diggs_74

Don't worry Gary, I'm keeping any eye on it and adjusting it every couple of formers to keep it straight..

Here's another pick of the progress.. I would have been further along but I had to take a nap.. Too much late night snowmobiling..

daven

My Feedback: (1)

I had a dog that would get one of those once in a while.

diggs_74

Ah yes, I was waiting for a comment like that.. Actually, Collin said it looked like a shoe, I'll go with that for now..

Anyway, I got a little tired of sanding foam so I spackled what I have done to this point (back to the wing saddle TE).. Tomorrow I should be finished roughing it out, then, more spackle.

Lee

Scorpion Racing

Yeah, my wife kept asking me what kind of boat I was making... [&o] looking good so far Lee! That sanding thing seems like a never-ending chore right now! I like the plane on a pole method for plugs too, keeps everything clean and true as long as your wings don't get in the way.

Keep up the good work!

diggs_74

Ok, here is the rough fuse.. Lots of filling and sanding to do yet..

This "system" of constructing the plug has worked very well so far.. I'm within a 1/16" on the last former..

D.E.

Your AR is looking good! It seems like the sanding and shaping never ends. That plane has so many curves.

I have 5 done going to pheonix in a couple of weeks Here are some pics of Dave Shadels and Gary Schmidts if I uploaded them correctly. First Time!

daven

My Feedback: (1)

Nice pics, and great progress Lee.

GSJames

Lookin good! I'm glad that method is working well. I'm hoping that you can show me the finished plug when I come up for my annual checkride later this month.

diggs_74

That might be not be out of the question Gary.. The only hold back would be finding some place warm enough to paint it..

Dave, I saw a pic of Gary's AR-6 when I first started this project.. In all honesty, I thought I was ahead of the curve but alas, second again

I will have a wing this weekend so I will be moving forward with glassing the plug this week after I finish up the H-stab. It will be set up for a plug in stab although I don't think I'll mess with it on the first couple..

diggs_74

It seems I've run into a bit of a snag.. As you can see by the pic I've got a slight clearance issue with the muffler.. Since we didn't have a 3D model of the engine at the time we had to kind of guess.. It looks like we missed the mark but about .100" ~ 1/8".. So, since I can't make a trough(negative draft angle on the mold) in the middle on the bottom, I'm going to have to be a little more creative.. Because I incorporated the air inlet in the approved drawing I think I'm going to use that to make a cut out in the corner radius of the fuse and run the muffler tight to the scale air inlet.. The next issue is do I want to make sure it will work before I make the final molds? Common sense says YES!! To make sure would require making a "quick" mold of the nose and then cutting the nose off the plug.. Lay up a new nose off the mold and use that to get the engine mounted correctly and the air inlet made.. Once that's all done, attach the molded nose to the plug and make the final molds..

Did any of that make sense?

Scorpion Racing

Perfect sense Lee, unless your seam will be along the top & bottom; in which case the trough would be split 1/2 on each mold, and would release just fine. In fact, if the trough is just 1/8" deep, even that should pull fine, as long as you don't have a reverse curve in it that would prevent the part from being lifted straight up without touching another part of the mold.

diggs_74

I think what I'm going to do is pull a quick mold off the nose back the the LE of the saddle.. Lay up a new nose and make the changes to that.. If it works out alright I'll just make the changes to the plug..

It will be split along the vertical axis so a trench in the middle would create a negative draft.. I think if I can rotate the engine closer to 90 degrees I can keep it to one side of the mold. That should take care of the draft issue..

I'll have to poor a good stiff drink when I get home and ponder it..

D.E.

Lee,

I also had this muffler clearence problem, my fix was to raise the wing in the fuse a little and then blend the chin to match which raises the chin and no more clearence problem.

If you do that you will also have to raise the canopy the same amount to meet measurement requirements.

I had to make two plugs and molds as I do not have the required equipment nor funds for cad work so I went old school I figured they did this stuff before computers so what the heck.

D English

diggs_74

That's not a bad idea Dave.. It's only the last 2" of the muffler that had the issue.. Since the bottom of the fuse is round, maybe I can get away with just flattening it out.. There wouldn't be any draft issues as long as I don't go past 90 degrees to the fuse side.. I bet there's an 1/8" there to play with.. Hmmmmmm...

daven

My Feedback: (1)

I thought that looked really tight up there, sorry to hear about haveing to modify the plan midstream, but these projects wouldn't be fun without bumps in the road.

Keep at it Lee.

diggs_74

Not to worry Dave, you'll still have one for the Nats

I've been sitting here at work thinking about it.. I've got an idea for checking it without hacking or molding.. Just have to take my time with some measuring equipment..

kane

Lee,

I just posted a quick response on the NMPRA site take a look.

DK

diggs_74

That's a great idea Dan.. I hope you don't mind, I copied your post on here.. It's a great idea that I think others could make use of.. I had drawn something similar at work this morning but yours sounds a bit easier to do.. Thanks again.

Post by Dan Kane from NMPRA.ORG..

Lee,

I made a fixture that captured the location of the muffler in reference to the spinner ring. For example, a ring bolted to the front of the engine that holds the muffler in its position relative to the spinner ring. Then I mount this fixture with the muffler to the front of the plug and make the trough accordingly. Sorry, no picts available right now. But may be tonight if I can find it. Note: your muffler will need to be slightly off of 6 o'clock due to the molding process and having the part line down the middle. Remember NO negative drafts. It is more like 7 o'clock to allow the fuselage to come out of the mold.

No need to panic at this point keep finishing what you are doing.

Dan

diggs_74

Ok, the muffler issue is not longer an issue.. Now maybe I can get some sleep tonight..

D.E.

Hello Lee,

Watch the exhaust tip, I did the same thing on my first one and the hot exhaust gas burned the paint and glass off of the wing. That was the main reason I moved the wing up.

Looks good though have fun!
D. E.

diggs_74

Thanks for the heads up Dave.. It actually won't be as close as it looks in the picks.. It's just kind of sitting there so I could take a picture of it.. There's probably a good 1/8" gap all the way around now.. If worse comes to worse, I'll do like they used to do on the old Napier and use that high temp furnace tape...

diggs_74

I seemed to have picked up the cold that was going around.. I have managed to rough out the plug in stabs.. I checked the incidence and everything looks good there..

Still have to clean up the plug in area but after that I should be about ready for a final sanding..

D.E.

Hows the progress? Are you going to do the rudder linkage covers?

I am all packed and ready to go to Pheonix have to pick up Shadel at airport in morning, Hopefully the ARs have a good showing. I here through the grapevine that Jim Allen flew his and all went well very fast. Gary Schmidt said his new one is all ready and I am taking three.

ARs rule!
D. English

diggs_74

Good luck at Phoenix.. I sure wish I was making the trip, especially when I look outside at the snow falling...

As far as progress goes, mostly I've been sanding.. I will be putting the glass on the fuse plug this week though, just a couple areas that need a little attention yet.. The horizontal stab is complete but still needs glass and finish but it will get molded at the same time as the fuse..

I just put one wing panel in the "bag" so I can get the wing all potted into the fuse.. I will be testing with the foam core wing and if it flies well I will mold it, if it doesn't, I'll make a new one..

Off to do some more sanding

diggs_74

Pulled the first wing panel out of the bag last night and it seemed to turn out pretty well.. I'll get the other one in tonight.. I must admit, it's the first Q40 foam core wing I've ever done, hopefully it holds together.. It's got an end grain spare with CF top and bottom so hopefully that will be sufficient...

Planning on getting the fuse glassed tonight, or at least one side anyway.. This stage of the process kind of drags on.. You don't see much for progress from one day to the next but I'm still plugging away (no pun intended)..