How are ARF's made?
05-21-2007, 03:51 PM
#26
My Feedback: (8)
RE: How are ARF's made?
Truly interesting how all of the ARF's that exist today are compiled and lumped into one category. Wood selection is a key choice for us at Horizon, and we work very hard to ensure that the standards are maintained. There are more companies building models in China than you can imagine, we only use those that have served us and our customers well over the years.
Use of a houshold iron is much faster than a "monokote" iron, they hold the heat much, much better. This of course equals a much faster job on the assembly line. Hot glue as mentioned above is not used in any Horizon Hobby product. Glues of choice mainly for us are alphatic resin glues and some CA. CA is very, very expensive in China and is only used in certain areas.
Interesting how you thnk a video would help educate our customer base. Something to think about on our side.
Use of a houshold iron is much faster than a "monokote" iron, they hold the heat much, much better. This of course equals a much faster job on the assembly line. Hot glue as mentioned above is not used in any Horizon Hobby product. Glues of choice mainly for us are alphatic resin glues and some CA. CA is very, very expensive in China and is only used in certain areas.
Interesting how you thnk a video would help educate our customer base. Something to think about on our side.
05-21-2007, 10:56 PM
#27
My Feedback: (16)
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Surrey,
BC, CANADA
Posts: 840
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
ORIGINAL: John Redman
It is more of an assembly line than you can imagine. Pretty amazing all in all. I have watched the people in China cover a model in minutes compared to our hours as modelers. Just incredible to see. Everything is jig built one way or another. All in all the process is very good and the ARF's of today will rival most modelers attempts at construction.
It is more of an assembly line than you can imagine. Pretty amazing all in all. I have watched the people in China cover a model in minutes compared to our hours as modelers. Just incredible to see. Everything is jig built one way or another. All in all the process is very good and the ARF's of today will rival most modelers attempts at construction.
05-21-2007, 11:27 PM
#29
RE: How are ARF's made?
To John Redman...I think a video that showed the manufacturing of H9 ARFs should be made, and sent to all your dealers...
Brennan's hobby shop has a TV / video set-up in the center isle where we watch videos quite often, and I know that a lot of us would like to see where ARFs are made...JMO
Brennan's hobby shop has a TV / video set-up in the center isle where we watch videos quite often, and I know that a lot of us would like to see where ARFs are made...JMO
05-22-2007, 09:20 AM
#30
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Alexander City,
AL
Posts: 2,584
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
[link=http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG] RC Matrix translated [/link]
05-23-2007, 10:03 AM
#31
My Feedback: (16)
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Surrey,
BC, CANADA
Posts: 840
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
quote:
ORIGINAL: John Redman
It is more of an assembly line than you can imagine. Pretty amazing all in all. I have watched the people in China cover a model in minutes compared to our hours as modelers. Just incredible to see. Everything is jig built one way or another. All in all the process is very good and the ARF's of today will rival most modelers attempts at construction.
Oh man that is so not the case. I just recently lost a plane due to a catastrophic wing failure and when looking at the wreckage it was very evident that there was no where near enough glue to hold the wing ribs in place. They were tack glued at best and there was no further glue used after the "tacking in place stage" I can tell you one thing, when I build a kit I do not use glue sparingly and if I am no hurry I used wood glue versus Ca as the final bond is much stronger. ARF's are built on assembly lines for a reason...cheap, fast and by people who could care a less how well they are built. This DOES NOT apply to all ARF assemblers but most of them are cheap fast and careless!
ORIGINAL: John Redman
It is more of an assembly line than you can imagine. Pretty amazing all in all. I have watched the people in China cover a model in minutes compared to our hours as modelers. Just incredible to see. Everything is jig built one way or another. All in all the process is very good and the ARF's of today will rival most modelers attempts at construction.
Oh man that is so not the case. I just recently lost a plane due to a catastrophic wing failure and when looking at the wreckage it was very evident that there was no where near enough glue to hold the wing ribs in place. They were tack glued at best and there was no further glue used after the "tacking in place stage" I can tell you one thing, when I build a kit I do not use glue sparingly and if I am no hurry I used wood glue versus Ca as the final bond is much stronger. ARF's are built on assembly lines for a reason...cheap, fast and by people who could care a less how well they are built. This DOES NOT apply to all ARF assemblers but most of them are cheap fast and careless!
All in all the process is very good and the ARF's of today will rival most modelers attempts at construction.
I have enjoyed owning a Hanger 9 Extra 330S until such times as I had a certain brand of servos lock up the elevator due to a center pin boss failure and I will say that ARF was very well built.
John if any of my original post was taken out of context, please accept my apologies, I was not by any means slamming Horizon or it's products, Horizon products and their customer service have always been excellent to me.
05-23-2007, 10:14 AM
#32
My Feedback: (8)
RE: How are ARF's made?
We're good, no issues here. The one thing many may not be aware of is the number of vendors that make these aircraft over in China. It is staggering to say the least. Unfortunately not all of them are capapble of building a solid model, as many of you have probably coem to find out (the hard way). Staying with the larger companies out there, I believe you will get the best value for your dollar. I knwo we try very hard to keep it up and we do this because our number one competitor is doing the same.
Still interesting the thoughts on a video of the process. I know I have seen it and it is almost unbelievable with some fo the technology they use to bring these models to market.
Still interesting the thoughts on a video of the process. I know I have seen it and it is almost unbelievable with some fo the technology they use to bring these models to market.
05-23-2007, 01:09 PM
#33
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Somewhere in, ME
Posts: 260
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
Hi,
I came across this site at Jet Hobbies that shows a bunch of pics of several manufacturing sites in China. One of which is CMP Airplane. One link can be found [link=http://www.jet-hobbies.com/jh/index.php?op=public&task=gallery&c=2004_cmp_manufacturer2&to=24&ti=CMP+Manufacturer+2]HERE[/link] There are more pages in their "Gallery" section on the left side of the homepage.
Pretty amazing to look at, but as can be seen by many of the pictures, it seems the working conditions are very poor. There seem to be many chemicals, paints, solvents, epoxies, etc and the employees seem to have very little or no protective clothing, respirators, and the like.
I came across this site at Jet Hobbies that shows a bunch of pics of several manufacturing sites in China. One of which is CMP Airplane. One link can be found [link=http://www.jet-hobbies.com/jh/index.php?op=public&task=gallery&c=2004_cmp_manufacturer2&to=24&ti=CMP+Manufacturer+2]HERE[/link] There are more pages in their "Gallery" section on the left side of the homepage.
Pretty amazing to look at, but as can be seen by many of the pictures, it seems the working conditions are very poor. There seem to be many chemicals, paints, solvents, epoxies, etc and the employees seem to have very little or no protective clothing, respirators, and the like.
05-28-2007, 08:39 AM
#35
Senior Member
My Feedback: (1)
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Yokohama, JAPAN
Posts: 701
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
ORIGINAL: BBOwen
[link=http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG] RC Matrix translated [/link]
[link=http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG] RC Matrix translated [/link]
that capability?
Tsutomu Mabuchi
05-28-2007, 08:51 AM
#36
Senior Member
My Feedback: (1)
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Yokohama, JAPAN
Posts: 701
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
ORIGINAL: Tsutomu Mabuchi
Thank you, but how did you do that? Any translating software or does Google have
that capability?
Tsutomu Mabuchi
ORIGINAL: BBOwen
[link=http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG] RC Matrix translated [/link]
[link=http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG] RC Matrix translated [/link]
that capability?
Tsutomu Mabuchi
http://translate.google.com/translate_t
Tsutomu Mabuchi
05-28-2007, 11:34 AM
#37
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Redneckville, CANADA
Posts: 356
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
I for one would love to see a video of a Hangar-9 Arf being made. I would especially like to see the covering done. I am realtively new to the hobby with only 3 years flying, and i have only covered 4-5 planes and done some patches on others. I am to the point in the last little while that i am finally happy with the way i am covering but i still learn new tricks every time. The last plane i did was a recovering job on a Nitroplanes super chipmunk and i very carefully measured and cut out templates out of paper before i did the covering. It takes a little longer to get to the actual covering but what a difference. I will def. be doing that on all future models.
Flyboy76
Flyboy76
05-28-2007, 11:47 AM
#38
My Feedback: (14)
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Go Riders Go!!!!!!!, CANADA
Posts: 642
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
The above post is mine. My friend was logged in on my computer and i forgot to log him out. Please treat the above post as mine
thankyou
flyboy76
Geoff Bedard
thankyou
flyboy76
Geoff Bedard
05-28-2007, 08:06 PM
#40
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Alexander City,
AL
Posts: 2,584
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
ORIGINAL: Tsutomu Mabuchi
Wow, I didn't know Google offers such service.
http://translate.google.com/translate_t
Tsutomu Mabuchi
ORIGINAL: Tsutomu Mabuchi
Thank you, but how did you do that? Any translating software or does Google have
that capability?
Tsutomu Mabuchi
ORIGINAL: BBOwen
[link=http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG] RC Matrix translated [/link]
[link=http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.rc-matrix.com/factory/index.html%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG] RC Matrix translated [/link]
that capability?
Tsutomu Mabuchi
Wow, I didn't know Google offers such service.
http://translate.google.com/translate_t
Tsutomu Mabuchi
05-28-2007, 08:19 PM
#41
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Gastonia,
NC
Posts: 338
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: How are ARF's made?
What do you do, put 1500 hours into a kit such as a Carden plus the cost of the kit and covering and hardware or buy an arf such as an Aeroworks Extra 260 or Yak 54? I think the choice is simple for me, as I work so much here I just don't have the time to build.
