RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Sanity?? We don't need no stinking sanity!!


Ken

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

Bubba, Ken and Bruce in the same thread will never equal sanity...

Sorry Ken, I just could not let that one sit.

Bruce is correct everyone, these are all inside jokes but all of them are based on fact

tychoc

Has the hat rule from the [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3274319/anchors_3274319/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#3274319]Another Beginner Build - Sig Somethin' Extra [/link] become an officially adopted RCU rule by now ? [X(]

-tychoc

bruce88123

I gave myself a hat because I felt I had deserved one. Nothing official that I know of. Keeps my ears warm too. [sm=bananahead.gif]

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Wow, this post is a milestone in this project. What could I possibly be talking about? This post is the 50th actual building post that I've made during the project. Ok, I know, I need to get a life!

Up to this point I have followed the steps in the instruction manual exactly. But now I'm going to start changing the order of things that I do a little bit. I will try to stay with the same general progression of building that is in the manual, but I may have to change that around a bit. The reason I do this is because some things that I like to do while building a plane have to be done a little bit different order. I know this may be a little bit confusing, but here's an example to show what I mean. The instructions call for doing these steps next: Glue in the floor tank in the forward part of the fuselage and then glue in tri-stock to reinforce the firewall. Here is why I need to change the order of how I am doing to do things. I prefer to fuel proof the inside of the fuselage around where the fuel tank goes. If I follow the order of the build according to the manual I will put the fuel tank floor in first, and this will make it almost impossible to fuel proof the area underneath it. So I am changing the order of steps simply because it will make it easier to to what I need to do. From this point on there will probably be more things that will happen like then, and when I change the order of work I will try to remember to let you all know that I am changing it.

As I just said, I prefer to fuel proof the inside of the fuselage in the area around the fuel tank. This is something I learned the hard way. I once had a Ultra Sport 60 that developed a small fuel leak, which proceeded to soak the wood around the fuel tank. Because the wood was soaking up the fuel I didn't notice that it was leaking. I found out the hard way when I was pulling an inside loop and the wing separated from the fuselage. The fuel weakened the glue on the former that was the from hold down for the wing, and the entire former pulled out. The fuselage became a very nice lawn dart and planted itself in the ground. On a side note, the wing very delicately floated down and landed in the top of a small tree. So now I have an extra Ultra Sport wing! But I learned a lesson about fuelproofing the fuselage. Since I have started doing that I usually now notice a fuel leak because the fuel will not soak into the wood and will usually run out of the fuselage where you can notice it. Is this important? IF we all do proper airplane maintenance it probably doesn't matter as much because about once a month you will pull out the fuel tank and check all the fittings to make sure they are tight. You all do that right? Neither do I. I will try and do these checks on all of my planes at least 2 twice a summer. But with the number of planes I have it sometimes doesn't happen and I get fuel leaks. The reality is that parts come loose. Fuel tubes get holes in them. Fuel tank stoppers shift. Screws come undone. Because of this fuel leaks do happen. To fuel proof the fuselage I will do it using one of two different methods. I prefer to put straight epoxy on the wood and and heat it with my heat gun (the one I use for covering) and as the heat thins the epoxy I will spread it with an epoxy brush. One thing you have to be aware of when doing this is that heating the epoxy will shorten the setting time. So start with 30 minute epoxy, and don't try to cover too large of an area. The reason this is my preferred method is because thinning can sometimes ruin the epoxy. If you thin epoxy too much it will never set properly, and remain rubbery. Now with that said, my second method is to actually thin the epoxy with denatured alcohol. If you do thin the epoxy please don't use too much alcohol. Start with putting in a couple of drops (an eyedropper is great for this) and mixing it in and test to see how easy the epoxy is to spread. If you do get too much in it will cause the epoxy to never set properly. It would be a good idea to practice a few times to see how it turns out. Once you have done it a few times you'll get an idea of how much to thin it out.

Since I want to fuelproof the inside of the fuselage I need to do things in a little bit different order so I can the entire area fuelproofed easier. So the general order that I'm going to followed now will be to reinforce the firewall, apply epoxy to the inside area, and then glue in the fuel tank floor. To start out we need to reinforce the firewall with the supplied balsa tri-stock (picture #1). As a side note, using this method will add A LOT of extra strength to your airplane. Like I said in a previous post, the joint here between the firewall and the fuselage is very critical because this is where the power provided by your engine is transferred to the rest of the airframe. The more strength you can add to this joint, the better off you will be. Before you glue in these pieces you will want to make sure that they clear all of the “things� on the back of your firewall. For instance, on the right side of the firewall is the hole for the throttle pushrod, so you don't want to cover that hole up. The easiest thing to do here is simply cut the tri-stock so it's not put on over the hole (picture #2). You will also want to carve away a bit of the tri-stock on the left side so that it doesn't interfere with the blind nuts on the backside of the firewall and the steering pushrod (picture #3). This is one of the few places where I will use 5-minute epoxy (a part that is quick and easy to place), so mix up a little bit of 5-minute epoxy and glue the tri-stock into place. Pictures #4 and #5 show the placement of the tri-stock.

Before we apply the epoxy fuelproofing you will need to mark where the tank floor meets the side of the fuselage. This is important because you don't want to apply epoxy over where those two parts will meet. You want a strong wood to wood bond between the tank floor and the fuselage side, and covering that area with epoxy will make for a weaker joint. Picture #6 shows where I will not apply the fuelproofing. I simply place the fuel tank floor in place and marked with a pencil where it will sit. Since this is a cramped area to work in I choose to thin the epoxy instead of heating it. I started with 30-minute epoxy and thinned it just enough to spread it. Use a disposable epoxy brush to “paint� the entire area, taking care to not cover the area that you marked earlier. You will also want to take care to not get epoxy in the threads of the blind nuts for the motor mount and the front landing gear mount. One other note is to make sure you have good ventilation when you do this. Epoxy stinks, and it usually give me a headache. Once you have the area completely coated set the fuselage aside and let the epoxy dry completely before moving on.


Pictures
1. Balsa tri-stock used to reinforce the firewall.
2. Marking opening that need to be worked around when applying the tri-stock.
3. Carve the tri-stock to go around blind nuts and the hole for the steering pushrod.
4. Right tri-stock applied.
5. Left tri-stock applied.
6. Marking where the fuel tank floor will be glued to the fuselage sides.
7. Using a disposable epoxy brush to apply thinned epoxy to the area around the fuel tank.
8. Using a disposable epoxy brush to apply thinned epoxy to the area around the fuel tank.


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Moving on after my last post I'll continue building the fuel tank area. After the epoxy fuelproofing has dried we'll put the fuel tank floor in. I decided to make a modification and build up a reinforcement for the fuel tank floor. If you look at pictures #1 and #2 you can see that the supplied fuel tank floor is a bit flimsy. I just don't like having that holding the fuel tank held in place by such a thin piece of wood. I used 1/4� balsa stock to build a small frame under the fuel tank floor. Picture #3 shows the 1/4� stock that I used, and picture #4 shows the framework that I am going to use. I glued the stock in place and clamped them down to let the glue dry (picture #5). Before I glued the tank floor in place I used a bit of epoxy (thinned with the heat gun and spread out with epoxy brush) to fuelproof the underside of the fuel tank floor. I did this prior to placing it in the fuselage because it was easier to do with the tank floor out of the fuselage. Apply wood glue to the edges of the fuel tank floor and put it in place inside of the fuselage (picture #7 and #8). After the tank floor is in place go ahead and fuelproof the top of it.

Pictures
1. Stock tank floor
2. Wood for tank floor is too flimsy
3. 1/4� balsa stock to reinforce the tank floor
4. Building a framework for the tank floor
5. Clamping the tank floor frame in place while the glue dries.
6. Bottom of tank floor after it has been fuelproofed.
7. Putting the tank floor in the fuselage.
8. The tank floor in place inside the fuselage.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Before anybody asks, yes I worked today. One of the upsides of my job is that there are quite a few days that I get to work from home, and this is one of those days. I've been home working on setting up a couple of new servers, and a majority of the day has been spent installing software. So I've been able to spend a lot of time here catching up the “paperwork� of this build thread, which is good because I know some have thought that I wasn't working very fast (Bruce!!!! Bill!!!!!) . And as I said above, I'm a lot farther along with the build than I am with the posts here. But because of today I've gotten pretty close to being caught up.

The next step is to put in the landing gear mounting area. Picture #1 shows the parts that are needed. Pictures #2 and #3 show the landing gear area. This step is really pretty straight forward. First step is to glue in the the two landing gear anchor blocks. The instructions don't specify what type of glue to use on this step, but this is another place where I would recommend using epoxy. The landing gear on any plane take a beating, but in a trainer it's going to be even worse. Therefore you want these parts firmly attached to the fuselage so they don't pull out on a hard landing. I used 5 minute epoxy to glue these two blocks in place, picture #4 shows them clamped down until the epoxy sets. After the epoxy is set we'll glue the grooved landing gear block in. Look at picture #5 and you can see a little bit of a gap between the grooved block and the fuselage. Sand down the anchor blocks until the grooved block sets flush on them and is flush with fuselage. After I was satisfied with the fit I epoxied it in plane, using weights on top to ensure that they are firmly glued to the anchor blocks. Pictures #7, #8, and #9 show the finished landing gear blocks from the inside of the fuselage.


Pictures
1. Parts needed for landing gear block.
2. Area for landing gear block.
3. Area for landing gear block.
4. Epoxying landing gear anchor blocks in place.
5. Make sure the grooved landing gear block is firmly in contact with fuselage and anchor blocks.
6. Use weights to hold down grooved block while it is being epoxied in place.
7. Finished landing gear block.
8. Finished landing gear block.
9. Finished landing gear block.


Until next time

Ken

PipeMajor

My Feedback: (1)

Just to add some comments about glues and weights, on my LT-40 I did use mostly med CA. Pretty much a full 2oz bottle of it. On my control line projects one of those 1oz bottles will go bad on me before I used them up. Yes, I've heard CA is heavy and if that is an issue then I'd certainly opt of a lighter water based aliphatic wood - especially on the joints further away from the CG. Engine firewalls always get epoxy.

One company does offer a very thin watery aliphatic which is supposed to wick in like thin CA but dry like aliphatic (i.e., Tightbond or Sigbond).

Windy Urtnowski builds some of the most gorgeous silkspan and dope finished C/L stunters you'll ever see. He sells hundreds of thousands of construction, finishing, inking, buffing and flight trimming videos worldwide. On his glue joints he'll use Q-Tips to wipe away the excess fillet. There is very little strength added by gobs of glue outside a joint but really does pile the weight on. He says he uses a full box of 100 X-Acto blades and a full box of Q-Tips on every model he builds. He is one of the few people who earns a sustainable living with this hobby.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

PipeMajor,
Thanks for the added information. Although I haven't said anything about it yet (would have mentioned it when I got to the covering) but I too use a lot of blades. I would say I probably go through 20-30 #11 hobby blades and at least as many single edge razor blades.

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

As I said earlier, the steps are now a little bit out of order from the instruction manual. But we're moving right along though. We're totally lost, but making great time!!!!

We missed it when we were putting the major fuselage parts on the fuselage, so now we'll back up a bit and install the windscreen and the tank hatch. When I test fit the windscreen on the fuselage there was a pretty big gap between the windscreen and the top of former F2, see picture #1. Gaps like this just drive me up the wall, so I took a few minutes to fix the gap. Using some scrap balsa I glued a small piece of balsa on to the top of the former, pictures #2 and #3. After the glue was dry I used a sanding block to sand down the balsa so that it fit properly between the windscreen and the top of the former. Picture #7 shows the fit after filling the gap. I applied glue to the fuselage and placed the windscreen in position. Pictures #4, #5, and #6 show the part held in position while the glue dries. I used the masking tape to hold it tightly against the fuselage, and I needed to put a clamp in the middle of the former in order to the a tight fit between the windscreen and the former. As I said earlier, picture #7 shows how the windscreen now fits. Much better now that there isn't a gap there.

Next up is the tank hatch. I like this kit because it is designed with a tank hatch, and doesn't have to be re-engineered to add a tank hatch. I like having easy access to the fuel tank of an airplane because it makes it a lot easier to do maintenance on the fuel tank. I can't even begin to count how many problems I've seen at the flying field that are problems with the fuel tank. Having a hatch makes it so much easier to troubleshoot those problems. Anyway, on to the fuel hatch. If you look at picture #8 you can see that there is a gap between the tank hatch and where it meets the bottom of the windscreen. Yep, you guessed it, I just don't like these types of gaps. Using a sanding block I beveled the edge of the tank hatch, picture #9. With the bevel you can see that the tank hatch now fits into the windscreen without any gap.

Well, I ran out of picture space here, so I'll continue in the next post.

Pictures
1. Test fitting the windscreen.
2. Gluing a strip of balsa to the top of the former in order to fill the gap.
3. Gluing a strip of balsa to the top of the former in order to fill the gap.
4. Gluing the windscreen in position
5. Using tape to hold the windscreen in position
6. Gluing the windscreen in position
7. Windscreen glued in position. Gap has been filled.
8. Gap between tank hatch and bottom of windscreen
9. Bevel the end of the tank hatch.
10. Beveled end of tank hatch fits snugly under windscreen.


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Continuing on with the fuel tank hatch. The tank hatch is held in place at the backside with a wood “lip� that fits up under the windscreen and at the front of the hatch with a screw that secures it to the firewall. Picture #1 shows the tank hatch and the wood to make the “lip� with. Glue the lip to the tank hatch so that the the wood is about half exposed behind the tank, picture #2. Test fit the tank hatch in place to make sure that it fits tightly in place and doesn't slid side to side. The tank hatch comes pre-drilled with a hole for the screw that secures it to the firewall. With the tank hatch in place (picture #3) use a 1/16� drill bit through the hole in the tank hatch to mark where the firewall needs to be drilled for the mounting screw. Remove the tank hatch and drill a pilot hole into the firewall, picture #4. After you have a pilot hole drilled use the provided screw to cut the threads in the hole. Simply screw it all the way down into the firewall, picture #5 and #6, as this will cut the threads in the hole. Remove the screw and use thin CA (picture #7)to harden the threads. Simply wick CA down into the hole. Make sure you allow time for the CA to completely set before you put the screw back in the hole, if you don't you'll wind up with the screw CA'ed in place which will be fun to try and get back out. When you do assemble the tank hatch you do want the threads to be very tight when you put the screw in. If it's not tight it will vibrate and back out in flight, which will cause you to lose the tank hatch. If the threads aren't tight, simply wick a bit more thin CA down into the hole. Picture # 8 the assembled tank hatch in position on the plane.

Pictures
1. Parts needed to assemble the tank hatch
2. Gluing the “lip� on to the tank hatch.
3. Marking where to drill a hole in the firewall.
4. Drill the hole for the tank hatch screw.
5. Use the provided screw to cut threads in the hole.
6. Run the screw all the way down into the hole
7. Use thin CA to harden the threads.
8. Tank hatch in place.


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I'm up to a point now where I just finished the biggest part of a major assembly. So I'm going to go ahead and do another post of my unused pictures. As with before, if you have any questions about any of the pictures please don't hesitate to ask.

Up next will be starting the horizontal and vertical stabilizers.

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

More unused pictures

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

More unused pictures

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

More unused pictures

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

More unused pictures

Ken

brocja01

RCKen,

Just thought I would drop a line in and see how everything is going. Noticed that there haven't been any posts in a few days.

Can't wait to see the covered LT!!!!

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

brocja01,
I made a push this week to get work done on the build, and was planning to update the posts this weekend. In fact, I'm in the process of typing up the next post as we speak. I'll have it along a little later this morning.

Thanks for the interest.

Ken

elenasgrumpy

My Feedback: (4)

I hope it includes purty purple & pink pictures.[sm=sunsmiley.gif]


Mark

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

He's gonna have to turn the lights off and not use the flash when he takes pics of it all covered...[sm=sunsmiley.gif]

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Heck, I have to have sunglasses on just to have the rolls of Monokote here in the my building room!!!

Ken

seabee1

Ken,
So what your saying that when its in my house I will be able to save on my electric bill!!!!

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Something like that!!!!

Ken

krossk

My Feedback: (27)

Hmm - Where have I heard that before?[sm=idea.gif][sm=bananahead.gif][sm=idea.gif][sm=bananahead.gif][sm=idea.gif]

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

Is that what you used at one point. I remember seeing it and could not find it anymore. If it's a problem let me know and I'll change it