I saw these in your build, and they help a lot. Do you have some of the finished product. I've been spending lots of time on the wheel wells and doors and it would great to see how if all comes together in the end.

ray, this is what i have for the finished product. as you can see, i didn't do any detailing with it. the wheel well is slightly elliptical due to the retraction angle of the gear. i glassed the inside of the well with the rest of the model. also, i pretty well enclosed the mounting flange because of the way i installed the gear. i didn't want to cut a slot in the ply mounting plate (weakening the plate) for the air nipple so that meant that the retract body had to be installed while i glued in the ply mounting plates (make sense?). of course, that means if i have to pull the retract body out it will require major surgery to the wing.

I'm trying to decide on which retracts to buy for my TF Spit. Tubig seems pretty happy with the Century Jet ones but I was wondering what you thought about the Robart 605HD with the Robostruts.
The CJ seem to require a bit of modification to the mounting rails. Do the Robart ones drop straight in like the instructions say?
I will be following your build with interest. Unfortunately it will a few months before I can even start mine.

I like Robart on TF kits, i don't like the CJs.

Some people call CJ's "scale" but they don't look like anything "scale" to me (on any plane). If you want scale look put Robart plastic leg covers on the wire struts. Unless you buy the "super scale" oleos for larger planes (that cost in the $500 range) you'll get an oversized funny looking gear like the CJ's (IMO)

this is the real deal so you can compare for yourself

I am using the Robarts with Robostruts on mine. A pair of struts and retracts will cost about $200.

Scott

i agree with vasek. i don't think the CJ's look all that scale once put on the plane (even though i have them on mine). i'm not sure if i could recommend them.

reading your thread I also built my spit following tubig and his thread I went with the robart units and robostruts they droped right in just like the plans say if you check tubigs solution for the wheel wells it worked out great .I used a 10% solution of windex and water in a spray bottle to soften the balsa and make it more plyable also you can use this solution to take out the imperfections in the sheeting you had mentioned steam can be dangerous. to cover the body of the struts I made a hatch using 1/16 ply incorporated into the coolers using the ribs as my guide I added some blocking to screw to so if need be I could access the flap bellcranks and the struts for maint. or repair .my only gripe with the robarts was that they were a bit sticky out of the box I had to use some nail gun oil to lube the piston after that they have been trouble free .

Another way to soften balsa is to soak it in water for about 1/2 hour. then i taped it to a PVC pipe and let it dry to make my wheel wells.

ray

I really appreciate the feedback on the retracts. I think I'll go with the Robarts. For once the cheaper option is the better way to go!
Soaking balsa in water and wrapping around a scotch tumbler worked for me when doing wells for my ARF Spit.
Andrew

I finally got one wheel covering done, not really where i want it but i think i may make another skill for it. For some reason it flattened on me. Started off contoured to the wing but something i did flattened it out. I tried heat to put more curve into it but not enough. I finally settled in, after many attempts, on aluminum rod cut to the angle of the wheel cover and curved for the strut. I used JB weld to adhere them to the struts. I hope the JB weld holds under stress. It did fine when i drilled and tapped them. I started on making the right wing wheel covering. Take a look at the pictures. Thanks to everyone for the pictures. I see that most used brass straps to anchor the covering to the strut. Either way i know the pain to get it all correct. Lots of angles to deal with. It would be nice if there where drawings in a CAD system. Then one could make a 3D view of the strut and figure out all the cuts and angles. This way, via trial and error, makes for alot of dust and grindings.

It looks like the doors fit nicely in the well. If the shape really bothers you, I suppose you can use some epoxy and microballoons to create the contour of the gear doors. I used basswood on the inside of my doors, I sanded a slight curve to them, so when I glued the glass covers, they maintained the curve fairly well. Looking at photos of the full scale doors, they actually bulge out a bit with the bulge coaxial to the strut.

Scott

Ray, it looks to me like the retracts sit too deep in the wing (if there's a need to ad spacers to the doors)... Scott on the pic you posted there seems to be a small spacer on your doors /covers as well, right? is that built per plan?

The doors on the TF Spit is pretty much left to the modeller to design and build. I started out planning on making them out of some 1/8" basswood sanded to match the contour of the wing which would be attached with a bracket and screws on the struts that screwed into blind nuts on the doors. My first attempt turned out too fragile, and one of the doors split. I also purchased some of Dave Platts videos, on one of which he describes the method of making a fiberglass sheet on the surface of the wing, then use the fiberglass sheet to make a door that matches the wing perfectly. Of course, I got this video after I had cut the wing skin away from the area of the wheel wells. I ended up tack glueing some sheet balsa to cover the wells, and made the fiberglass doors on top of it. This gave a door that was close to the shape of the wing.
Mounting the doors was a bit of a puzzle to me. I knew that I did not want screw head on the exterior of the doors. I decided to combine my original basswood doors mounted with blind nuts and the fiberglass covers. I drilled countersunk holes in the basswood for the blind nuts so when the blind nuts were installed, they would be flush, or just lower than the surface of the wood that I would glue the fiberglass on. As a result, the blind nuts actually stick out on the inner door by about 1/32". This may be what you are seeing as a spacer. As for the brackets themselves, they were a challange to get right to give the proper spacing and alignment. Each bracket is made of several pieces. There is a brass tube that is a press fit over the strut. To this is attaced two pieces of brass that make up the actual bracket. This whole assembly is JB welded into a single bracket. It took time to bend and shape the pieces to allow a flush fit, but when complete, no additional spacers were needed. My doors don't fit inside the wheel well, but sit in a 1/32" wide and 1/64" deep groove that runs around the wheel well. The final fit is pretty close, with just a slight pull up on one edge. Another thing I did was to drill holes through the basswood parts of the door, turning it into swiss cheese. I then skinned the inside of the doors with thin mylar. I also had to cut a slot in the wood to allow for the back of the axle to travel as the strut compresses.

Scott

[img][/img] here is what I did with my access hatch and wheel covers lifted the retracts up as high as I could wasn't super concerned with the small gap between the cover and the opening. they attach with small zip ties .the covers were made with 1/32 ply with a balsa skin then glassed after shaping

you all did a good job on the doors[sm=thumbup.gif]

i was looking at the CJs and even if i don't like their "scale" appearance they have a better angle of the strut(s) (parallel to the wing surface) see pic 1&2

just wondering if a slight bend is made in the Robart "wire connection" that mounts into the oleo (pic 3&4) >>a la pic 1&2... see what i'm getting at?

has anyone tried that?

You know the instructions tell us to bend the landing gear wire per the plan, i think it's about 7 degrees. I did not do that since, i was using struts, maybe a wrong assumption. . But now looking at the pictures, maybe i should have. Too late now.

yes I did the bend the stubs as I added the struts as a after thought I had to do a little extra work to get them to fit in after starting with the wire gear. the bend is so the plane has less nose over tendancy seems to help a bit if you havnt closed the wing in you might want to incorporate it into your gear trial and error , I wish I had started with the struts in the first place they look so much better

I'm following the motto, if at first you don't succeed, or don't like it, try again. As I looked through all the threads and pictures i decided to make another wheel covering. I still have the first one so nothing is lost. I'm now using 5oz fiberglass. I used the same method of the printer transparency to cover the hole but i did notice that the weight of the epoxy and glass causes the covering to go a little flat. So after i applied the epoxy i tapped it all down to the wing and turned the wing over for drying. I checked it with a straight edge and so far it looks good. The morning will tell all. I will post the results.

Ray

Turning it upside down while curing. I hadn't thought about that, good idea. Next time, I'll be sure to make the glass glass doors before cutting the wells out. Maybe laying up a couple of sets of them would be a good idea too.

Scott

The skin came out nice and had a great contour. I got a tip from one of the folks at Randy's hobbies store who builds RC truck bodies. That to stop the warping by creating a flat skin panel and attaching it to the bottom of the contoured one and filing the gap with epoxy. So that's what i'm doing. On a piece of glass i built up 7 layers of 5oz fiber and let it cure. Then tacked down the contoured skin with CA in a few spots to the flat panel. Then mixed up some 30 min epoxy and let it slide into the gap. It's drying now. As soon as possible i'll take some pictures.

Ray

ray, when you lay up your fiberglass do you alternate grain directions? when i do this i lay down the layers at a 45 deg angle to each other which produces a more stiff piece with less tendency to flatten out.

You know in my years at Boeing supporting the composites factory we had fibers that ran directional. The cloth i've been purchasing is woven and you are correct, i should have cut the layers at 0, and 45 degrees for the best strength. I totally forgot this since i saw that it ran 0 and 90 degrees for the woven weave. I should have rotated each other ply at 45 degrees to get the best strength. I found out the hard way that you don't place epoxy over the last layer, i did that the first time and it created a very bumpy surface. I also used a thin, light weight, fabric the first time. Even with 7 layers it was a little thin. When i went back to the hobby store i saw the thick stuff and remembered a thread from one of the other folks that he used this or thicker stuff. So i tried it. I liked the way it handled and seems to hold the form better.

My experiment is curing in the garage. Tomorrow i'll cut it to size and fit it in the wheel well. This will tell me if it works. Strangely, as i look at the one side i've finished i still don't like that it warped up in the corner. Maybe i'm toooo fussy. But in looking at all the workmanship you have done it drives me to do better. At least to get mine as good looking as yours. So THANKS again for the thread, the responses and pictures. I remind myself not to rush, and it takes time. I looked at when you started to when you flew, and it was over 2 years.

I'll post pictures as soon as this cures, thanks again.
Ray

nothing wrong with being fussy. that's one of the reasons it took me 2 1/2 yrs from start to maiden (that and my limited time to work on it). you're actually taking this kit a little further than i did because i didn't put gear doors on mine. keep up the good work!

Well this try went very well. Much better then the rest. Attached are pictures of the cover prior to cutting it into two pieces, one for the stationary panel, the other the one that attaches to the strut. You can see from them that the contour follows the skin nicely. You can also see how thick it is from the end view.
ray