billzair

My Feedback: (29)

just an idea..... has any one made wings, fuse, etc out of that "foam " board that they put on your house before they put up the siding. I know that they sell it at home depot and a 4x8 sheet must only weigh around 2- 3 pounds max! I made a sample just for you guys to check out.

billzair

My Feedback: (29)

thers the wing after its folded( no spar though)

Quicker

I made this spadstick entirely out of foam board to keep it light for my .25LA. It flies GREAT. The little .25 pulls it around very well.






Quicker

gramp65

Do you have a gas version? Thanks John

Quicker

If you mean gas as in gasoline, nope not yet. I've got a 31cc Ryobi weedwacker that I want to start converting soon. I'm thinking of building a 70 to 80 inch spadstick for it and I'v been thinking of using foamboard instead of coro to keep it lighter.

I've also got a K&B .61 that I want to build a spadstick shaped more like an ultra stick. I'm torn between foam board and coro on it too. The foam folds so easily and is so light. It takes a good beating too. I ran this plan smack into a tree and a light pole . A little tape on the leading edge to cover the dents is all it took to fix it.

This one is powered by my OS .25LA running 10% Cool Power.

Quicker

grant-RCU

My Feedback: (10)

Now this is intresting! How much does a 4x8 sheet cost?
Quicker nice plane! How much weight saving does the foam have over the coro?
Do you work with the foam bord just like coro or is there some trick to shaping it?

There is one problem with making a foam plane for a gasoline engine. Gas melts foam as soon as it comes in contact with it.

Quicker

A local supplier sells it for $11 a sheet in white. About $3 more for black. This was made with 40 inch sheets from Hobby Lobby. The wing is 40 inches, so it worked perfect. Hobby Lobby sells 40 inch sheets for $3 to $5 depending on thickness and color. The smaller sheets are great for .25 size planes, and you don't need to paint them. Just give them a coat of clear Polyurethane (sp?) spray paint to fuel-proof it.

I've never had 2mil coro, so I don't know exactly, but I've been told it's lighter than that. Much lighter than 4mil.

It's very similar. To make a folded corner, I cut a "wedge" out of the board and fold it. The wing is a single piece of board with a wedge cut out of the leading edge (on the inside) with a line of elmer's glue run in it, then fold it over the spar, just like coro. To get a nice, rounded airfoil I took my xacto knife and cut slits the entire span of the wing 2 inches before and after the spar on the inside of the wing. This lets the foam board "bend" without a sharp fold to get a nice, smooth rounded airfoil. All of these cuts and slices are on the inside, so the outside is nice and smooth.

Look at the tips of my wings and you can see the rounded airfoil. I used a 3/4 inch tall spar on this wing. Except for the slices in the foam board by the spar, it's much like a coro wing.

As far as glue, I put this together with thick CA. I use a little elmer's here and there too. I'm gonna try some other stuff on some scraps here tonight. I've got tons of liquid nails laying around from working on my basement, so I'm gonna try that. I think goop and welder would work well too.

If you need I can make some illustrations and post them.

kramer

My Feedback: (61)

Looks good.This stuff is ok for sport flying but the crash survivability is pretty low.I had a fold and fly and the first time it hit the ground it broke in half and repairing the thin foam/paper board just adds weight and not strength

Quicker

Well, it's not as good as coro, but it's not bad either. My first crash was when I hit the top of a 50 foot tree and it fell to the ground. It broke the gear off, the prop broke and I had 3 big dents in the leading edge of the wing. I took some card stock and painted it black and glued it on the leading edge to cover the dents. I then took some clear packing tape and ran it over the leading edge for a smooth finish. Worked well. I then fixed the landing gear by replacing the 1/8th ply plates that had snapped.

The second crash was due to a cross wind take-off and I went right into a barbed wire fence. That basically tore the horiz stab off the plane. I cut away the rest of it and cut out a new one and glued it on with thick CA. Good as new! I think that coro would have been damaged on that one too.

I agree it's best for sport flying and would not be good at all for combat. When I get into combat it will be a coro plane.

JakeCarter

Check out the Electric Foamies section on the RCGroups.com forums. Those guys have been using the fan-fold foam for quite a while and have made some really amazing looking planes. Do a search for fan-fold to see some.

Here's a link to the forum:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/forum...php?forumid=18

Here's a link to one of the posts on fan-fold, 2,403 posts, with 208,555 reads!!!:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...threadid=25136

Quicker

How is that stuff for stiffness? I've only worked with foam board (the stuff with paper on the outside and foam in the middle) that you get from hobby/craft stores. Can it stand the abuse of a .46 or .61 engine? I know the foamboard can.

JakeCarter

I've used the foam board and the fan fold stuff and they seem to be pretty much the same. I've only used them for electric powered planes though so I'm not sure how it would hold up.

Quicker

Well, maybe I need to make a trip to Lowes to price it and feel it. Does it take paint well and what kind of paint can you use on it?

Off the top of your head, is it cheaper than foamboard, or about the same?

JakeCarter

as I recall it goes for about $25 a bundle, which is 4' X 50' of the stuff all folded out. I stopped by some constructions sites in the area that were using it and asked if I could have some. I got about 15 feet worth and ended up throwning some away. I used Testors paint for mine, and it seems to be the paint of choice with the guys at rcgroups.