RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Hookedonrc: From the picture of your pushrod sleeves, I think you might have them installed backwards. The plans show F7 as viewed looking toward the tail. The elevator sleeve threads through the upper hole on the left side of the plane, crosses over and exit through the upper right side slot. The plans are confusing on this, so if you see it differently, let me know. Either way, I don't think it will make much difference. Fred123[&:]

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Fred, you are absolutely correct in your statement. I saw this when I originally put the fuse together. I took a long time looking at the side view for formers F5 and F7 as they were to be put into the fusealage during the build process. If you look on the plans and at the F7 drawing, it does show the hole on the left side to be higher than the one on the right. However, if you look at the side view of the plans, the left pushrod (rudder) goes through the lower hole on the left side of the aircraft exiting out the lower hole in the rear. Conversely, the elevator pushrod sleeve exits the upper hole in the rear on the right side of the fuse, but by the drawing of the former would go through the lower of the two holes. In my thought process, I considered that the two sleeves would cross over each other as they traversed to the back of the fuse, but the side drawing clearly shows the pushrods travelling parallel to each other. I even tried looking at the top view of the fuse to see if I could tell from that, but the plans of the top view don't show the pushrod configuration. I will admit that I pondered this one for quite a while.

Finally, I looked at the bracing on former F5 (on the side fuselage view) and saw that the brace is on the forward side of the former toward the servo bay. It then goes toward the rear of the fuselage exiting out the bottom slot and through the hole in F7 which is lower than the one on the right side. Since the pushrod sleeves never cross over, the F5 former has the brace on the front side of the former and the sleeve goes through the lower hole for the rudder on the left side of former F7, I concluded that the drawings of the formers from straight on are reversed, if only for the former F7. I hope this makes sense.... Like I said it took quite a while for me to make the decision on which way to install the former (F7) in the fuselage, but I finally opted to believe the side view of the plans and not the former view.

Soooo...you are paritially right... The former in my plane is reversed from the former view on the plans, but is in the correct position from the fuse side view on the plans. You are right though....it won't make much difference either way:D:D BTW: In my past life, I had some time at the drafting table and my conclusion is that either the side view of the plane is wrong, or the straigh on view of the former is wrong....I opted to go with what the fuselage side view shows...;)

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Hooked and Fred,
I noticed the same thing with the plans when I was building too. But I cleared up confusion with the instruction manual. On page 14 at the bottom of the page they have a pretty good picture that let's you see how the tubes should be installed.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Hooked,
Don't know what it looks like up your way, but it looks like we're gonna get to fly this morning. Yesterday never really panned out for flying, but it's clear this morning, the wind is still down, and it didn't get as cold last night as it was supposed to. So I'll be loading up in about 45 minutes and heading to the flying field. Yeah!!!!

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

I see what you say about page 14... but that is contradictory to what the plans show.. Especially if you take the side view... But as said, it won't make much difference. My plane is built according to the side view and yours is built according to the picture;)

As for flying, I am not in the air today regardless of the weather. I am finishing up the aileron replacement on my Ultra Stick lite, and have yard work to do...yuck. It was too windy to fly yesterday and so I spent most of the day working on the US ailerons. I hope to get the aileron back in place by mid day. The task has been somewhat slow because I have had to cut into the aileron that came off and the one still on the plane and replace the balsa wood that the control horn fits into. Both were so soft that it wouldn't hold anything for very long. My repair will make sure I don't have any other problems. I am also having to reslot the CA hinges since they pulled out of the right aileron... the left is still on the wing. After my repairs are completed, I have to recover the area.

Once done with that, I am going back to the lower wing build on the hog and hope to have the two halves together today or tomorrow.

Hope you have a good day at the field.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Hookedonrc: I was in the basement today after flying all afternoon, and it struck me that I hadn't added a sleeve for the receiver antenna. In other planes, I have used the 1/8" tube that is the same as the insert for the elevator/rudder sleeve. Makes removal of the antenna easy when you need to. Fred123[&:]

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Fred,
That's exactly what I did to mine too. In fact, I do that on all of my airplanes. I run the tube along the bottom inside of the fuselage and exit just forward of the tailwheel.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

RC Ken-

It looks like I'm going to be putting an OS 91 4-stroke, I picked one up today. I should be getting the hog tomorrow and will be able to start on it sometime this week. The weather has sucked here the last week or two, either very windy or rainy. Hopefully the weather will turn soon, but it doesn't appear that that is going to happen. I flew my Sig SE yesterday, only 1 flight, the wind was blowing hard enough that I performed a vertical landing that was a little hard and broke the prop also scraped up the wing tip. Decided at that point not to risk anything and packed it up and went home.

I'll post pictures of my progress once I get started.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

jspencer,
I can't wait to see your build progress too. I don't know why because I've already built one, but following Hooked's progress has been really fascinating. Damn if I don't love this hobby!!!

Flying was shot yesterday because of a cold north wind, yuck. But got some decent flying weather today, even though it did have a pretty interesting crosswind. I didn't take my Hog out today, but had a blast with my Slow Poke and my ever trusty Thuderbug which goes out with me every time to the field.

hope you all get flying weather soon.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Ken - Glad you got some flying in today... We had good weather too, although we are only on the other side of the state. I was able to finish the repairs to the ailerons on my Ultra Stick Lite so I will pick up where I left off on the hog tomorrow. Will add the extra rib supports to the root rib on both wing halves and begin the process of putting them together. I will again be posting pictures and my progress. Once the two halves are together and the sheeting in place, I am going to do the horizontal stab next. Then when I construct the vertical fin, I can make small adjustments in it to avoid the small gap in between the turtle deck and fin like fred had in his. The stab will give me the thickness that I will need to make sure the fin fits correctly. Frankly, I am happy to be through with fixing the ailerons on the Ultra Stick. I spent much of the time rebuilding the control horn blocks, and doing it with tite bond glue, I was constantly waiting for it to dry. It came out great, and with all the bracing that is in them now, if I lose an aileron again, I figure the wing will probably go with it.:D

Will begin updating my progress again soon....

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Day 41 - I think
I went back through the thread and found a Day 38, no 39, but a Day 4?...;) So let's pick this back up with Day 41...ok... It's close anyway. I got back in the shop with a clean building board and the Ultra Stick Lite wing back on the rack, so it's time to pick up the hog again. First I added the inside 1/2 rib on both lower wing halves which, in theory support the walls of the single servo configuration. Even though I am using 2 servos, I felt that this 1/2 rib would just add additional strength to the wing center and the sheeting that will go over it. One item of note, when you add this 1/2 rib, the support on the bottom really needs to be sanded. With the wing root rib at an angle the newly added rib tends to stick out below the line between the wing root and the first full size rib in the wing. The instructions say to sand to shape, so it shouldn't be hard to forget, but thought it was worth mentioning.

Once the 1/2 rib was in place it came time to cut the wing root rib to accommodate the dihedral brace that fits the two root ribs together. In the instructions, it says to simply cut out the space indicated by the lines on the ribs....yeah right.. Try finding them after you have sanded the two root ribs so that they fit smoothly together:)... What I ended up doing was measuring to the center of the top spar and bottom spar, lining up the dihedral support block and tracing the outline of the block so I would know where to make my cuts. I was at first concerned that there really isn't any side to side support for the dihedral block, but with the two wings up against the root ribs, this is a minor need. I just made sure I had plenty of 30 minute epoxy on both the top and bottom spars before I did the final gluing.

Everything went together right on the money. I was very pleased with the final joint and I had very little gap around the entire joint. It fit together like a glove. The next test was in the height of the wing at the wingtip of the half tilted in the air. I fashoned a block at 2 3/8" just as the plans indicate. When I slipped the block under the wing it touched exactly at the point it is supposed to (see the attached picture). The rest was pretty straight forward... clamped the two halves together, cleaned up the epoxy where it oozed out of the joint, and left it blocked up to dry. So far it is going exactly as the plans indicate. Next step is to sheet the top and bottom center making sure I leave two holes for the servo extensions.

It was great being back on this project not only because I am excited about getting this plane to the bare bones part, but that I also finished the repairs on my other.

Enjoy the latest pictures:

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Hookedonrc: Don't forget to roll up paper to make the servo wire tubes before you sheet. Fred123[&:]

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Thanks for the reminder fred..I had not planned on doing that since I am going to put in a length of string to help fish the servo wires through. However, after your comment and my thinking about it a little more, I might as well do it when I have the chance. Worst thing that could happen would be to accidentally pull the string through and have the wires come loose. So I guess I will put them in first thing after the wing dries over night.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

hooked-

Glad to see you back on the project again and making progress. I got my kit today and went through and marked all of the pieces and punched them out. One thing that I didn't care for was it would have been nice if the ribs would have been laser cut. Other then that everything looks to be great quality and I can't wait to get started.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Thanks and yes, I would have liked to have the ribs laser cut as well. One thing to watch and I didn't say anything about it. You may have already taken the ribs out of the balsa sheets, but if you didn't be very careful not to pull off the rib alignment tabs. I did this on a couple before I started using an exacto knife and cutting away the balsa surrounding the tab. That way I kept the chance of pulling the tab off to a minimum. Also when you place the ribs in place on the spar, make sure to sight down the top of the rib to make sure it went all the way down into place. It is possible to leave a little too much balsa remaining in the slot where it connects to the spar since they are die cut.

And yes, it is a good feeling to be making progress again....

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

I broke a couple of alignment tabs off too. You can use a drop of CA to put it back in place on the rib if you accidentally snap it off.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

I had a couple of the alignment tabs crack as I was taking them out, and did just what RCKen suggested and put a drop of CA on the crack so that it doesn't break completely off. The worst thing for me was the lightening holes, most of them I had to use the exacto knife on, and exacto knives and circles don't mix very well, at least on balsa. I can see that I'm going to have to hit most of the ribs with either 220 sand paper or trim them up with the exacto knife so that I can get a good fit with the spar and LE of the wings.

I'm going to have to get a few things before I start. Most of the wings that I have built were two piece and could be built on a small board, so I need to get a larger building board. I liked hooked's idea on the ceiling tile, now I just need to find something that is flat and sturdy to attach it too. I had an old door that I used as a table for one of my plane builds and then cut it in half and threw it away. I should have known that it would have come in handy one day, oh well. I'll have to see what I can dig up at the HW store.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

jspencer,
go to your hardware/lowe's/home depot and ask if they have any damaged hollow core doors. If they do they will usually sell them for very cheap. If not, regular price on a 2'x6' hollow core door was only about $15.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

jspencer - If you take a look at some of my early pictures of the wing assembly, you can see that the tiles are attached to a door. It is 1/2 of a bifold door that I got at Lowes for about $16.00. I went to the section that sold doors and asked if they had any that were damaged. The had the bifold one that was in perfect shape except the mounting hardware was missing. I got both doors for the $16 and am going to use the other one for a covering cutting board. It will be mounted on the wall of the garage and will swing down when in use. I have checked into getting a piece of glass for the top and it will cost about $40.00. Using "L" shaped aluminum, I plan to mount the glass in place. Just haven't got to it yet.. But I will put it up before I cover the hog... I really need it anyway and have the plans in my head on how it should work.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Thanks for the info guys. I will check tonight or tomorrow and see what they have for damaged doors. Tonight I may end up at the field since we have had a turn in the weather and better take advantage of it while I can.

Hooked- that is a great idea for a cutting table. You may want to check at the salvation army or thrift store and see if anyone has donated a glass table top, like for an end table. We had an old piece of glass from an end table that we didn't know what to do with and we threw it out last fall. It was 3/8"x24"X24" with rounded corners and edges, would have made a great cutting table. I'm not throwing anything else out, I may be sitting on a gold mine.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Day 42
Wow what a great feeling to get two days in a row in on the build. Although I did have a couple of errands after work, I was able to get some things done on the top of the wing. You can see in my first picture that I did get in the paper tubes to help with fishing the servo wires through. PLEASE NOTE: If you build this plane and probably every other one with dual servos, put the paper tubes in BEFORE you glue anything in the way of the holes in the ribs. It wasn't a real big deal, but I struggled a little with trying not to bend the rolled tubes too much during the install. There may be a trick to doing it, but the best one I can think of is put them in earlier:D

Next step was to put the top center wing sheeting in place. You can see my progress from the rest of the pictures. Only a couple of comments on this step. Whether it is needed, important, or not, I started on one side as you can see from the top and followed up by finishing up from the bottom. This left the joint between the front and back sheets at different points on each side. In other words, the center sheeting joint is not all the way across the center section. It is split about 1 inch forward on the right side than on the left. I really don't think it makes much difference either way since the 1/2 ribs that I installed yesterday make for pretty decent support.

The next step will be to sheet the bottom of the wing, but before I do, I am going to do 1 thing. I will center the wing on the fuselage and mark the edges of approximately where the fuse sides meet the wing top. After I determine this, I will go back and make two servo wire holes on each side of the center ribs. This will give me a place to fish the servo wires through after the bird is covered. I will add in some string to fish with before I do the final sheeting then it will just be a matter of taking a pair of tweezers and pulling it through the hole. I will most likely tie a small washer on the end so I will have something to grab hold of. (Small enough to pull through the holes I make :D....just in case you were wondering.) Don't want to build that boat in the basement then have to tear down the house to get it out...if you know what I mean;)

Here are the latest pictures...

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Hookedonrc: Finished with the wing aileron servo mounts today and went to the LHS to pick up covering material.. Plan to use Sig Aerokote Cub yellow on the wings and Aluminum on the fuselage. Have flight pack etc. on order from Towers. While covering isn't my favorite activity, I can usually tough through it. For some reason, Aerokote is hard to find. Towers has most of it on back order and my LHS says that his re-[&:]supply will take 90 days. Like Aerokote, because the rolls are 2 meters long and 31" wide. All for the same price as Ultracote..Keep me posted..Fred123

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Looking good hooked!

Well I went to Lowes last night to find a damaged door and some ceiling tiles. I found a door, but the lady at the customer service desk would only give me 25% off, so it was still $28, no thanks! The door looks like the fork lift got a hold of it, plus it was the last door on the pallet and was all cracked up, who's going to buy a crap door for $28, not me. Then it took forever at the checkout line, because I took the open package of ceiling tiles that only had 3 left and they supposedly only sold them by the package of 8, so where did the other 5 tiles go? Anyway after an hour plus at Lowes I got home and made my building board. I used a piece of 3/4" particle board and glued the ceiling tile to it, this will work fine since my wife will let me build on the kitchen counter, nice and flat. I really like the ceiling tile, thanks hooked.

I started on the tail surfaces first, I'll probably do everything in reverse since I have a week before I get my engine. Tail surfaces, wings, fuse. I only finished the horizontal stab, since I was waiting for the gorilla glue to dry. I like that stuff, easy to sand and holds like nobody's business. I sanded the stab this morning and have come to the conclusion that all the sanding will have to wait until the end. I will break out the painting breathing mask so that I don't get all of that balsa dust in the lungs and just do it all at once, maybe setup a table outside under the tree in the shade and sand, sand, sand and then sand some more. I'll take some pictures when I get to something eventful.

Fred123- How do you like the Aerokote? I have only used monokote and am going to try ultracote on the bipe and see how I like it.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Jspencer,
Sorry you had problems at Lowe's, my local store has always been great. As part of my business I deal with the Lowe's organization on a contractor level, so I get to see the inner workings of the store. If you had a problem at the checkout then I would speak to the manager about it.


I've only had a limited use of gorilla glue, but I would think that it would be something you would have to really watch if you are using it here. Gorrilla glue is activated by moisture and will expand. Depending in the humidity level you may have different expansion variations. I may be wrong and will stand corrected if I am, but I would consider using another glue that isn't going to expand. I can can see it pushing your structure out of shape as it cures.

RE: Sig Hog Bipe Build
 

Ken-

I had lots of weight on the stab so I wasn't worried about that. For the wing sheeting and things that have curves I'll probably use Aliphatic Resin for that since it will give me a little time and it won't expand like the gorilla glue, plus it doesn't stink up the house like the CA. The CA is nice for tacking things in place and building the general frame/structure, but for sheeting the Aliphatic Resin works great.

The lady at the checkout at Lowes handled it the best that she could, it just took a long time. I think the price on the door bugged me more then anything, but that's okay, I've got something that works just as good.

James