KLXMASTER14

Congrats! You scored on that one. I will be cutting cores at some point.

-Robert

TFF

Keep us posted on the cores.

KLXMASTER14

You've got it!

crankpin

My Feedback: (15)

What ?? He got that for $10.00. I know the feeling. I was looking for some old OS parts. There is a hobby shop I go to sometime, and they have an area of old engine parts, etc. I am allowed to look thru their stuff. The other day, I found some parts, and a total surprise.
I have a picture of the Vertigo and one of my Phoenix 6's fuselage's, set up to see the side view of each. Both SkyGlas, white gel coat. -+You can see the similarity. If I get home early enough tonight, I will post them. I am on remote right now.

Crank

KLXMASTER14

Today is Rudder Day. First, I drew in the structure on a photocopy of the tail section of the plan. Then, you know the rest. Cut parts, glue together, make balsa dust. Light and strong. Weight= 7.7 grams. That's just over 1/4 oz.

KLXMASTER14

The Vertigo II now has a proper power plant. Today I received my package from Graves R/C. The engine is a Super Tiger X-61 rear exhaust. I love Super Tiger engines. The previously planned powerplant was an O.S. 55AX, which is an amazingly powerful engine in it's own right, but the ST will out pull it hands down. I am glad, the .55 gives it's test bed aircraft such ballistic performance, that I am happy to leave it in that one. The pipe is a Macs 10cc quiet pipe. Now to get the missing link- the header. I will deal directly with Macs for that one. It looks as though their 1.5" "Fuselage Top" header will give me plenty of engine mounting options. It looks like an inverted installation with that header would allow the pipe to be about half buried in the Vertigo's deep belly pan. That would yield a clean installation. I think I'll kick that one around...

KLXMASTER14

A few of you guys have fuselages, and need cores. I also need some more cores. To that end, I have been rebuilding my foam cutting tools. I still have my cutting bows, and somewhere in the mystery box pile are some 90 degree templates, etc. Not having a suitable power supply, I found a how-to article on the NSRCA website, complete with instructions, schematic, and a bill of materials. I scrounged up a few parts from work, then a trip to my local Radio Shack store netted me most of the components, a few were ordered from Mouser and Allied electronics. The photos show the pile of parts, and the finished item. The problem is, it doesn't work. I will ask my boss (Master's degree- Electronic Engineering) what my stupid mistake was, then it will be "all good". So for now, I will put this aside and sheet the beat-up but usable wing cores that I have on hand. Providing that I am distraction free for a bit, I will have some wing pics to post in a few days.

KLXMASTER14

Time to sheet the wing cores. The first photo shows all the junk to make the wing. The cores are cut with a full radius around the leading edge. I am going to use a balsa stick leading edge, it is more impervious to dings, and I'm not sold on wrapping the skins around the L.E. when using epoxy instead of contact cement. Since my foam cutter is still not working, trimming the front of the cores flat is a job for the trusty table saw. The skins are prepared and sanded, as are the cores.
I will show my method of skinning, using epoxy to hold on the skins for anyone who may not be familiar with this process. I use Bob Smith 20 minute epoxy as it is thin and easy to squeegee off the excess, although most any kind of slow cure epoxy can be used. I use an inexpensive foam trim roller to apply an even coat of epoxy. Go ahead and put a lot onto the skins. Use a squeegee, and squeegee the excess epoxy off of the skin. When you have a dull sheen left on the skin, that is the right amount. Remember, you are only gluing balsa to foam, and any excess amount of epoxy used here is just dead weight. It only requires a thin film of epoxy. Heavy wings make for sluggish aileron response. Place the skin in the foam bed, then place the core in place onto the skin. Align the excess overhanging balsa evenly around all sides of the core. Repeat three more times, building your wing sandwich. When the top piece of foam is in place, check the alignment of the cores and skins one more time, then place something flat on top, then evenly pile on whatever you have for weight. Allow to cure overnight, preferably for 24 hours. The epoxy cures slowly in thin films.

DerFly

Klix,

Regarding your foam cutting power supply, it seems that the triac used in the circuit can possibly be supplied with different pinouts than shown in the circuit diagram.

I built mine about 5 years ago and it works very well.

Edit - Here' the caveat from the original article.

Regards and good luck!

N.B. The main problem that people are having is the placement of the TRIAC. On the board drawing, there is a letter "G" next to one TRIAC pin. That G stands for the Gate. Once they understand this, it becomes easier to insert the TRIAC into the board. They need to read the paper that came with the TRIAC so they know which pin is the Gate pin. I had made a comment that it is possible to substitute a different TRIAC if they could not get the specified one. Well, I was wrong. It seems that some of the fellows are inserting TRIACs that are very different than that specified, and of course, it won't work. As it turns out, Radio Shack is no longer a good source for electronic components. Ahhh, for the good old days when you could find electronic shops and Ham radio stores all over town. It's all history now

KLXMASTER14

Derfly,

I am glad to hear that you made one, and that it works. Most likely I made a dumb mistake. I downloaded the data sheet for the part, but I need to sit down and go over everything again. I am only getting 10 volts at the output terminals. Electronics is not my strong skill area, mostly high school level training and learn-by-osomosis. This is kind of funny, considering that I work in the electronics field (as a mechanical designer). Thanks for the tip, I will perservere and get it going here soon.

Best regards,
Robert

KLXMASTER14

Back to the shop for some fun. Trimmed the sheeting flush wih the cores. Leading and trailing edge pieces bonded using wood glue, secured with masking tape, allowed to dry overnight.
Leading and trailing edges sanded flush with the skins.
Leading edge radius carefully rounded off. Radius marked onto wing using photocopies of the plan cut into templates. Getting the leading edge radius correct will make or break a wing. I have seen more poor performing aircraft due to this being sloppily done than I can count. The leading edge radius directly affects the stall characteristics of the wing. Having one wing different from the other, or sharper at the tip then the root, and you can count on that tip falling out at exactly the wrong moment.
A pic with all of the bits so far. Sort of resembles an airplane.
The final pic- the list is getting shorter.

-Robert

KLXMASTER14

After almost two months of inactivity, I have some shop time. The wing tips are installed and shaped. the right side is hollow to help compensate for the weight of the side mounted engine. The less it weighs, the less weight will have to be added to the other side to achieve correct lateral balance. I will post some pics when I get my camera cord home.
Next on the list is mounting the aileron servos. I am using one servo per wing IAW modern practice. Time to fire up the AutoCad, and design some servo mountings. Rather than just hack into my vintage wings, I designed the mounting box(es), servo cutout, and the servo layout for the correct linkage geometry. Everything will turn out correctly the first time, and the pieces will fit properly. The results can be seen in the accompanying pic.

KLXMASTER14

In my last post, I did some design work at the Cad station, laying out the plan for the aileron servo mounting and linkage. Now it's time to put the plan into action. In the first pic, I have laid out the guide lines for cutting the hole for the servo box. Then the skin is removed, and the hole for the box is cut into the core. Pic 2 show drilling the hole for routing the servo wires to the wing root. Pic 3 shows the completed cut out with the wire hole, drilled right on target.

KLXMASTER14

Next the servo box pieces are cut, and the boxes are assembled. They weigh in at 5 grams each. The boxes are check fit into the wing, then glues in place with 5 minute epoxy. A couple of strips of duct tape protects the wing while the boxes are sanded flush with the wing surface. Last pic- the finished installation.
I ordered some Rocket City hardware from Nelson Model Products, I will get to that when it arrives. The original plans specify Rocket City #29, and it is still available from Nelson. It swivels, and eliminates the binding caused by the swept back hinge line. Stay tuned.

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Glad to see you back in the shop on this project. Everything is looking great.

David

KLXMASTER14

Thanks, Dave. I want to keep the momentum going. Next will be the Spring-Air installation. Retracts- haven't been there in many a moon. Should be fun.

-Robert

Roguedog

So whatever happened to your foam cutting power supply project. Did you ever get it working.

Bryan

DerFly

I couldn't find the specified Triac when I built this so substituted a BT137 rated at 500V/8A. This device is way overated for the transformer I'm using which is 11.8V 50VA. As this transformer was quite a bit smaller than the original specification, I left out the Hi/Lo switch in the circuit as it really isn't needed and just complicates things.

That said, my version of the foam cutting power supply is adequate for a clean cut with a 30" bow. I wouldn't want to try anything larger than that.

Here's a quick pic of the innards.

KLXMASTER14

Roguedog, Derfly,

Yes, the power supply is working now. The solution was to increase the value of the switching capacitor from .22uF to two .68uF cap in parallel. That's what it took to get the triac to switch on early in the phase. Now it heats up my 36" bow quite convincingly. Now to cut some cores....

Derfly, your supply is very nicely built.

-Robert

KLXMASTER14

While the 60 hour work weeks have kept me out of the workshop, I have managed to score a few important items to further the effort. The first is a variety of Rocket City linkages, available from Nelson Hobby. They swivel, which eliminates the binding associated with the swept hinge lines. The second item is a set of Spring-Air retracts. These units are a work of art. The workmanship is unbelievable- and American made! The last item is a freebie- but a true classic item. It is the Fox 2-1/4" Conical spinner specified on the plans. This spinner is the actual one from my original Vertigo II's from back in the day. I found them while rummaging through a box of old R/C stuff (treasures). It's a miracle that I still have it, and it is the one piece of this thing that will be original equipment.

KLXMASTER14

Landing gear mounting:

Photo 1: Landing gear mounts: Outline and hole centers laid out. (holes drilled)

Photo 2: Parts cut to size. Material is 1/8 ply. Small holes are for 1/8" dowel to anchor into foam. Larger holes are for 4-40 blind nuts.

Photo 3: Check fit of the Spring -Air mains.

Photo 4: Lay-out of the LG mount recess. Wing plan drawn in AutoCad, plotted 1/1 scale for template.

Photo 5: Skins cut and removed.

Photo 7: Cutting LG mount recess using handy cutting tool. (Coat hanger wire in soldering gun).

To be continued.

ChiefK

Regarding the drilling of the servo wire holes, what kind of drill bit gives you such a nice clean hole in foam?

Greg

KLXMASTER14

Greg,

I used a masonry bit, for no other reason other than it was long enough, and it was in my box. It did do a surprisingly clean job, though.

-Robert

ChiefK

Thanks,

I'll have to try that.

Greg

KLXMASTER14

Photo 1: Gear mounts are ready for assembly. 1" sections of 1/8" dia. dowel will be epoxied through the small holes in the plate, helping to anchor the plate to the core, and distribute the gear loads deep into the core. The back sides of the blind nuts are covered with masking tape to prevent the threads from filling with epoxy.

Photo 2: The gear mounts are glued in place with 30 minute epoxy and some microballons, not thick like you would use to make a fillet, but just enough to fill any irregularities and not run out of the joint. The dowel holes are filled with 30 minute epoxy using a plastic glue syringe, then the dowels are coated with epoxy and pushed into place, the ends flush with the surface of the gear plate. After the epoxy cured, the foam was cut out using the method described in my last post.

Photo 3: The Spring-Air main gear in position.