pval3

Hello all,

Was the proud recipient of a beta kit from 3d foamy of thier newest addition, the F18 park jet.

This plane is made of laser cut depron with a carbon fiber spar, designed for the gws gear drive set up.

After talking with the folks over at 3d foamy, i decided to change the power option to try out a dual IPS drive rather than the eps 300 drive that the system is designed for. The idea was to try to figure out how to slow the airplane down a bit to fly it in a park environment.

I will be using two battery configurations, Kokam 2C and 3C packs....760 and 1200 mah capacity

Radio will be a JR 388 TX with GWS Pico Rx and 2 GWS std pico servos.

I have a ton of pictures and will have video of the flying once we get to that point...for now, here are the building pics.


First impressions of the kit were suprise. The plane comes in a custom made box to prevent shifting of your plane enroute. Ive built a 3Dx from fan fold and was never really happy with my ability to really cut the foam clean. I also found that the fan fold was soft when I was working with it.

Although I love the whole idea of the fan fold, I hated the process, balsa was easier for me.

3dfoamy makes it easy from the start . . . . super clean cut depron that stayed in the sheet until I poked it out and the edges were perfect. 3d foamy uses a "key" lock construction to ensure things go together straight, something that is next to impossible to cut out with a hobby knife accurately...the laser cutting that Jason uses is super.

The kit comes in a beautiful box that supports tbe kit with a custom set of depron supports.

The box is large, the shipping fee that 3d foamy charges is very fair in that the box is oversized to protect the contents, nothing is folded to reduce the strength.

The hardware pack is better than anything I have seen on the market since the Airtronics pack years ago.....

The pack has a custom beveling tool for your control surfaces and a pack of hot control horns that are 1/2 the weight of anything out there and support the foam on either side to provide better control deflection.

The carbon was the good stuff, pultruded rod that was perfect.

Overall, this is the best foam type kit I have seen - and this was a beta.

I also picked up a couple of kits too and the quality extends across the line.

Jason has created an increadible value that you would be doing yourself a great injustice not to try out..

Well, enough of my two cents, on with the thread

pval3

here is the box as it arrived on my door step

pval3

parts sheets

beaut!

this is so clean cut ...parts stayed connected until i pressed them out..

pval3

more parts

pval3

parts and horns

pval3

rough together 1

pval3

rough together 2

pval3

rough together 3

pval3

RE: rough together 4

pval3

RE: rough together 5

These pics are from a rough build, putting the pieces together to see how the fit works and how the parts form the whole.

From box open to rough build complete, time was 15 minutes .. . . . niceeeeeeeee!

pval3

wing construction 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Start off by gathering the three wing pieces, front center and rear

Make sure they fit properly.

Set up the wing for your spar

Use a long ruler to gently make the spar position on the center wing

pval3

cutting the spar trench

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have diliberated over the spar trough for a long while.

I originally maked the spar outline then cut 90 degrees to the surface with an exacto with a strip of tape on it to restrict the depth of the cut. I would then use a tool I picked up in the craft store that cuts a 45 degree angle for frame mat to cut out from the sides. This left a small inverted V in the bottom of hte tench . . . made me cut deeper than required so as to keep the tube flush with the wing surface..........more epoxy or probond than needed to fill in the space to get a firm bond (more weight)

I ended up buying a base for my rotozip that sets it up like a router. . . you can get the same piece for your dremel tool. I set the depth just slightly deeper than the spar to ensure it is flush then use a Dremel 1/4 router bit to cut the trough . . .super easy, super clean

pval3

router bits

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

here's what you need to cut beautiful threnches for the spars on the wings or fuselages.....


take your time when doing this as the router bit goes through clean and very very fast . . .

take it easy and anchor your yard stick so it diesnt slide / move while you are working...

pval3

so,

here is the result of all that work (4.2 minutes to mount, plug the dremel into the wall socket, place the yard stick and cut!)

Take an epoxy brush and brush out the little pieces so that you get a perfect glue joint

voila!

pval3

test fit the spar in the new trench . . . make sure you gently clean the trench out with a soft tooth brush to make sure the spar sits flush!

pval3

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

the spar will be a little longer than the wing, use a fine tooth exacto saw to gently and slowly saw the excess off

If you go to fast you could damage the spar

pval3

do not glue to spar into the wing at this point

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dont rush ahead!!!1

The wing is mounted to the fuselage and the spar goes through a hole you need to make BEFORE you glue the spar into the wing..

Install the wing with the spar cut out on the fuselage

pval3

mark the spar location on the fuselage

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

mark the spar location on the fuselage

pval3

install the wing again and the spar

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

install the wing again and the spar

Put the wing and fuselage back together and pull the spar through your hole making sure it all fits nice and tight!

Be careful with the front end of the fuselage as you are beding this open and closed a few times . . . . .care makes it last longer with no stress marks!

pval3

install the front wing piece

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

install the front wing piece

Install the front section of the wing,this is makes up the nose so carefully slide the fuselage apart and install the front end into the wing. Make sure the tab will line up and test fit the whole thing

pval3

rear of wing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

install the rear of the wing and make sure everything fits real nice!

pval3

fit the side supports to the fuselage after ensuring that the spar hole is accommodated. The fuselage supports not only give a little extra rigidity to the fuselage, they also lift the center of the wing to provide some undercamber. Make sure they are level to ensure a good straight bond.

use light duty laundry clips to hold the hole thing together while it dries!

pval3

MAKE SURE YOU PROVIDE CLEARANCE FOR THE SERVO TRAY

make sure you give the side supports enought latitude to slide in.

pval3

There is nothing difficult to installing the spar, only make sure you set up the work area ahead of time....

Lightly sand the carbon fiber spar to ensure that the spar bonds well

You will need 4 phone books and wax paper to make is work well.

Although many have said that the ProBond is the thing to use, i use it myself, I find that the glue foams up way too much to make it viable on an area that is so visible.

I would suggest 15 minute epoxy for this job.

Set up the phone books corner to corner so that they support the entire lenght of the wing from the center out.

Take your wax paper and cut 2 4" wide pieces the length of the wing half.

Get an epoxy brush to lay the glue into the trench.

Mix your epoxy well, then mix a small amount of 90% alchohol into the epoxy to thin it out.

quickly spread the epoxy into the trench to cover the whole length of the trench and the hole through the fuselage....

Do this as sparingly as you are able remember that you are adding weight to the plane...

Lay the spar into the trench, then lay the plane, upside down, on the phone books so that the spar is supported by the phone books.

lay the wax paper over the top then place the other phone books on top to the spar to press down and keep the area flat....

Place weights over the top of the top phone books to apply extra weight


The spar will bond nicely.

pval3

finished spar

when the glue has dried, remove the phone books and weights

gently peel back the wax paper. If you do this slowly, you will have a perfectly clean glue joint. If the wax paper sticks, gently gently use a heat gun to apply slight heat to the surface and peel back the paper. Use heat carefully as it will melt the depron if you get the area too hot.

Sand the area lightly to get rid of the residue from the wax paper.

You have now completed the spar assy.