cubfloater

My Feedback: (5)

Charlie, that must be a common gotcha because I did exactly the same thing you did on the bottom wing. Don't have a full shop like you but enough and easily fixed it. Took some time that's all. And I had problems with very warped fuse sides on both the bipe and later an Astro Hog. I'll bet I spent three times as long on both than I should have and just chaulked them both up as anomalies sp? Because if not there wouldn't be such glowing reviews of the sig kits like there are. Lost my bipe and have another waiting to be built so I'm anxious to see how that fuse comes out. And as far as the gotchas go, just read three times or at least just understand what you are reading, measure twice and then stop and take a look to be sure you are correct before glueing. Mine went well and flew great. That's why I want another. Charlie, I remember reading about yours while you were building. What engine you put on it and you still flying it?

JustPlaneSweet

Yes, the link in post #70 is the right gear. I measured the gear on my plane and it is the same size. The Dubro gear looks curved and my gear is straight, but the overall size looks the same.

Stan

MasterAlex

Well I'm back! Got to be honest, not much progress over the shortened weekend. I had a ton of "to-do's" pile up while I was away - what's new, right . When I last left this thread, I had just finished the center sheeting on the top and bottom wings. One thing to note (its not that clear in the instructions) - do not sheet the entire bottom wing center like you do the top. Picture1 shows what I mean. I looked at the plans and actually had to scan ahead in the instruction manual to make sure. I guess its somewhat common sense - BUT ...

From there, I attached the rear balsa stick trailing edge. Nothing too difficult - a bit of painters tape and wood glue and time.

After the glue cured, I used a razor plane to carve down the trailing edge to match the slope of the ribs. This tool is awesome. I hadn't been a believer - now I am. I had always heard people say how great these are and never gave it much thought. I picked up one of these over the holidays and boy am I glad. If you've never tried one, you're in for a treat.

BTW, are the blades "special ordered" or can I get them in a hardware store? It looks to take blades larger than a regular razor blade...

So the razor plane made quick work out of the trailing edge. I then removed the excess wood on either side of the wing and then sanded the whole wing down. Not a finish sand, mind you, but an initial sand to get things evened out.

Next up - attaching the wing tips.

Picture1 - Sheeting underside of the top wing
Picture2 - Trailing edge glued on and curing
Picture3 - Wing just prior to sanding and removal of "overhang" on the ends...

cubfloater

My Feedback: (5)

MA, great looking work. I forgot about my razor plane. Yes that thing makes quick work out of some balsa. So much fun you have to watch it. I think mine is regular blades, its black and silver but don't remember the brand. I want to start my hog but can't hardly get into my shop. Need to clean it out so I can build before the spring gets here. Keep this going it's motivating me.

MasterAlex

The next step of attaching the wing tips has a mild "pain in the backside" factor. Its really not that hard, its just a small area that has to be sheeted that happens to also have a bit of a curve to it. I started by cutting a piece of the sheeting roughly to size and then wetted it - I had a bottle of windex handy and I sprayed the sheeting with that. I worked it into the wood and coaxed it into the proper shape. Once satisfied with the fit, I CA'd it down onto the wingtip. This is one of those areas that I think CA really has an advantage over wood glues. This is a tough area to clamp, so the instant bonding qualities of the CA makes this much easier. As you can see from Picture1 and Picture2, the sheeting has been applied and is waiting to dry (remember its wet from the windex).

Once the sheeting dried, I took out my handy dandy Dremel. This is a great tool, by the way. I slapped on a cutting disk (remember to wear proper eye protection ) and made quick work of the "overhang" (picture4). I then replaced the cutoff wheel with a sanding drum and sanded the sheeting flush with the wingtip. 5 minutes of work tops ... Of course, I still have the final sanding to do, but it's much easier this way.

While the sheeting was drying, I attached the rear Wingtip Blocks (WTB) and clamped them down.

I looked ahead in the manual to see what I could do while all these pieces cured/dried. The next step was to sand/radius the trailing edge stock in the center of the wing. I started by marking the piece based on the plans (Picture5). Next I turned to my scroll saw to rough cut the piece (picture6). Once the piece was rough cut, I turned to my Dremel again and using the sanding drum I finished the shape (picture7). Again, using these tools greatly reduced my frustration levels - had I needed to do this by hand, it would have taken much much longer - and likely would have been to a lesser quality standard.

The top wing is now almost done. All that's left is to attach the trailing edge, shape the ailerons, and shape the wingtips...

Picture1&2 - Sheeting applied and air drying.
Picture3 - Dremel tool
Picture4 - Wingtip after rough cutting with cutoff wheel
Picture5 - Trailing edge stock - rough marked
Picture6 - Trailing edge stock - rough cut
Picture7 - Trailing edge stock - sanded to shape

sticktickler

I just love this plane I have built two of these Sig kits (red & white) , (blue & yellow) but wanted a bigger one for gas operation and low cost flying. So with my computer and cad software we came up with plans for one 16% larger than the original Sig kit. The Plans are for the most part just an enlargement of this popular Sig kit just bigger with a high lift performance Compufoil airfoil. They flew so well with the Ryobi 25cc with smoke I built three of them and enjoy them all very much.

vmsguy

I am so jealous of those covering jobs.....

sticktickler

I'm 42 years old and been building and covering planes since I was 14 years old. In short the same method used to achieve a stellar performance at Carnegie Hall works here too. Practice, practice, practice! Been thinking of doing a detailed thread on complex multi color overlays and graphical covering designs, much like you see above. Is there any interest in such a tutorial?

Sunny_B

Absolutely there is interest. One can never learn to much about this hobby.
Sunny_B

Swager

My Feedback: (1)

Expand 16% and build!

Amazing!

I am so envious of people who can do stuff like that!

Great lookin Bipes, Stick!!

sticktickler

Not really all that amazing Swager the pyramids in Egypt are amazing enlarging RC airplane plans is very simple and easy to do. Any basic cad drawing software will work. I simply scan all my parts on my scanner those that are to big to fit the scanner like fuse sides I just scan it in two or three sections. Once you have everything scanned into your Cad program you can bring your fuse sections together take a few measurements and make sue it all looks proper. Then you simply resize the parts all at once in the software then print the parts out and transfer the drawings onto some wood balsa light ply whichever and cut them out easy (I spray glue the paper pattern to the wood it removes easily with a heat gun). Remember when cutting parts may just as well stack four or more sections of wood together with a light dusting of spray glue, works for all those ribs too. This gives you parts for two or more planes with the same amount of effort as cutting parts for just one.

Alex7403

Yes yes yes please do!

kbear

I'm in.

vmsguy

I don't know how many people would recognize the Carnegie Hall reference... I was thinking of adding the reference, but sometimes less is more.

Again, beautiful covering work, and if you're up to doing a tutorial I'll be reading with interest. Please post a link here so we can follow it.

sticktickler

If you like covering jobs have a gander at my Mustang this one is all Ultracote Crome with blue, black and white. I just love covering its the best part of the build to me it's what makes the plane. I thought my scratch built Ugly stick needed some tribal work on the fuse it looked a bit plain how does it look now?

Radar5756

Yes please keep this thread going. I am building a Hog myself. I started with the fuselage first. Made the mistake of putting F7 former the wrong way.

MasterAlex

Please do Stickbuilder!! I covered my Mid-Star in an American Flag pattern over the summer - I'd love to see your techniques.

MasterAlex

No worries Radar - I will keep this thread going. I'm not the fastest builder in the world, but I'm progressing. I want to maiden this in the spring (April) - so I think I am still on track. We'll see

-MA

chashint

Hi cubfloater, I put a Magnum 91fs in my plane.
I still don't have a lot of flights on it, but it flies real nice and I like it a lot, I flew it last Saturday. It has very axial rolls and instead of really stalling it just starts losing altitude. I am still trying to figure out how to build planes that come in at the manufacturer's projected weight. So far all of my planes weigh significantly more than that. I have seen people post 7.5 - 8 lbs finished weight for Hog bipes and mine weighs 10 lbs. At that weight the 91fs flies it fine and I don't feel under powered but I find myself wanting more LOL

chashint

MasterAlex, you are moving right along and it is looking real nice. Good job on the wing tip sheeting.

MasterAlex

No new progress to report at the moment. I have been pondering the cowl, however. For those of you that have added a cowl, what advice do you have for me? Would you do it again? How did you attach? You chop off the cheeks flush with the firewall? I'm likely going to mount the Saito inverted so the stack protrudes out the bottom of the cowl instead of the side - makes a cleaner look.

I could certainly be talked out of this one as I'm not 100% sold on it.

Thoughts??

-MA

BAlbertsman

I vote you go for it with the cowl. Just for selfish reasons, that I will be putting a cowl on mine and would like to see it done first.

bernie

Jim T

My Feedback: (1)

Go back to post #65 and you can see a picture of mine with a cowl on it.

Jim

MasterAlex

Jim

Do you recall where you got the cowl? Is is specifically made for the Hog? Did you simply remove the cheeks and screw the cowl to the fuse?

Thanks!

Jim T

My Feedback: (1)

I got the cowl from Stan's Fiber Tech which is now AeroFiber Tech: http://www.aerofibertech.com/index.html Looks like it's still available. I did remove the cheeks, even with the firewall and needed to cut off some of the back of the cowl. Other than that it fit great. I side mounted my OS 91 Surpass which required a lot of cutting since the cowl is fairly narrow. If you mount your Saito inverted it should work a lot better. That's what I'd do if I had to do it again. It's been quite a while back but it seems like I added 1/2" to both the elevator and rudder. It also seems like a moved the landing gear forward and have even shimmed it in back to get it more further forward. I put in a 16 oz. tank which was a mistake, since it already had a tendancy to nose over. 12 oz. is plenty. I'm going to rework mine when I get a chance and put a 12 oz. tank in and work on shifting some weight back. It's a great flying plane.

Jim