Originally Posted by
Dansy
Dave,
I have the same snowman front mount....but it's not a drop in, (the impression I had reading you previous post) so mine will need to be trim down so I get the proper spacing with the plenty advance (right now it's too big and I'm about ½" front the nose ring)....is that what you had to do?
I already have a plan but I'm open to suggestion....
Oh yes.....The Snowman and myself designed that mount especially for the BJ series of airplanes that were to be powered by the Plettenberg Advance.
I made the first two by hand for my Nuance and his Prolog...now owned by ITC,
The Nuance is still going strong and is my backup airplane.
We reduced the thickness of the material and had them water jet cut a bit oversized so they could be custom fit for each fuselage.
The reason to be oversized a little is because the fuselage is slightly irregular.
It was much easier to make it a series of circles.
I found that the best way to trim it to fit is to sand the shine off of both sides and using a pencil....carefully mark no more than 1/32" in from the edge of the circumference...then using a disc sander...rotate the mount in a circle to reduce the diameter.
Be careful and go slow....a small removal of material makes a big change in the fit.
DO NOT attempt to cut this material....it is really tough stuff....but it sands easily.
You may have to trim an area of the mount to clear the lower part of the spinner ring inside the fuse.
Mount the motor and spinner backplate with a couple of screws each time you trial fit it in order to keep the motor centered on the fuselage.
Use the fuselage spinner ring to get it aligned properly.
You will have to rotate the motor to get the wires to clear....position the wires at about 4 o'clock when viewed from the front.
Once you get it aligned correctly and the mount just lightly touching in several places....tack it in place with 3 or 4 dots of thick CA glue.
You should have a slight amount of clearance to get the spinner ring exactly aligned.
Then carefully remove the motor and use Hysol 9462 epoxy to glue the mount in place.
This stuff is thick like toothpaste and stays in place after application.
Put a nice bead around the mount on front and back and ensure that it gets in the space between the mount and fuse side.
This will make a bulletproof installation and will not pop off like hobby glues.
This glue is available at McMaster-Carr and can be used for a lot of applications over time.
Store in the refrigerator when not used.
My last cartridge lasted 7 years until I finally used it up.....definitely worth using.
I don't use hobby epoxy glue anymore on composites....hobby epoxy is good for wood.
Also....I made some small tabs from thin FR-4 scrap ckt board material for the rear motor mounts.
These are held in place by Hysol as well....just a small bead between the material and the fuse holds them securely.
The Snowman and myself have over 3500 flights on these mounts.....a little over 900 flights on the Nuance alone without the slightest sign of problems on any of these 4 airplanes.
These mounts are very strong and will not flex in use when mounted this way because they are attached all the way around the circle.
Dave