ORIGINAL: saucerguy
ORIGINAL: critterhunter
ORIGINAL: CastorTroy2150
I jsut cut my jigs for the fuse, and the wing, so I will be able to go and get my faom tonight and begin. I will make the tailfeathers out of solid balsa and the plane will be glassed or sheeted one of the two. Will cut the cowl jigs as well. The rest will need to be hand shaped. After the kit is complete and test flown I will show pics and a video of it flying. At that point, which could be further down the road, I will be offering kits if anyone is interested. And not these big expensive out of the sky priced kits. These will be very affordable and include everything but the electronics and motor/mount and battery. Basically an ARF parts cut, I will be installing .10 sized retracts on mine so that would be an option as well. I was thinking it would cost me about 50.00 to consrtuct one kit, with rods and hardware, no sheeting. I would sell for 70.00ish plus shipping. It would be a great kit, and cheap. We will see how it all goes. Should have a fuse and wing cut ready to show pics sometime tonight.
Looks good. The wire will flex a good bit. Tie knots in the spring to stiffen it up as much as possible. Still, even if it does flex it's not a problem. Just cut slower so the heat of the wire does the work and not tension on the wire. You don't need wood jigs for the fuse or booms. I pitched those as they don't really help much, especially if you are using a hot wire table cutter like the one I built (pictures on the first few pages). I just trace out the outline of the part and then use the table cutter to free hand hot wire it out. I prefer to stay just outside the traced lines in case I slip and then sand to final contour. I find that even a perfectly cut wing can use some sanding to tweak things out, along with the body parts. Don't think hot wiring eliminates sanding. It just eliminates a lot of mess and much more sanding if you didn't have a hot wire cutter. I like to use an orbital sander on the wing and other parts, but if I'm trying to create a perfectly flat and straight line I use a belt sander. Hand sanding is best for curves and such. As for wire diameter/heat....You a for the most part trying to get the wire to a temperture that is slightly below the wire glowing red. This keeps it as clean as possible and cuts without drag. You can cut with lower tempertures but you'll have to move slower to avoid tearing or drag. If you need temperture control them buy a $5 light dimmer from Home Depot/Lowes. Plug that into the wall and then the charger into it.
Along my straight cuts, I'll ink in the lines on top of the foam. I have a couple of straight cutting jigs that keep the wire from veering either direction, it's basically two upside down T pieces that have a slot in the middle of them. Once the wire is in position, I'll power it up and let gravity pull it through the foam. It's much safer and easier to do then cutting those on the tablesaw, much less, less messy as well and you can technically cut through a stack of sheets at once if you were inclinded.
Well, it looks like I'm dragging out my foam cutting table, have a kit to fill in some of the gaps on that ships out on Monday and I'm itching to bust out some extra's as well, with the rc dragon, rc p40 and rc so's, partially to have some extra inventory and partially to have some extra foamies to build when I have time. I put my stick built scratch onto the side while I take care of biz, but it's also on the agenda afterwards.
Haven't been on much lately due to hunting and just being lazy in general. I'm getting pretty bored now and so am about to kick out the resumes and land a job in HVAC. I guess it's true what they say...that too much free time is not a good thing. Flying, hunting, laying around and watching TV...None of it's all that enjoyable because I've been doing so much of it. Well, not really the flying part. Too many planes unfixed at the moment.
Yea, that's the way I do my straight cuts too and it works well (Gravity Cutting). Figured this might be a good time to go over the basics for any newbies in what I do working with foam. For wings, I measure out a rectangle and then gravity cut that out. Always good to give yourself a good inch or so of extra width. That'll cut off anyway as your bow does the leading/trailing edges on the jig. The length should be what you want (say 3' for a 3 foot wing) but it's better to have it a hair long so it snugs into the wing jigs. If you cut the wing square out of thick enough foam you'll be able to flip it over and cut another wing out. If it's way to thick then I'll use a couple pieces of angle iron taped to my workbench and then slide the foam through it to cut out slabs. If doing wings longer than your bow (about 40" is the max most of our power sources can heat up) then just cut out two and glue them together.
For fuses, I in general just trace out the outline on the foam and then use my table cutter to cut it out free hand. I always stay a bit outside the lines and then sand with an orbital, belt, or by hand. Wings often need some sanding as well. I tend to not cut out the lower leading edge lip that goes under the wing but rather just sand that out by hand.
To gravity cut straight lines, I just weight the foam hanging over the table edge, then mark the line I want cut. I'll then just hang the bow by it's wire over the trace, making sure it's "balanced" fairly well so one end doesn't sink faster than the other. I make sure the bow isn't moving before plugging in the charger to make the cut, and I have it set for maximum heat to cut straight without drifting by dragging. To do this I simply slide the alligator clips I have hitched to the bow wire as close together as possible.
For cutting out ailerons, I just use a right angle or T square metal ruler and weight it down on the wing to act as my guide. I then use a little hand held mini bow to cut it out.