ram3500-RCU

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Thanks pal. I have many years of practice. When I started out in RC, the ARF didn't exist. We built, we flew and crashed, then we repaired, and flew some more, till the Ambriod wouldn't stick anymore, then we built new.

JPate147

Amazing skill and imagination Ram - and I really had to grin when I read your coment about the Ambroid. My wife used to make me shut the door and I was always a little goofy when I came out. I remember we had everything all pinned and straight and added the glue before going to bed (long cure time). Sometimes in the morning you faced a disaster if something came unpinned during the curing process. Again, beautiful work.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Thanks, these really are fond memories aren't they. My local HS still sells Ambroid. I picked up a tube awhile back, and I didn't remember how light it was. A large tube weighs almost nothing.

My mom didn't like the smell, and later my wife liked it even less. Guys these days don't know how good they have it.

77chickenhawk

hey Ram..................................[:-]


If you could?...... I would like to see some nice close up's of the spark plug wires especially by the spark plug area... photo's of what tools and hardware you used

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

I have these pictures on hand. The plane is over at Brian's house. I'll get some more when I can. For the spark plugs, I used pieces of CF Nyrod, with a solid piece of aluminum in the center with a bend. I then used 3/8" pieces of aluminum tubing as connectors for the solid brass bar I bent into the wires. This was them painted the copper color.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Nothing special in tooling. I used an Exacto knife, razor saw, dikes, my trusty Makita cordless drill, a Dremel with the thin cutting wheel, and a couple different size pliers. Most all the work was done in hand.

Oops, I forgot the crank case and housing. They were made with the help of a band saw, and a disk sander.

77chickenhawk

thankx Ram that will help lots..............

John Baligrodzki

Gary,

This is one of the most informative threads I have seen in awhile. Very well done and timely as I am about to build the dummy radial for my Yellpw P-47. I have the Aerotech kit which has the nice center casting, the cylinder and the round housing that holds it all together. I will just need to follow what you did for details and I will have a nice looking dummy radial.

Can you tell me more about bending the circular wire guide? You said you filled the tubing with sand and bent it around the form. Can you supply any details or points on how to do that so I will not go through 25 pieces of tubing to get 1 finished part!
Also I went to the wow planes site. Can you tell me more about the Liquid sheeting? I see you can get a nice metal looking finish with it Curious how you use it to obtain fillets and it general workijng prperties.

Thanks,

John B.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Thank you John. I'm glad it is helpful. That's the idea. On bending the tubing, I was watching an episode of "How They Do That' on aluminum, and they showed GM, I think, using water inside aluminum tubing to help form frame rails in the press without kinking. I was about to make this part, so I decided to use some fine sand I had. It worked well to keep the tubing from kinking. You may also be able to use micro balloons if you have some. Water would work if you could seal the ends. Not practical in this application. I bent it slightly smaller than needed. It is easy to open a little.

When drilling the holes for the spur tubes, I tried using a pilot drill, but found it caused the full size to grab. I wound up using the correct size very slowly, and it worked just fine. I glued the spurs in with think CA, running it in first, then placing the small tubes into it. Made a nice strong joint. The top cowl bolt is right in between the two top cylinders, so I cheated just a bit and rotated this ring so as to make room for my allen wrench in the center of these jugs. Otherwise the top spur would have been right in the way of installing the cowl. Good to look ahead for things like this when doing your dummy design.

The LS is a nice product that seals whatever you paint it on. It can be painted over foam and then coated with whatever type of paint you like. In this application, it fills the corners and joints with a little material that rounds these areas out and nicely simulates the soft fillets of casting. It is dry to the touch in about an hour, and ready to paint over night. It sands nicely as well. Balsa, painted with LS, and then sanded, will look like metal when painted, no grain showing. Sometimes it takes two coats, but it is light. Much easier than glassing in this case. It is a two part mix and has a working time of about 20 min.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

BTW John, please post some pictures if you can. Maybe we can make this thread 'simulated radial central', for guys wanting to add this to their planes.

tunakuts3d

Ram, I noticed you mentioned the drill bit grabbing when you were drilling into the plastic. If you grind a flat on the cutting lip of the drill so it scrapes rather than slices into the plastic it wont grab as it breaks thru the exit side.Grinding the flat can be tricky on really small bits. Found this site that pretty much explains it.
http://www.bertram31.com/proj/tips/drill_acrylic.htm
Paul

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Thanks for the tip. Actually, it was the aluminum tube for the ignition wires that I was drilling. It only grabbed when I drilled pilot holes. Going through slowly with the full size bit was fine.

BOLTMAN

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Thanks for posting this Gary.

You have covered something that has not received alot of attention on forums.

ram3500-RCU

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Thank you BOLTMAN. I thought the same thing.

NCIS

Gary,

Here are a couple pictures of mine so far. I still neeed to add the magnetos and some more detail before I airbrush it with siver and gold. The decal will be last. What else am I missing? I like this engine because it is 3D. I modified it but it was a Williams brothers basic kit to start with. This will be for the Corsair if I end up getting the DLE 222.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

looks much better that stock. Looking forward to seeing it after your paint job.

ram3500-RCU

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A few of my reference pictures for various details. Accessories and various parts evolved and changed over the production run, so a wide range of appearances is what you find on these details. Also, restored engines don't always look like the original productions because of the way they are painted. I tried to find pictures of original in service engines for the paint. Good close ups of restored engines are good for the accessories and other details.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Here is the ID plaque I made for my engine. The plate itself is made out of foil.

NCIS

Gary you are simply amazing. You have skills beyond my imagination. I'll ship my dummy radial to you if you can work your magic on mine for me!!!

Barry

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

I really enjoyed doing this mod. It is a relaxing project. I'll fix you up, if you're not in too big a hurry.

NCIS

Gary,

I'm not in any hurry and as long as I get it back by Christmas I'll be happy. Email me with your address and I'll ship it off to you. When your done just let me know how much I owe you OK?

Thank you,

Barry
[email protected]

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

That works for me. I'll send you my address. I'll keep receipts for the supplies, and go from there. Before you send me the parts, if you want to mount it like mine, we will have to do some prep work. I'll need a 1/8" piece of ply, cut to fit your cowl. Now it would be best to mount the cowl, with this ply temporarily installed to make sure the dummy is lined up correctly with your gasser.

There is another option, if you like. I can build the engine on a 1/8" ply just large enough for the dummy. Then you can add whatever you need around it, when you get things ready to install. As I type, it seems this is the best in this case. We had the luxury of having the plane on hand. The latter will work fine. You won't see the perimeter in the cowl anyway, or not much anyway. I will need the size of the cowl though. I'll figure the correct scale. Should be a little easier being larger.

Gary

PS. I'll add construction pictures to this thread as I work on it so you can keep tabs on the progress, and yell at me if you don't like something.

NCIS

I'll go with option 2 so I can make it fit after your done and you send it back. I can tell you now it fills the front of the cowl. This dummy is the biggest Williams Brothers ever made. I will also send the exhaust stacks if you want to go to the trouble of installing them.

Thanks for accepting such a tedious project for me.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Sounds like it is close to scale. The full scale engine was 52.8" in diameter. So you can figure scale from there. May be easier than ours. We needed to make that one larger.

Option 2 is good. It will be easy to center it on your engine.

NCIS

Gary,

I emailed you with the tracking number from UPS. It should be there by Friday at the latest. It went out early this afternoon. Can't wait to see when you get a chance to start on it. I'm really looking forward to pictures as you go. You are an outstanding friend for doing this for me!