CG,
you can see my board in action in my LT-40 build threads
[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3439708/tm.htm]Pay It Forward build thread!! LT-40 build.[/link]

I'll tell you this much, I'll never push another pin again!! But looking at the board from Tower, there aren't near enough fixtures or magnets for anything.

Ken

Got the kit today,
I was very impressed at the packing and thee quality of all the wood. my only complaint was the condition of the landing gear. My first thought at opening the kit and looking at the instructions was "damn what have i got myself into?" but than as i unpacked every thing i remembered that i bought a kit so i could learn more about rc aircraft. Now I'm working on the first step. I'll have pics posted as soon as i can locate my camera.

I'm going to use primarily wood glue and was reading the instructions. The instructions say to let sit a min. of 30 min. and has full cure in 24 hours. If i did one steep in the morning (say ~11 a.m.) could i do the next step late at night (say~ mid night)? or should i let everything sit for 24 hr?

Oh, I agree there, Ken. When I bought it, I bought extra magnets, and stands, and so on.. just to make sure I had enough. All I had to do was put all those gizmo's together... []

I will take a look at that thread.

Thanks!!

Dick.

I don't know, Zach. I am putting mine together with CA and Epoxy. I've started the first few steps, but have to wait till I have some spare time and spare room.. []

Well I'm building a 27% Cap 232 right now and I'm using mainly wood glue also. I usually go and get a few pieces ready to glue and glue and clamp them and then put a small fan I have on high and blow it on the glue then I go do some homework and come back in a half hour or 45 minutes and continue building. This is usually enough time for it to set and be fairly hard. I try not to stress the joint too hard though until the next day. This usually works fine for me.
Chuck

Now that I think about it, using my magnetic build board, I can certainly align and straighten, then hold the parts straight and use wood glue. Perhaps I might reconsider.

Thanks for planting the seed, guys!!!

Dick.

Tite Bond II you can apply glue to a few things and get them positioned and clamped and let set for about an hour. Come back, remove the clamps and add some more parts as long as you don't "rough-house" the part. Example: glue in a few ribs until you run out of clamps in the morning. Come back later and add a few more. Later on, add more. When done adding ribs, let sit overnight before removing assy from the board.

Zach,
I build with Elmer's carpenter's glue. Don't let that 24 hour figure scare you. 20-30 minutes is all that's needed before you can handle the parts being glued, most of the time. If you plan your build sequence ahead of time you can build pretty quickly. While the glue is drying on one part/assembly you can start working on the next steps. It just takes a little bit of planning ahead.

Ken

For the record I use Titebond II also.
Chuck

See what you guys have gone and done?

Now I have to find another room to build in. I have a couple of cats.. very VERY curious cats too!!

cool, I'm using great planes wood glue and it seams to dry as fast as i apply it (using it very sparingly!) You guys will be shocked when i show you how small of a space I'm working with. I'm about to go on a quest to find my camera.

My camera is no were to be found but i will continue to look for it. I just got done gluing the ribs of the left wing to the bottom spare. i went ahead and used CA for the 1W-A rib so i know it wont move while drying. Later to night i think i will look at how it is drying and might move on to the next step. I will have pic posted, it just a mater of when.

CGRetired - That's my site that has the magnetic building system (airfieldmodels.com). I'm not trying to make a sale here since I personally consider making the fixtures a wood-working 101 project. I mean if you want to build models then you can cut out triangles and drill some holes in them.

I bought the Great Planes system first as well. It was my first exposure to building with magnets and like RC Ken, I don't plan on pushing any more pins into a board. Well, not entirely true. I may still use pins for very small balsa planes until I get very small magnets and am confident I can get them on and off the board without damaging anything.

So here's my advice to you so you love your system instead of wishing it were better. First, buy a minimum of 100 magnets from The Magnet Source. 200 magnets is even a better idea. use the plates on about 1/3 of them and use the rest without the plates. You will save a ton of money buying them from the source instead of from Tower (who I also believe buys them from the source and then jacks up the price).

Get a roll of 1" wide magnetic tape and find a good piece of STRAIGHT extrusion. Don't just pull any one out of the bin. Pull them all and sight it from as many angles as you can and down every edge. It will bow under its own weight so lay it on the floor and get the straightest one you can find.

Clean all sides of it outdoors with warm, soapy water and fine (#0000) steel wool. Rinse it well and then wipe it down with alcohol.

Now attach a piece of magnetic tape so that the straightest edge is 90 degrees to the side you put the tape on. Put the tape so that it is back slightly from the edge. About 1/32" to 1/16" is good. That is to ensure the extrusion is against your work and not the magnetic strip which may be wavy.

Lastly, those plastic accessories that come with the Great Planes system are really crappy. Take a weekend or two and make your own set. Put some real TLC into them because they'll last forever and they're worth making right. Sand them well and put a nice finish on them. Furniture lacquer or polyurethane are both good choices. You can even paint them some color if you like that better. Just be sure that they can be squared to the board and that the front edge is dead straight and free of splinters and other defects that can gouge or otherwise damage your work.

If you are interested in getting a set and don't want to make your own, all I have in stock right now is unfinished sets. They're shaped, the front edge sanded, all holes drilled and the vertical presses are tapped. Other than that the finish is that of aircraft plywood. Not horrible but not good enough to finish without sanding either. But as I said, the front edge is finished so they can be used unfinished if you want to.

Sets include the following items:

* Instructions
* 22 fixtures in total (number in parens is quantity):

(2) 9-1/2� fixtures
(4) 7-1/2� fixtures
(8) 5-1/2� fixtures
(4) 3-1/2� fixtures
(4) 1-1/2� fixtures

*88 Magnets having a pair of metal plates each. The same as you get with the great planes set.

*46 sets of nuts and bolts to attach magnets to the fixtures. I include a couple extra in case any are defective (bad threads). You only need 44 sets to assemble all the fixtures.

* 8 sets of vertical presses with thumbscrews and hardware to attach the presses to the fixtures. All fixtures can receive the vertical presses except the 1-1/2� fixtures.

Yes, I built my system from following the instructions from Cafeenman's site. When I built my setup I bought 300 magnets from the Magnet Source. I used about 150 for the fixtures, and the 150 for building with. And I'm getting ready to buy some more. Even though I have 150 for building I'm always running out it seem!!! But I love this system. I think it's really improved my building using it.

Ken

PS. The tallest fixtures I had in my personal set was 7-1/2". I built the SR Batteries 1/4 Scale Fokker Eindecker with that set and didn't have any problem. The 9-1/2" fixtures would have been handier toward the front of the fuselage but the 7-1/2" fixtures didn't cause me any problems.

The set I'm currently making for myself (I'm selling my original set) will have fixtures up to 11-1/2" tall. Anything over 9-1/2" has 6 magnets instead of 4.

If you put enough force on the vertical presses, the front of the press will lift from the board. I made "monster" press fixtures using a 2-1/2" bolt with 4 magnets on each side (instead of one) for the front of the fixture and just the two in the back. These presses can torque down significantly without lifting. All you need is a longer bolt and a few more magnets.

i had a guff to night,
Once i got back form DBF I stared to work on the wing. I started on gluing the shear web in, and after getting done realized i glued it to line up with the back of the main spar. The instructions make it clear to glue these to line up with the front of the main spar. I see no resin to this other than to make sure both wings have them on the same side. Is this a big guff or is it not? Why would they wont it to line up with the front of the main spar?

I'm going to go ahead and continue with this guff and make sure that the other wing is done the same way. (unless this will be a structural problem)

Zach,
It's no problem at all. It doesn't matter one bit if you put the shear web on the back or the front of the spars, it will still serve it's purpose. The only thing you need to worry about with shear webbing is the direction of the grain of the balsa, it should be vertical. Don't worry at all about putting it on the back of the spars.

Hope this helps

Ken

Ken is absolutely correct. The only problem may be if there is a wing joiner that is supposed to join the wings at the rear of the spar. You definitely do not want the joiner to attach only to the webs but not to the spars.

If the joiner was supposed to attach to rear of the spars but don't want to move the webs, then you should move the joiner to the front of the spars which means cutting new slots in the ribs. I'm not familiar with the construction of this plane as I've never built one, so that's just general guidance.

If you have a chisel blade and a smallish sanding block, removing the shear webbing shouldn't be too difficult. I normally advice that the best route is to correct a mistake rather than carrying on with it, but every situation is unique.

Do you have a way to post a photo of what you've done and also one of the plan in the afflicted area? That would be extremely helpful.

Don't worry about it, there is no wing joiner. It is no factor. I cut mine to size and made an I beam type arrangement.

well, i got the first part of sheeting on and I'm about to get back to work on it.

The plan is to work until ~2 then go fly.

Sunny ~45*, light and variable winds.

Got the frist wing panel compleated, and have glued the Al. together but it is warped. I'v been sparying it down with water and pining it to the bord and leting it dry but this seam like it is not working. I sparyed it down agine and piled books on it (to a flat surface). If this dose not work how can it be strightened?

There are a couple ways to fix it but warps in finished wings don't always come out permanently. Hopefully it's flexible enough that you can shrink the covering such that it removes the warp.

In the mean time a good method is to get two guys with hot gloves on. You each hold one end of the wing and move it back and forth over a pot of rapidly boiling water. Twist the warp out by going past straight in the opposite direction because the wing will spring back a little.

Hold the wing like that until it cools down. It takes a little time and sometimes a few attempts but that should get it pretty close.

Now that I think about it, are you sure the wing is warped? You used the built in rib tabs so maybe the "warp" is wash-out designed into the wing.

I'm not talking about the Wing I'm talking about the Aleron. Wing apears (to my eye and several other more extpenced builders) to be nice and stright with no worpage or twist, ext.

Oh. Well, new ailerons are easy to make. But same technique applies. You only need one person though. Wear hot gloves and hold it over steaming water. Twist farther than you think you need to because it will spring back a little. Hold it until it cools.

There are ways to build jigs to hold the aileron while you take a heat gun to it but it requires that the jig is very accurate. Basically you cut three or four pieces of balsa from a sheet and pin them exactly vertical to the board so you can lay a straightedge across them all and it touches each of the four. Pin the aileron to it and apply heat. Let it cool, turn it over and do it again. Keep doing that as necessary and then leave it pinned to the jig until you need it again. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

But ailerons are usually flexible enough that you can remove warps by shrinking the covering while having a helper hold the aileron with the warp taken out while you shrink the covering.

Again, making new ailerons is easy, so if it takes too much effort to fix this one, just make new ones.

Once dry all (or most) warpage is gone. today i'll finish the first wing and start on the second wing!