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Now that that's handled. Up next is the elevator install. First off at the rear of the fuselage, making sure the bottom is facing up, measure forward 11cm, (yes CM, not MM), from the end. Not the tongue portion of the rear, the "step" part. Do it on each side. Connect the dots. That is the elevator rod center line. From the edge of the fuselage, in line with the center line, measure in 60 mm, again do it on both sides. These will be the location points for the elevator rod brackets. Make sure they are parallel with the fuselage center line not the strips, or the elevator rod line, otherwise the rod will bind when it's installed. Dig out the piece of aluminum plate included in the kit. Remember that part? Hopefully you didn't toss it. Anyhow you need to do a little fabricating, as this is to become the two elevator rod brackets. Mark the center of the long end of the aluminum, as that is where you cut it in half. Now you have two squares. Again mark the center of each, that is the bend line. Bend the squares on the line to a 90 degree angle. Pick one end of the angled pieces And mark the center of it, from edge to edge with it facing you. Confused yet? Look at the pictures and follow along and it will make sense. You need to drill a hold in the end of the angle to let the rod through. You already have marked the center of the angle, but you need to mark the height of the hole from the bend. It's 8 mm up from the bend. So now you have your center point and height point to drill your holes. In the manual it says to make a 4mm hole, since I don't have metric drill bits, I used my limited math skills and came up with a 5/32" bit. Chucked it into the drill press, and set up one of the angles. I stumbled on this, so I can't really take credit for it, but I had the drill press set up for the slowest speed, As I slowly drilled through my mark for the center and height, the drill actually made a shoulder in the angle when it went through. The hole was sorta pushed through, instead of a clean cut. I was going to file this off flush with the metal, when I had a revelation. The shoulder hole would actually give more support to the elevator rod then a clean cut one. When I though about it some more, this would actually be better, as a clean cut would tend to saw into the rod as it pivoted. BRILL!!! Score one for the home team. Back to the build. Now you have to 90 degree angle pieces of aluminum with a hold drilled in one end of each. Time to install them. The 60 mm lines I laid out are just a slice for the angle to slide up through, use a new xacto blade to cut these, if you don't, you take the chance of the Depron sticking and it will roll as you cut it, and look nasty, also taking several shallow cuts helps to make a smoother cut. Now that the slots are cut, push the holed end of the angles up from the bottom, which is actually the top of the fuselage, but since the bottom is facing up, the top is now the bottom. The ends on the top/bottom should face in toward's the center line of the fuselage. Look at the pictures if you don't understand.
Edit: Jeeze it's getting late, even though I told you not to measure from the tongue, I diagrammed it wrong on the photo. It' fixed now.
< Message edited by Glacier Girl -- 2/4/2006 5:13:16 AM >
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"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
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I'll finish up with the rod install and that all for tonight. I've spent more time documenting then building, and I have to get up at 5:00 AM for work.
Where were we? Oh yeah, the rod install. According to the manual you need to push the elevator rod, remember there were 2 CF rods in the kit? Well this is the one that's left. So, push the rod through the Depron strip into the bracket holes and out the other strip. HUH? It took me a while but that's what it meant.The rod lays flat on the fuselage, which means it has to go through the two strips to line up with the bracket holes. And speaking of the bracket holes, the reason you drilled the holes 8mm from the bend was to allow for the thickness of the fuselage and the rod, when you installed the brackets. Sorry wasn't another moment of revelation there, I read it in the manual. Ok rod in place, check that it rotates easily in the brackets. Less bind means less work for the servo to turn it. Mine was good. Remove the rod and the brackets. The half of the bracket that touches the top of the fuselage, which is the bottom right now, needs to be sanded as it gets epoxied to the fuselage.I did both sides of each half of each bracket. Partially installed the brackets, leaving them sit away from the fuselage. At this point the top of the fuselage is facing up. Remember how I told you to mark the top and bottom of the fuselage? 5min epoxy is best for attaching the brackets if you work quickly, if in doubt, use 15. A dab of epoxy between the bracket and fuselage, and push the brackets into place. Flip the fuselage over and reinstall the rod, to keep the brackets lined up. TIP: if you wedge some spare Depron under the rod, the pressure will keep the brackets tight up against the fuselage, till the epoxy dries. Flip the fuselage again, see I told you that you had to work fast. Cover the rest of the now exposed braces' bottoms with the left over epoxy to seal them into place. Flip the fuselage for the hundredth time. Check to be sure the rod still rotates easily and that all is in line. Let it dry.
< Message edited by Glacier Girl -- 2/4/2006 5:36:32 AM >
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"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
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Morning all. Well as tomorrow is the Super Bowl, and yes I am in Steeler's country, work today is pretty much at a standstill. So I'll add the rest of what I've built to the forum. Ok locating the piece of 1/32" liteply included in the kit it's time to build the elevator rod control horn. Slice the lite ply diagonally, and CA the to parts back together to form a triangle of now 1/16" liteply. In the manual you will cut off one corner of the triangle to give you a straight piece with one corner cut off. There is no dimension listed in the manual for width, so you have to eye ball it. Drill a 5/32" hole in the lower corner,furtherest away from the clipped corner. Then a smaller hole(I used a finish nail) in the corner across from the clippped corner. TIP: Coat the lite ply with thin CA it your drill spots. This will keep the wood from splintering when you drill it. You'll see when you build yours that mine looks a little different then the one in the manual. I just made mine a little less choppy looking. Just me being me, doesn't affect it either way. Anyhow, remove the elevator rod from its brackets, and slide the newly made horn on. It will hang from the bottom of the fuselage with the small hole for the clevis mount sticking up through the top of the fuselage. The clipped corner of the horn faces rearward. TIP: Mount a clevis to the hole in the horn, and check to see how much movement you have. You don't want to get all installed and find out you have no up elevator as the horn hits the clevis as it turns.
"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
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GG, Ray, I was thinking the same thing about the brackets sawing through the CF rod. Would bushing out the holes help for those of us who accidentally make clean holes? I'm sure the 4mm holes would need to be a little larger.
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Okey Dokey, time to cut out a slot for the control horn in the fuselage. Per the manual you need to cut a 10mm by 40mm slot, 15mm to the right of the fuselage center line, centered on the elevator centerline. Just look at the pics, you'll see. TIP: When you cut the Depron, start at the middle and cut to the corners to get a sharp looking slot. Bottom of the fuselage facing up, reinstall the elevator rod, and slip on the control horn as you do. Center the rod and mark spots for center and horn location for later. Remove the rod and horn, lightly sand the rod where the horn will attach and the horn to remove any excess CA from it. Epoxy doesn't grip well to CA. Reinstall all making sure the horn is facing the correct direction. Mix up some 5 min epoxy. I just mix enough to tack the horn on. Tack the horn on making sure the horn is 90 degrees from the rod and dead straight parallel to the fuselage center line. Once it's dry and you double check that all is right, now you can go back and and epoxy the horn on fully. TIP: When doing the tacking of the horn, slide the horn off to the side and put the epoxy on the rod. Then slide the horn into place. Will give a good bond to the hole and rod. TIP: Tape the rod in place, so it is centered side to side. That way you don't end up with the horn glued and find out you have 6 " of rod on one side and 2 " on the other. Last photo shows how it should look when you are done. NOTE: in finished position the horn will be hanging down, 180 degrees for where it's pictured here.
"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
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Time to hang the elevators. Per the manual you need to add lite ply or CF strips, to the edge of the elevator that fits up against the fuselage, for strength. Lite ply is for stock, Cf for speedy versions. Since mine is eventually going Dark Side. I opted for a little more. Actually the lite ply comes in the kit, CF you have to buy. I was going through my stash of CF and couldn't find any strips wide enough. But I did find an old Slo-V fuselage. Ok I'll just cut off what I need to make strips. Well, call it dumb luck, but the CF fuselage was split on one side so I figured I would just split the other side and sand off the edges. When I split it, I looked and LOW AND BEHOLD, I had two C channels, the exact size for the Depron to fit in. Well a quick trip to the band saw and I had two nice channels for holding the elevators. Little 5 min epoxy and it was rock solid. Now for the mock up. The elevators line up with the tongue on the rear of the fuselage, NOT THE STEPS. Slide a piece of 3mm Depron between the elevators and fuselage to give clearance. The manual says to tape the elevators in place, on the top side of the fuselage. Then flip it over and glue the rods to the elevators with epoxy. COUPLE OF BIG ITEMS!!!! #1 Make sure the elevators are dead on level with the fuselage line. I ended up making jigs to keep all where they should be. Also check to be sure the elevators fit tight up against the CF rods. Otherwise I don't want to think about how this bird would fly. #2 Make sure the control horn is in the correct position, at this point with the bottom of the fuselage up, the horn needs to be pointed down and at 90 degrees, or the 6 o'clock position. All good, so on to the epoxy. I try to be somewhat neat, so what I did was just tack the ends of the rods to the elevators with epoxy, after sanding the ends of the rods where they will attach to the elevators. Once it was dry. I used the tape trick to lay out boundary lines on each side of the elevator to rod joints. Rechecked all positioning of the elevators, and laid the epoxy over the rods and onto the elevators. Squeegeed off the excess, let the epoxy start to set up and removed the tape. Nice looking fillet joints, if I say so myself. Left it all to dry over night. And that's where I ended up last night, before spending more time typing then building.
EDIT: Note: When you look at the second photo, it looks like the elevators are not lined up correctly. I had to look at it hard to figure out why. The Depron shims I used are not flush with the top of the fuselage, so trick of the eye, it looks off.
"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
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Ok I lied. Well not really, the befuddled state of mind from less then 4 hours sleep and way too much coffee. I did do something else last night, just didn't remember it till I uploaded the last shots and saw the extra photos. Man I need a nap. Well somewhere last night I started the ailerons, I just don't remember doing them. Per the manual, measure 40 mm from the TE at the end of the wing tip. Then draw a line from that point to the inside of the wing. That point is already there for you. Remember way back when I glued up the back half of the fuselage to the mid section and said to only glue what I showed? Now you know why. The unglued portion is the aileron. Heaven help you if you glued it. Anyhow, line laid out, I used a straight edge and another new xacto blade, and made several light passes keeping the blade 90 degrees to the cut. Ailerons removed, I marked each one. Just to be sure they ended up back where they belonged, and that I didn't toss them thinking they were scraps. Now the manual states the LE of the aileron needs to be chamfered at 45 degrees on each side so it will move without binding. The manual states to cut them. I couldn't cut a straight line, at a 45 degree angle, only half the depth of the Depron, to save my life. Now what? I could just imagine trying to route them in or use a table saw to cut them. Hey I have all ten fingers yet for a reason. Hmmmmm. I grabbed a scrap of Depron and a piece of 320 sandpaper and tried to sand it. It worked! Nice and smooth. Ok I can do that. I taped the aileron to the bench, put the sandpaper on a sanding block and holding the block at 45 degrees to the aileron, made a couple of passes. Flipped the aileron over and repeated. Slicker the snot. Two 45's and they met in the center of the aileron. And that's where I ended up last night.
"The Missing Man Formation" Looking heavenward you cannot help but shed a tear...mornful...lonesome...a hole that screams out almost as loudly as the roar of the engines that pass over head.
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Joined: 9/4/2004 From: Newcastle, UNITED KINGDOM Status: offline
Crash One
quote:
ORIGINAL: Crash One
GG, Ray, I was thinking the same thing about the brackets sawing through the CF rod. Would bushing out the holes help for those of us who accidentally make clean holes? I'm sure the 4mm holes would need to be a little larger.
i am sure there are lots of ways to scoop up and modify i looked at lots of different method from plastic, nylon, plywood and a C/F tube epoxied but in the end i went for the aluminum plate because its easy to adjust and glue in position, also the ammount of wear and tear is acceptable and will probably out live the F16,
there may even be a dedicated thread in the future for anyone to upload pics, ideas, mods and even como themes and decals
there are not many stock kits that remain stock for Long
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RE: Depron F16 - 
RE: Depron F16 - 
