spars were glued to the wing tube socket with a mixture of epoxy and milled fiberglass. The remaining slots were epoxied coated prior to mixing the milled fiberglass.