splinterz25

Okay I was up early and finished shaping the tail cone and moved on to covering it w/ glass & WB poly 4 more coats sanding in between each and it will be ready to cast in plaster.


Bruce

splinterz25

Okay here's what I did on the PBY build today; I finished the poly on the foam plug waxed it up, then made the plaster mold using an old raisins container now it's curing . I also grooved and glued the lower LE of the fin in place.

Check the progress,

Bruce

splinterz25

Okay after I let the mold cure for a short while I peeled off the cardboard carton to let it cure; then this evening I poor in acetone and melted out the plug.

If you take the top edges and pull them away from the sides and hold them tight together the whole plug becomes a bag and you pull out the messy goo w/ out getting on your hands.

Mine came out very clean to troubles what so ever Now to let the moisture dry out over night then I'll wax the living out of the mold before glassing her up.

Check out the progress,

Bruce

splinterz25

Okay I cast the mold this morning and I must not have let the plaster dry enough
should have used my heat lamp oh well live and learn the casting hardened but the surface against the plaster was real sticky.

So after removing I wiped w/ alcohol on a clean rag then brushes a thin coat of fresh mixed resin over the whole surface.

The resin in the mixing pot from the original casting hardened like a rock so it had to be moisture in the plaster I need to bake these w/ my heat lamp.

Anyway I think I can save it check it out,

Bruce

splinterz25

Alright I had a bit of a rough time at first but this part is looking like it's going to be fine with just a little elbow grease trimming & wet sanding!
Now to make a solid wood ring to have something to run a screw into and some primer then we'll be done w/ this part.


Bruce

splinterz25

I've had some questions about why I did the part out of fiber glass and didn't leave it in foam; if your doing smaller models you would want to leave it in foam and cover it w/ resin that won't melt the foam, this would be tougher and still light weight.
I made this part out of fiber glass so you could access the aft linkage for repair should you need to. The plans had a hollow chunk of balsa glued on covering everything you would have to cut it off.

I did some more to the aft cone I primed it then spot putty sanded again primed a second time and made the hard wood ring that will get mounted once everything is glued in place; then the cone will be screwed to the wooden ring.

Have a look, I'm getting closer to gluing the rest of the tail plane & fin.

Bruce

splinterz25

Okay were having some very nice weather here today so I opened all the windows because it's the perfect day to seal the inside of the aft bottom of the hull w/ Balsa Rite If you don't like the smell of lacquer you won't want to use this product way more toxic.
I put a medium coat everywhere I could reach.
I didn't get much done yesterday because we got a new puppy and I spent all day w/ setting the house up puppy proof? well the best I could so far LOL.

Check the photos,
This is SASHA an 8 week old Pit-Pug

Bruce

Bill Diedrich

Cute little feller you got there Bruce, most importantly puppy proof the models,
they like to chew on the tail feathers and wheels..............

Bill D.

splinterz25

She's not allowed in the build room or the shop it looks like she is a chewer and she has her own toys
for that.

Bruce

splinterz25

In case any body is wondering what happened to me w/ this build I'm still working on it.
I was just taking advantage of the good weather were having and built two fences, shed, retaining wall and a gate in my back yard before the snow gets here; I've just about got it all finished.

Bruce

splinterz25

Okay there's been a few guys wondering if I'm still building anymore
Life has away of happening where everything hits at once and the holiday plus building my new shop downstairs. I made a smaller work bench from my old one referbed my vice that has been outside for 20 years and made a detailing table from the lumber that use to be part of my old shed. I added some new maple ply and edging to the base made from the old lumber; a few coats of poly and several coats of wax and it's looking nice. I'll be getting back on the build soon for a short while then it will be Christmas which always throws a cog in the works and my building budget!

Here are some photos of the shop so far,

Bruce

splinterz25

Well I got back in the build room this morning and pushed on w/ setting the incidence on the Stab. I have decided to give it 1 degree positive incidence the scale plane has 4 degrees from what I understand I'm thinking this will help it get up on step easier.
I have to get everything set right because once I hook up the push rod after gluing on the Stab the last piece of skin will be added enclosing everything.
I'm still working nothing is glued yet I'm going to eat lunch then glue everything up and try and finish the aft end fin and skin the rest as well.

Check out the small amount of progress I made this morning,

Bruce

splinterz25

Okay after gluing the stab on and a few more pieces of skin I'm stopping for the day I didn't get as much done has hoped but made some progress.

The stab ended up at zero degrees incidence by the time it was clamped and dry one degree is such a small amount of incidence.

The entire tail section still moves very easily so I will make sure to hold it in the correct place while adding the last pieces of skin to aft sections.

Check the progress photos,

Bruce

splinterz25

Well I've added some more skin to the aft end this is the transition from where they have the skin 3/8" thick to 3/32" it took some sanding and adding layers and a small amount of Bondo to get both sides blended.
It's slow going I'm not back into the swing of the build just yet and now I'm moving on to the back portion between the tail and wing mount; I'm trying to keep the sheets as large as possible for fewer seams and less sanding.

Bruce

splinterz25

Well today I put the plane back together to see what I had and thought the tail was out but after looking closer the wing mount is off in two directions!

But it only takes a fraction plus or minus in the directions needed to move it into it's proper place.
The trick at this point will be holding everything in place while finishing gluing the wing mounts and remaining skins on.

So I think I need to make a much better foam cradle then line everything up where it need t be before continuing anymore gluing.

Where it sits right now the wing is at 4 degrees pos. incidence and the right side needs to go down and back about 1/2", to do this I have to remove a very small amount on the base of the mount and give it a slight twist and measure everything several times.

I knew the way this plane is made w/ the very small wing attachment point this would be a very touchy area and would require some type of jiging to line and hold everything while final gluing was being done.

If any of you guys have any good ideas on how to go about this I will listen; my idea is to make a cradle that wont let it move holding it to my bench and then pulling or pushing the part that needs moving holding them in place then once there and after triple checking glue the mounts and check then skin the rest.

If you are think about anything I haven't mentioned please speak up I often miss the things that are looking me in the face and then I notice after it's too late.

This is when it's best to stand back and think for awhile

Bruce

All Day Dan

My Feedback: (5)

According to Paul Matts' “Scale Aircraft” drawings, the full size wing is 6 degrees positive, the engines 3 degrees positive, and the horizontal stabilizer 4 degrees positive. Considering the fact that you have 1 degree positive at the stab, you are probably close enough with the incidences to leave the wing as you have it. Keep in mind that the thrust vector is very high on that plane and will cause down thrust unless you offset it with some up thrust. What’s on the plans? By the way, the Albatross wing is set at plus 5 and the engines are aligned with it, which puts them at plus 5 also. I have rebuilt planes after an unfortunate occurrence with mother earth and a half inch here or there may look terrible when I make my final measurements, I just leave it alone and trim it out. It may fly cockeyed but who cares. Dan.

splinterz25

Quote:
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[TD="class: alt2"]Originally Posted by parkcityskier
What I would do is to make supports to hold the wing perfectly stable and then adjust the fuselage to fit the wing, rather than the other way around. It seems like it would be harder to hold the fuselage perfectly stable.
[/TD]
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This is a great idea... and I'm in the process of making two supports the same size off of the build table and will do the same for the tail section as well. Then we'll see if everything lines up? as it is right now I can move the wing tips about an inch up & down forward and backward the tail can move quite a bit as well. once everything is in the correct place I can then glue the wing braces and add the rest of the skins.

Bruce

splinterz25

like I said before this is the time to stand back and think.
So what I did was made two pieces of foam the same size and placed them under the wing tips at the same rib, and carved a full body cradle from a cooler to hold the fuse.

Then like parkcityskier said I rotated the fuse on it axis straightening the tail and clamped very tight w/ vice grip clamps; after doing that it all lined up w/ the exception of the distance from wing tip to stab tip.

So this still needs some fixen I'll start to work on that part this afternoon.

The other thing I'm think about doing once everything is where It needs to be drilling two 3/16"dowels all the way through the three wing mounts so the whole set up will line automatically while gluing; this way I can spread the glue place the wing on the fuse push the dowels in place and clamp then it all should line right up where it was plus it would be very strong.

Have a look I don't know if you can see the difference in the wing & tail relationship or not; but if you see anything I've missed please speak up.

Bruce

splinterz25

I had a chance to add some 1/16" shims at the wing mounting point and it moved the wing tip 1/2" where it needed to go. When I can I'm going to drill through all three mounts and run two 3/16" dowels through them; so when it's time to glue everything will line right up quickly and it will make it stronger also.

splinterz25

Alright I've checked and rechecked and came up w/ this I made two 1/16"ply wedges tapering from the center of the mount to the out side edge on the right side

This was just enough to bring the wing tip back so there is equal distance from the wing tips to the stab tips.

I scratched using the dowel idea because there wasn't enough time before the glue starts setting up I bearly had enough time to get the few edges that had glue on them in place as it was.

However there is still quite a bit of movement and will be until I skin the aft end.

So while doing this I'll make two strings the same size and try and hold the wing tips and stab tips the same distance by tying them tight.

I've cut away the foam cradle so I can get to the aft section better while skinning; this now becomes very difficult to work on now until I can remove the wing tips.

The wing incidence was set like it shows on the drawing 3 degrees, and the only thing to glue now is the fin tip this will be done when I can turn the whole plane around and sight it from the front.

Check the progress photos and you'll see how I did this better than I can explain.

Bruce

Joyfull Aircraft

Bruce, I sent you a large amount of wire, three weeks ago, did you ever get it? Steve.....

splinterz25

Steve yes I did thank you ; I also had sent you an email thanking you, I guess you didn't get that one I thought you were just busy w/ your family?

This amount should last me a great while and will be put to good use.

In case I don't catch up w/ you Merry Christmas to you and your's and a Happy New Year!!

Thank you once again,

Bruce

splinterz25

Well I went on to skinning the front section catching it up w/ the right side and had forgotten where or what I had done; this design w/ it's many layers is anything but straight forward.
So I got very little done and had to tear off about half of what I did do!!
Still spinning my wheels but know what needs to be done now.

Bruce

splinterz25

Alright guys I had some time to slip into the building room between holiday stuff today and get back to blending the sides.
I must tell any of you that want to build this plane w/ these drawings I would look at the way Robert has it drawn you do not need to make it 3/8" thick 3/16" would be just fine w/ two layers of 3/32" .

Anyway I had already glued up my sides and had to go w/ 3/8" so I had to fill in and do some planking as much as I don't like it to get everything flush, now there's one more 3/32" layer.

The other thing is that there's a lot of blending layers w/ this design by sanding feathering in; So if you don't like sanding this build is not for you.

You'll see in the photos where another layer of 3/32" balsa will cover the neck and blend into the thick 3/8" balsa and then have to be feathered into the other parts of the skin.

There's still a great deal yet to do but at least I have it all close to being flush now and once I get the sides and neck covered I can finally move back to the aft section and finish it.

Check the progress photos,

Bruce

splinterz25

I'm still chipping away at building her.
Today added some more skin and was looking at the removable cockpit set up and how to go about making that happen.
Also I went to the Depot and got two new tools for my Christmas.

Bruce