RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Wow, time sure had a way of getting away from you when you're not paying attention. I made my last post and told myself that I would get right to work on getting the build thread caught up to date. Hmm, that sure turned into a week in a hurry. It's my expressed opinion that somebody must be messing with the space-time continuim because time moving entirely too fast these days!!!!! Normally I hate travelling because I would much rather be at home with my family, but this time travelling might be a small blessing in disquise. Since I have to travel this week it will give me quite a bit of free time both on the airplanes while I'm traveling and in the hotel room, so I can use that time to catch up on this thread. In fact, as I am writing this right now I am sitting in the “A� line of the cattle call that is sometimes also discribed as Southwest Airline's boarding procedures!!!!! But as I said, it gives me time to catch up on this thread, so let's get going.

As I said in my last post, the majority of the build is completed. At least to the fact that I now have all the major assemblies completed. So not it's time to start “putting stuff in� the plane. By this I mean that I am going to work on assembling the plane and putting all of the components together that will make it a plane. As I said earlier, I prefer to completely assemble the plane “in the bones�, meaning without covering, and then do a preliminary balance on the plane and add any weight to balance it before I cover the plane. When covering the balance of the plane sometimes does change because of the weight of the covering you put on the plane (You'd be surprised just how much a ¼ oz. of covering can change the balance of the plane if it's placed all the way out on the tail), but most of the time you can use your battery and receiver to help take care of any changes that occur in the balance.

As we move forward I may get “out of step� with the intruction manual. But with the way I like to build this is going to happen. For the most part you can skip around on a lot of the steps coming up, and you don't always need to do things in the order that I do them in. Altough some steps will require you to do several things in a certain order, when we get to those steps I'll make sure that I point out that there is an order to what we are going to do. For instance, what I will be talking about next is installing the radio mounting plate. The instructions call for installing the pushrods first, but I prefer to install the radio tray first. Why? Because when you install the pushrods it will help if you have a point to “aim� at while you install the pushrod. With the radio tray in place you can install the elevator and rudder servos in place and then you can install the pushrods and position them so that there is a straight shot to the servos. While you can install the pushrods first, it's easy to miss by 1/8� or more and then wind up with binding in your pushrods. Or worse yet, you might have to cut loose the pushrod and reinstall it. I know that once things like this are pointed out it seems like they should be obvious to even the beginning builder, but trust me, if there is a building mistake to be made I have probably made it. That is one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to do this build thread in the first place, to point out things like this so hopefully some of you out there won't have to make the same mistakes that I made as I was learning.

Ok, I let the cat out of the bag, let's work on the radio tray next. Picture #1 shows the area in the fuselage where the radio tray will mount into. Here is a point that I like to add on to what the kit includes or what the instructions call for. The instructions call for drilling mounting holes into the radio tray and then mounting the servos to the tray. The tray is made from very thin plywood that isn't really that thick (Picture #2). When I am installing servos I prefer to set the mounting screws into a little bit more wood than just a thin piece of plywood. But this is pretty easy to fix. A piece of 1/4� balsa stock makes for a very good mounting area. Picture #3 shows the radio tray and the balsa stock ready to be cut. What we want to do is add a piece of balsa stock on the underside of radio tray and each end of the servo cutouts in the radio tray. For the two cutouts at the back of the radio tray you could cut one piece of balsa to go clear across both servo cutout if you prefer, but I cut one for each cutout because I was running a bit short on 1/4� balsa and I was trying to conserve wood. This is one type of balsa that is great to keep around the shop for things just like this. There are several sizes of balsa and ply that I keep on hand and I will add to shopping list I keep on hand so that I can remember to restock whenever I make it to my LHS. If anybody is interested let me know and I'll make up a list of what I like to keep on hand. Picture #4 shows the balsa stock glued into place and clamped down while the glue dries. Pictures #5 and #6 show the completed reenforcements in place. As I said above, this is in addition to what the instructions call for and you will probably be ok doing the radio tray as per the instructions. I just feel more comfortable if I have a little bit more wood to set the servo screws into.

Before I close out this step and move on to talking about preparing the servo mounting screws I want to talk about mounting hardware for your servos. While you can mount your servos with the screws and washers that come with your servos, I prefer to use socket head mounting screws from [link=http://www.microfasteners.com]Micro Fasteners[/link]. Picture #7 shows one being installed and picture #10 shows the socket heads in place when all of the servos have been mounted. I prefer them mainly because they won't strip out like regular straight, or even phillips screws, will. Plus, with the wider head on these they do a better job of holding your servos in place. Micro Fasteners has several good hardware assortments that are great when you are getting started out in building, but once you get going you'll get a better idea of what you will use the most of and you can start ordering the specific parts you need. Pictures #8 and #9 show one of their assortments that you can get. Another source for hardware like this is [link=http://www.rtlfasteners.com]RTL Fasteners[/link]. I've heard that their service is the same high quality as Micro Fasteners, but since I don't have any experience with them I won't say anything abou them. The last thing that I haven't mentioned about these two sources is the price. The problem with hobby shops, Tower Hobbies, or any other source for hobby supplies is that you pay a high price for a very small amount of parts. Not so with these two sources, you get a good quantity for a resonable price. Give them a try, you won't be disappointed.

Pictures
1. The area in the fuselage where the servo tray will sit. Locate according to the plans.
2. The servo tray
3. Servo tray and ¼� balsa stock.
4. Cutting and gluing balsa stock into place to “beef up� servo mounts
5. Finished reenforced servo tray
6. Another picture of the servo tray.
7. Picture of aftermarket socket head screws I use to mount servos.
8. Assortment of hardware from Micro Fasteners
9. Good selection of hardware included.
10. Picture of socket head screws in place.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

To continue on with the construction of the servo tray. The next step is going to be to mark the locations of our servos and where the screws will be located. Just remember that on this radio tray the one single servo cutout is for the throttle servo and is located towards the front of the plane, and the 2 cutouts are for the elevator and the rudder and go towards the rear of the plane. Picture #1 shows the servo tray and a servo that we will use to locate our servo mounting screws. Picture #2, place the servo in the tray (make sure the servo is centered) and mark the center of the holes on the servos. You can use the center point marking tool that I showed earlier in this build, or a pencil will work just as well here. Although I don't have a picture of it I did use the center marking tool. It's really hard to see in picture #3 so I circled the marks that I made where to put each mounting screw. Use a drill bit size that is smaller than the screws you plan to use to mount the servos with, and then drill each hole through the radio tray (picture #4) and the reenforcement stock that we added above. Once you have each hole drilled we need to run a screw down each hole to cut threads in the hole. Picture #5 shows using a socket head screw to “cut� threads in each hole, which is simply running the screw down through the hole and then screw it back out. Use thin CA and wick a couple of drops of CA down each hole (picture #6), this will harden the wood and keep screws from pulling out or vibrating loose while in flight.

For this next part I need to take a few moments and discuss the proper way of assembling the servo mounting hardware and the right way of mounting the servo. I can't stress enough how important this part is. Many people that I have seen follow the “if tight is good, then tigher is better�, which means that they crank that screw down just as hard as they can. This is a big no-no when assembling a plane. If you ask many fliers what the biggest hazard is to their plane they will probably say something like “hitting the ground� is but that is wrong. By far the biggest enemy of our aircraft is vibration. I'm not kidding here. I've seen the vibrations from flutter literally destroy a plane within seconds while in flight!! Vibration puts foam and air in your fuel tank, vibration can destroy you receiver, vibration can tear a control surface (elevator, rudder, or aileron) right off of you plane in a matter of seconds, and vibration can tear servos apart in a heartbeat. That's why it is so important to properly mount servos. The rubber grommets that are on the servo are their to absorb and isolate vibration. But only if you assemble the them properly. If you look at picture #7 you can see the proper way to assemble and mount the screw. First of all you need to put the rubber grommet on the servo over the mounting lugs, I won't tell the proper location here because each radio manufacturer is a little bit different of how their rubber grommets are made so consult your radio's manual. Then we need to push in the metal sleeve into each mounting hole FROM THE UNDERSIDE. I don't know how many times I've seen people put them in from the top. It's easy to understand why many think that way, because these do look like washers and it's pretty easy to assume that you put them in from the top so you can mount your screw from above. But as I said, that is wrong. Pictures #7 and #8 show them being put in from the bottom. This is the proper way, and it needs to be done this way to isolate the servo from vibration. Now the next thing to do is put your screw in to mount the servoe. If your screws have washers with them then by all means use them. I don't use washers because the socket head screws that I use have such a wide head they don't need washers to do their job. Once again refer back to picture #7. This is a great illustration (I will give credit where credit is due, I got this great graphic from Minnflyer. Sorry Mike, no royalties) and does a good job of showing how to assemble the parts. In this picture is shows the mounting screw being tightened all the way down to the top of the metal sleeve. While with some radios this will be the way to do it properly, don't be fooled into thinking that it's like that for every radio. What you want to do is tighten down your screws so they are just sitting on top of the rubber grommet. If you go too far you will see the rubber pucker and you'll know you went too far. Picture #9 shows this, the screw on the left side has been tightened too much. By over-tightening you compress the rubber grommet and then you loose and dampening ability the rubber will have. This rubber is there to protect your servo, but it can only do that if you properly install the parts. Finally, in picture #11 you can see all three servos in place in the tray.

Pictures
1. Servo tray and servo ready to mark mounting holes.
2. Place servo in tray to mark the mount holes.
3. Holes marked for drilling.
4. Drilling out the servo mounting holes.
5. Using a screw to “cut� threads in the hole.
6. Run a few drops of CA down hole to harden the wood.
7. Proper assembly of servo mounting hardware
8. Servo sleeve go in from the bottom side of the rubber grommets.
9. Improperly screw mounted. Screw is in too tight.
10. Proper screw mountings
11. All three servos mounting in servo tray

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

As I said in my posts yesterday I told everybody that I was hoping to catch up this thread while I'm stuck in my hotel room. I'm trying to live up to that tonight, although I did have to bring work back here to the room tonight. Actually, it was more of a nightmare. Even though I'm here in my room I'm still working tonight anyway. Laptops are a great thing because they are portable, and their a bad thing because they are portable. You can't use the excuse that you didn't have a computer with you to work with. Ahhhh, ain't technology a grand thing??!!! What's really amazing is that in this day and age the small laptop that I carry around with me has more computing power than the computers that put men on the moon!!!!

Ok, before I get going I'm going to beat some of you to the punch. What am I talking about?? I know there are some out there that are going to spot “differences� or “conflicts� in the pictures I post in these thread posts. Did anybody spot the difference in the posts/pictures from yesterday? In my first picture of the thread I had a picture of the inside of the fuselage which showed the yellow pushrod material that I am going to use as a guide tube for the radio antenna. If you've been following along you'll realize that I haven't explained about that yet. So yes, you got me if you did notice that. The reason for this is because I installed these components in a little difference when I was building the plane, but I changed my mind as I am typing up this thread and I've decided to present it in a little different order from what I did on the build. You'll also notice in the next few posts that you will see the same pictures more than once. This is because on picture can actually be of several things so I just reuse the pictures when I need them.

Ok, on the the next build information. In these next few posts I'm going to be expanding on what we did yesterday. If you remember I said that I like to do the servo tray/radio mount before I do the pushrod tubes so that I know where to route the tubes to when I install them. So that's what we're going to be doing next, getting the pushrod guide tubes in place next. And just in case you have that question on your mind, I'll answer it for you. No, I haven't talked about gluing the servo tray in place yet. That's because I haven't glued it in yet. The reason for that is so that I can remove it while I am working on other things in the fuselage. I've mounted the servo in the tray so I can put the tray in place in the fuselage for the pushrod installation, but then I can remove the tray while I'm working inside the fuselage. Before we move on to the pushrod installation go ahead and mark inside the fuselage where the servo tray will sit when it's finally mounted. I would give that measurement to you here, but unfortunately I don't have the plans here with me in my hotel room. But it's pretty easy for you to get that measurement from the plans. Get the measurement and mark it in the fuselage so that you do know where the tray will sit after finally assembly.

Ok, on to the next step. The first thing I am going to install is going to be the antenna routing tube that I talked about back when we were getting going on the build. This step can be skipped if you don't feel like going to the extra work in routing the antenna inside of the fuselage. But before you give up on it give it a little thought and decide if it would be good for you to do it also. The antenna wire has always been a pet peeve of mine as I've just never found a way to mount the antenna wire on the outside of the plane that suited me. Most people will route the antenna out right behind the cockpit and then secure it to the top of the vertical stabilizer. I think that one reason why I dislike that way of mounting is because I once had a plane with the wire like that and when the plane crashed the antenna wire pulled out of the receiver and it cost me a little bit of change to send the receiver back to Airtronics to get it repaired. I know that the way the wire mounted had little to do with the damage that occurred, but ever since then I haven't like to have the antenna outside of the fuselage. And besides, I think that it looks better to have the wire inside the fuselage! . I also realize that you can't always get this done, especially if you are putting together an ARF plane. But if you are doing a kit it's well worth the extra work to make this change. Ok, one more word about antennas while we are on the subject. When you mount your antenna wire it needs to be mounted at it's full length. If you cut it in any way or double it back on itself you will reduce the range of the radio. The wire needs to run out to it's full length in order to give you the best range. Any changes could cause you to lose control of you plane while in the air.

As I said in the start of this thread I'm going to use an old pushrod I laying around in a parts drawer. Whenever I crash a plane and it can't be repaired I will strip everything off of it because you never know when you will need things like this and it's great to have them around. You can use just about any tubing for an antenna guide. If you're in a pinch you can even find small tubing at your local Lowe's/Home Depot type store. Back before we assembled the fuselage we marked and drilled mounting holes in the bottom of each former that runs down the rear of the fuselage. Now you can see why I did this before we assembled the fuselage, because it's a lot easier to do it then than now after the fuselage is assembled. The only one that we haven't drilled yet is going to be the exit for the tube at the bottom rear of the fuselage. In all actuality we don't even need to drill this one because the rear of the fuselage is open, but I went ahead and routed the antenna out the bottom of the fuselage because it's really difficult to secure the antenna wire if we keep it inside the fuselage. In picture #1 you can see where I have marked the center of the bottom rear of the fuselage. We will drill an exit hole on this line. You can drill the exit anywhere you want to on the centerline, but you'll want to drill it so that the antenna wire can will exit out of the fuselage. What I did was to temporarily place the receiver in the fuel tank area inside the fuselage and then measured back the length of the antenna, and try to have the hole so that only an inch or two of the antenna will extend outside of the fuselage. Once I know where I want the exit to be the exit hole can no be drilled. Picture #2 show the hole being drilled. You'll notice that I have angled the drill bit so that it exits the fuselage at an angle that doesn't bind or kink the antenna wire. Yes, I am using a Dremel tool to drill this hole. For smaller holes I will use the Dremel a lot of the time. That's because it's smaller and easier to use in tight spaces. Pick up the drill chuck head that you see in picture #2, they are great for mounting drill bits in the Dremel and it makes for quick easy bit changes in the Dremel. In picture #3 you can see how the tube exits from the fuselage. Pictures #4, #5, #6, and #7 show the guide tube as it routes up through the fuselage and is mounted in the holes that we drilled in the formers before we assembled the fuselage. Once the antenna tube is in place and you are satisfied with it's position you can glue it in place. You can use medium or thick CA to glue it in, but I prefer just a little bit of epoxy. Just a small amount of adhesive around the tube where it meets the fuselage former will be plenty to secure the tube in place. At the rear of the fuselage where the tube exits from the fuselage there may be a bit of a gap between the wood and the tube. Mixing micro ballons into the epoxy will make it a lot easier to fill these gaps. You can get micro ballons at your LHS but you can substitute corn starch and it works just fine, and it's cheaper too! What the micro balloons/corn starch do is thicken up the epoxy so that it will stay in place and not run out of the gap, and they also make it easier to sand the epoxy when it's dried. Just use a dab of the mixture to fill in the gap. Once this tube is in place and the epoxy is set you are done for the moment. You can cut off the tube flush with the fuselage where it exits the fuselage now, or you can do it later if you prefer. If you and to do it now use a razor saw to saw the tube off as close to flush with the fuselage as you can get it. After you get it cut use a sanding block to sand the tube flush with the fuselage.

For right now this is all that needs to be done for the antenna guide tube. The next thing we will be doing in our next few posts will be to mount the pushrod tubes as well.

Pictures
1. Marking the centerline of the fuselage at the rear of plane in order to drill a hole for the antenna guide tube.
2. Drilling the exit hole for the antenna tube.
3. Antenna tube in place exiting from the fuselage.
4. Antenna routed through the fuselage. Holes drilled before fuselage was assembled.
5. Antenna routed through the fuselage. Holes drilled before fuselage was assembled.
6. Antenna routed through the fuselage. Holes drilled before fuselage was assembled.
7. Antenna routed through the fuselage. Holes drilled before fuselage was assembled.
8. Antenna tube in place inside fuselage.

Until next time

Ken

theo63

ken,excellent post on mounting servos as im getting close to that point,thanks again being new to this, reading your post helps me along

kd7oir

Ok, this is as far as I've goten in reading your thread. (so far I love it buy the way) So this might seem like a silly question. I was looking at what I believe is the trailing edge in the pick I copied from your post. It looks like square stock and the top edge rib comes down @ an angle to the corner of the trailing edge. (and now the question [X(] ) The trailing edge doesn't fallow the contour if the rib, doesn't that affect the airfoil? (and how tight the covering lays)

Thanks for this thread because I'm getting my Kadet Senior kit this weekend and I'm sure it goes together very similar to this one.
Be prepared for more questions before I get from here (now at post #107) and where you are now.
My hat is off to you and what your doing for SeeBee and his little girl (I'm going to be doing my build with my 8 year old grandson) and to SeeBee, thank you for your sacrifices for our country and I only hope there is more recovery for you in your futcher.

carrellh

Further in they have you sand the trailing edge to follow the angle of the airfoil.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Carrell,
Thanks for answering that for me. I've been travelling all day. I saw the question on my way out the door heading for the airport, and now I'm finally getting home and getting unpacked. Big t-storms and tornado warnings made for delays in Houston and rough flying in and out. Just glad to be back home now. I'll be back on posting the build thread as soon as I can.

Ken

bruce88123

Where have we heard that before?

Oops, I was supposed to wait for Friday, wasn't I?

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Ken

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

Well it's Friday somewhere...[&:]


This doesn't have to do with this thread but it's pretty funny/cute

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3857522

farminred

Ok this might be a little off of the subject. I have started the covering of my lt-40. Once you cover your elv,rudder,and tail feathers, how do you once again find the slots to cut for your CA hinges? I just don't want to destroy the covering job.

thank you for all your help

bruce88123

The easiest way would be to cover the movable pieces first. Then you could hold them up to the non-movable pieces and know where to find the slots. Cut the slots in the covering and temp insert the hinges. Cover the rest of the plane and then hold the moving pieces up again and you will know where to cut the remaining slots in the non-moving covering. Naturally, you could reverse this process.

If you have covered everything already, it will be interesting if you cant "feel" the cuts. You can also mark the drawings as you build for later reference. Another reason for making extra copies for construction.

Good luck.

elenasgrumpy

My Feedback: (4)

bump

bruce88123

For those that are wondering. THE PLANE IS DONE and Ken is waiting to make a test flight. Now Ken, you need to make some more posts to finish up the "build" portion of this thread. PLEASE!!!

Sorry to let the cat out of the bag but needed to light a fire under you.

Please see post 456.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Bruce is absolutely correct, hopefully this week will be a little bit more normal so I can get the posts caught up.

Ken

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

Bad Bruce, Bad Bad Bruce...shame shame shame

I was told I would be cut off at the knees if I let the kitty out of the burlap...All I am going to add is wait until you see the finished product. It's GORGEOUS.

krossk

My Feedback: (27)

Of course it's gorgeous, Ken does great - HEY Wait a minute ... YOU GOT PICTURES?!?!?!?
Oh Boy! - Now you're all gonna get flogged![sm=redface.gif][sm=bananahead.gif][sm=redface.gif][sm=bananahead.gif]

tychoc

We want pictures NOW

Please...

-tychoc

elenasgrumpy

My Feedback: (4)

You're out doing a maiden with her & we haven't even seen her yet??? That's just WRONG!!![&:][8D]

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Now now, I haven't maidened it yet. Going to do that tomorrow afternoon!!!!

Ok, you all twisted my arm. Here are a few pictures of the finished product. Just keep in mind that I will catch up the build thread in the next few days so that it's complete in the build information. But for those of you that can't wait until christmas to open up your presents...... here are pics of the completed plane!!!!

I must warn you all in advance, put on your sunglasses......

Ken

brocja01

That turned out awesome!!! Well done RCKen. You really stuck to the design also, it turned out awesome, they should be able to see that up in the sky with no problem.

bruce88123

For the record. Ken never threatened, errrr asked that is, for me NOT to let on that it was done. An oversight on his part perhaps. But it did come out so pretty.

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

I'd love to see it in person

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

Actually he never threatened me. I wanted to put them on the PIF web site the same day he sent these to me so I aksed him and he asked to hold off. So now that they are public, I'll get them up there tonight when I get home

That's assuming my eyes recover from seeing it again. That thing is BRIGHT. Looks cool though, the girls are gonna love it

krossk

My Feedback: (27)

They'll be able to see that in the sky when Ken maidens it in OKLAHOMA!![sm=RAINFRO.gif]
Awesome job Ken, ya' dun the PIF movement proud!