Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

Hi,

I've decided to get another slowstick since mine is pretty much torn apart and very old (won't fly it's so torn apart). and it's been so long since I assembled the old one that I've got some questions about assembling it.

1. Is it okay (recomended) to use foam same zap glue in place of the gws glue? From what I remember of putting together the last one, my least favorite thing was having to use gws glue on anything.

2. When it comes to cutting the 45° angles on the rudder and rear wing, wouldn't it just be best to use some sandpaper and trim it down that way, or is there something I don't know with using sandpaper on this kit? I attempted to use a fresh exacto to "cut" the 45° angle on the rear wing but all it really did was make some huge mess out of the wing and I was lucky to be able to salvage it as it is. Im thinking sandpaper now, what did you use?

3. When it comes to taping up the rear wing and rudder, the instructions are unclear about whether I have to tape one side, or tape both sides with the packing tape. The images show only one side, but the instructions say something about "Please note for the both sides", whatever the heck that means. So tape one side or both when attaching the rudder and or rear wing where they are split apart.

4. I used the holes in the rear wing as my guide for where the fueselage is going to go. Bad mistake. It appears now that the rear wing is not perfectly squared up to the fuelselage (dang you GWS, why give me predrilled holes if they are not going to line up), is it that important, will I simply compensate on my radio, or will a slight off angle not matter all that much at all?

That's about it for the moment.

Thanks,

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

Hey kuplo, I will do my best to help out.

1. I recommend 5 or 6 minute epoxy. It will give you more time to make sure things are straight before the glue sets up.

2. When cutting the 45deg angles, you need to be real careful, I have buggered up some stuff as well. They sell a tool for doing it, but if you are like me and don't build that many planes it isn't worth spending the money. Try some sand paper and see how that goes.

3. Tape only one side. The side that does not have the angle cut in it.

4. The tail, and wing should be square with each other and the stabilizer should be on a perfect 90 deg angle. Luckily it is a SS, or it could be big problems to have the wing and tail misaligned. Is it possible to straighten it out?? You could try a test flight, but it may not fly as well as it could.

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

A note about the GWS glue: It's a contact cement.

The correct way to use it is to apply a thin coating to both parts to be glued, wait until it's nearly dry, then bring the parts together. They will bond more or less instantly, so you have to get the positioning right the first time.

Having said that, I don't use it. It's 5-minute epoxy for me.

- Jeff

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

Thanks for the information. That would be why my first slowstick took so long to put together. I applied the GWS glue rather liberally to places like that fiberglass bar that sits on the rear of the main wing and it took like 2 days to fully cure and harden. I'm using Zap-0 CA+ supposedly safe on styrofoam and foam and now "odorless", and slow cure. So far so good with this stuff. Allows me enough time to reposition the item many times before it's "stuck" in place. Funny though, it seems to cure quite fast on my finger tips which always seem to get some on them.

I used the sandpaper on the rudder for the 45° angle and it IS the superior way of doing it over the exacto knife method. Can't for the life of me understand why they wouldn't suggest using sandpaper over an exacto knife in the instructions. So my rudder looks real nice, where as my rear wing looks like shnitzel, with a chunk cut out of it where the exacto slipped too deep, fortunately its covered by the tape so it shouldn't hurt anything.

I'll have to see if I can break the bolts and nuts free from where the tail is on the fueselage, I may have put them on too soon and superglued them into place, I'm pretty sure though that I should be able to crack them loose and then maybe slot one of the holes in the rear wing so as to reposition it to make it more square with the fueselage. I hope!

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

The reason super glue cures faster on your fingertips than in the open is the moisture on your skin acts like an accelerator. If you want it to cure faster on your plane spritz it with a little bit of water.

Bill

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

Okay, back to the building questions.

I need to know what servos people are using on their stock slow sticks. All the servos I've got laying around here (Hitec 55, and Eflite servos) are all way too small to mount to the stock servo mounts, i'ts not a matter of drilling new holes to mount them to the GWS servo mounts as the servos that I mention don't have long enough mounting points to lay over (or under) the GWS servo mounts on the slow stick.

I seem to remember this was also a problem on my original slowstick and I ended up mounting them with one screw, screwed in cockeyed and everytime the plane would bump too hard on landing the servos would fall off and dangle by the guidewires to the rear wings. So, I'd really kind of like to make them solidly mounted this time so that I don't have to keep fiddling with them after every flight.

So if you used the stock servo mounts on the GWS Slowstick, and your servos screwed right in to the existing holes, what servos did you use?

OR... If you used these smaller servos, please explain how you mounted them to the slowstick. Im not looking for very elaborate ways of doing it as I have limited customizability options to me since Im really not good about customizing things (as you can tell by my screwing in the mounting screws on my original SS cockeyed to hold the servos)

Thanks,

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

Tower Pro SG90 from www.headsuprc.com
HTX HXT900 from Hobby City/Hobby King

These are all 9g servos and fit into the stock servo tray with one screw on each side.

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

Hi Sir Raleigh,

Did you drill new holes to make those fit, and or screw the screws down into the plastic where there wasn't holes already on the stock servo tray? Not that I'm opposed to that, I just want to know what I'm in for before I go buying the new servos, however I would prefer it if at all possible some servos that actually fit the existing holes.

Anybody else want to tell me what servos you used and if they fit the existing holes or if you made new holes to screw them in. I've seen in the Slowstick survey thread some folks used the Hitec 81 servos, but I don't know if they would fit the existing mounting holes or not either.

Thanks for the help, it is appreciated.

I guess I should also mention that Im running with my JR receiver, and radio, so I guess the servo would need to be standard to fit the JR receiver, which maybe that's pretty much the standard plug on all servos now adays.

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

I just checked that link for the SG90 and they say:
This would lead me to believe that my existing Hitec 55 would actually fit like you have done, but I fail to see how, the mounting arms on the servo don't seem to overlap the servo tray enough to make holes to mount it with screws.

Sorry for double post.

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

Okay, never mind. Silly me, I should have put my reading glasses on, apparently there is a really tiny hole on each servo tray that matches up exactly for the Hitec 55 so Im good to go on this regard.

Sorry for taking up board space before putting on my glasses.

RE: Slowstiick assembly questions.
 

No problem, kuplo. You never know what might show up in any thread. Just a word or two can raise other questions which could end up with you making an exceptional aircraft.

Ask away... That's what we are here for.

Happy flying,

Bill