Mini Telemaster Kit-Bashing
- Thread starter rockyboy
- Start date
I do like those Irwin deep throat clamps - and even though it hurts my OCD little brain to see them all lined up, I have several different makes of clamps in the shop cause each one works better in one particular scenario compared to the others.
And yeah, I pinned the hell out of that sheet :black_eyed:
So the story behind that is once I had the front edge in place I squirted some glue and put a little weight on the sheeting. And then I noticed it was still bowing up in the middle - it didn't want to lay smooth against the rib. So I added a couple pins. And it still resisted. So I just kept going. About half a pack of pins went into it, but it stayed flat at the end.
I got smarter on the second wing panel - I sprayed the top of the sheeting with a little ammonia. It immediately curled down to the ribs, and when I added a little weight to keep it there it stayed flat. So I'll let that dry about 12 hours or so, and it should glue up nicely tonight without the aggressive acupuncture.
Here's the Voodoo Wing after pin removal, and with a nice access hole drilled to get the servo wires down into the fuselage. Important to drill this before adding the final piece of sheeting.
And here's the last of the sheeting on that panel. This one behaved nicely under some weight - I tested first - so no ammonia spray and two day process. However I did get the bottom edge trimmed a little off from the trailing edge block so I'll be coming back with some balsa filler to clean that joint up.
While I'm at it, I'll fill in that huge gap around the half-round register bump that is supposed to line up the trailing edge pieces. I say 'supposed to line up' cause the cuts seem to have been made with a different radius in each piece.
Gotta say, I was happy with the kit quality for the fuselage and tail pieces, but not impressed at all with the cuts for the wing.
And yeah, I pinned the hell out of that sheet :black_eyed:
So the story behind that is once I had the front edge in place I squirted some glue and put a little weight on the sheeting. And then I noticed it was still bowing up in the middle - it didn't want to lay smooth against the rib. So I added a couple pins. And it still resisted. So I just kept going. About half a pack of pins went into it, but it stayed flat at the end.
I got smarter on the second wing panel - I sprayed the top of the sheeting with a little ammonia. It immediately curled down to the ribs, and when I added a little weight to keep it there it stayed flat. So I'll let that dry about 12 hours or so, and it should glue up nicely tonight without the aggressive acupuncture.
Here's the Voodoo Wing after pin removal, and with a nice access hole drilled to get the servo wires down into the fuselage. Important to drill this before adding the final piece of sheeting.
And here's the last of the sheeting on that panel. This one behaved nicely under some weight - I tested first - so no ammonia spray and two day process. However I did get the bottom edge trimmed a little off from the trailing edge block so I'll be coming back with some balsa filler to clean that joint up.
While I'm at it, I'll fill in that huge gap around the half-round register bump that is supposed to line up the trailing edge pieces. I say 'supposed to line up' cause the cuts seem to have been made with a different radius in each piece.
Gotta say, I was happy with the kit quality for the fuselage and tail pieces, but not impressed at all with the cuts for the wing.
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Tench745
Master member
Bit of a tip: You don't have to use ammonia every time. If you wet the side that you want the sheet to bend away from with plain ol' water, the top of the sheet in this case, it swells the fibers there causing the sheet to curve naturally. Less drying time necessary, and you aren't weakening the wood fibers like with ammonia.
For me ammonia is reserved for only the hardest bends, like the laminated bow gunwhale on my SeaRey build. http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?15907-Scale-build-off-Progressive-Aerodyne-Searey&p=176738&viewfull=1#post176738
For me ammonia is reserved for only the hardest bends, like the laminated bow gunwhale on my SeaRey build. http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?15907-Scale-build-off-Progressive-Aerodyne-Searey&p=176738&viewfull=1#post176738
A little more progress tonight. Glued down the leading edge sheeting on the second wing panel. Still needed pins on the very edge of the sheeting to get a nice tight joint to the last bit of ribs it covers but the prebending worked great.
Also carved out the center of the balsa wing tips and smoothed over the balsa filler used to clean up the joints where i extended the trailing edges on one tip. Still need to fill the one on the left. Probably not enough weight savings to notice from the carving but i expect it will be a more even glue joint to the wing tip this way too. Not rocking on some high point in the middle.
Also carved out the center of the balsa wing tips and smoothed over the balsa filler used to clean up the joints where i extended the trailing edges on one tip. Still need to fill the one on the left. Probably not enough weight savings to notice from the carving but i expect it will be a more even glue joint to the wing tip this way too. Not rocking on some high point in the middle.
Finished up the last of the wing sheeting...
And after a few test fittings, epoxied the wing bracket and spar into one wing panel.
Next up is finishing the ailerons hinges, another round of test fittings on the flap hinges, and then putting the wing panels together.
And after a few test fittings, epoxied the wing bracket and spar into one wing panel.
Next up is finishing the ailerons hinges, another round of test fittings on the flap hinges, and then putting the wing panels together.
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And here's where we left things last night. Left side flaps and ailerons hinged, beveled, and test fit. Left wing tip cut to length, covered in some balsa filler, and pinned in place to look pretty.
Tonight is finishing up the right side control surfaces, wing tip, and just maybe connecting the wing panels.
Then on to installing the control rod guides in the fuselage and then the framing is pretty well done. Since I'm doing this as a build along with my local RC club, I'm going to wait until after the next meeting to start any covering work.
So it'll be time to clean up the work bench and get back to cutting foam for the monster FW-42!
Tonight is finishing up the right side control surfaces, wing tip, and just maybe connecting the wing panels.
Then on to installing the control rod guides in the fuselage and then the framing is pretty well done. Since I'm doing this as a build along with my local RC club, I'm going to wait until after the next meeting to start any covering work.
So it'll be time to clean up the work bench and get back to cutting foam for the monster FW-42!
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nhk750
Aviation Enthusiast
Just as he said.
In our climate, the humidity in the air can get absorbed into the epoxy as it cures out and separates the resin from the hardener. By applying something over top, it seals out the air to avoid this "flashing" phenomena and also gives a very smooth finish.
In our climate, the humidity in the air can get absorbed into the epoxy as it cures out and separates the resin from the hardener. By applying something over top, it seals out the air to avoid this "flashing" phenomena and also gives a very smooth finish.
nhk750
Aviation Enthusiast
I think my brain isn't working. I cant seem to find the tip, but I vaguely remember something about it. Are you talking about when you apply fiberglass cloth or just gluing to halves together? When I glue the wing halves together I just wipe off any excess epoxy squeezing out so there isn't any epoxy at all visible outside the seem.
...when applying glass cloth. In this case, he applied it over the seam between the two wings.
Tench745
Master member
Since I commented on here earlier I thought I'd drop this in here too.
http://rcmodel.com/blog/
Bob Benjamin has been a contributor to Fly RC magazine and is a 'master' of balsa. I love reading through his blog for insights on how best to use the material.
http://rcmodel.com/blog/
Bob Benjamin has been a contributor to Fly RC magazine and is a 'master' of balsa. I love reading through his blog for insights on how best to use the material.
