8ft Zagi Sloper - DIY / Hot cutting / Fiberglass - MAIDENED!

[thenated0g]

That looks totally usable, really nice job. One thing you will find is you need to play around with heat and speed on every new cut as the length of cable your heating and the length of the foam will need to be adjusted. Like i said in the beginning i want to move to pink foam as soon as i use up the white stuff i have.

Did you watch the video of my big f-100 getting tossed off a hill?
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/f-100-super-sabre-1-8th-build-70.37285/

Even if this ends up weighing the same as the f-100 it will have half the wing loading so should be launchable even by myself. Grab it by the nose, resting the wing on your head and toss out in front of you. Thats the idea anyways lol

 

[thenated0g]

After looking again at the picture of the "tiny" servo on the wing i was concerned that it would have enough power for this big wing. At 4.8v its rated as failing at 15.5kg or 34lbs, sooo i think that will be fine.
https://alofthobbies.com/power-hd-1501mg-metal-gear-servo-15-5-kg-215-oz-in-16-sec.html

 

[bracesport]

@thenated0g @CapnBry - yowweeee - I need to try one of these - I have the 3d printer for the profile, the wire, and the power supply!

 

[bracesport]

@thenated0g - my hybrid soarer is taking shape - can't wait to try it out!

 

[thenated0g]

Started marking equipment. Not only so i can replicate it on the other wing but so that i know where control arms are mounting so i can reinforce underneath the control arm.

 

[CapnBry]

That looks totally usable, really nice job. One thing you will find is you need to play around with heat and speed on every new cut as the length of cable your heating and the length of the foam will need to be adjusted. Like i said in the beginning i want to move to pink foam as soon as i use up the white stuff i have.

Did you watch the video of my big f-100 getting tossed off a hill?
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/f-100-super-sabre-1-8th-build-70.37285/

That F-100 looks amazing as well. I love these beautiful giants that you're putting together from such simple equipment and materials (and a bunch of time and planning). If you would have asked me a month ago if I could ever create something like this I would have flat out said no, but following your progress I'm thinking, well, probably?

You were right about the changing heat and speed cutting the full scale wing. My first pair of wings are comically bad since I didn't have enough power going into the wire, so I couldn't keep the wire straight. The first was bad, the second was worse. I slapped them on my tiny trainer though and guess what? They still fly. The third came out much much better so I'm starting to figure it out.

I love the little notebook too. I've got one as well that's like 90% full of drawings of triangles with various dimensions and mechanism sketches from old projects. Can't beat them for helping to quickly visualize and work out some math,

 

[thenated0g]

This is a notebook from Iliketomakestuff.
Cutting wings is definitely an art and a skill, fortunately it is cheaper than foamboard at most home depot's to get rigid insulation and play around with it.

 

[thenated0g]

Got a quote back for full color printed vinyl and it was a lot more than i want to spend on this project so im going to just wrap it in vinyl myself and some sharpie/paint on top of it along with some stickers from my cricut vinyl cutter. I had considered going back to my original idea of painting but that would require a TON of work filling and sanding and probably still wouldn't come out looking as good as the vinyl finish. Plus the vinyl adds some tensional strength as another skin and abrasion protection that i can replace pretty cheap.
To cover the top and bottom i ordered two seperate colors (match picture at bottom of post). They are 30" by 10 yard rolls. With shipping and tax it will use about $23 worth of material to cover this wing which i think is pretty competitive vs the price of rattle cans and the time to do multiple coats.

As an example of how sharpie art turns out here is my big 90" wing i did a couple years back. I used a projector to trace the design on with a black sharpie and than painted the inside fill with a paintbrush. The bird is a trace and paint and the FF is a 8x11 paper print i laminated on.

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The bottom design will probably slowly get scraped off with landings, i can live with that. I will probably put some clear coat of some type on the paint.

 

[bracesport]

@thenated0g @CapnBry - my wife will kill me if I start another plane - so I will start by setting up some hot wire equipment as I have a bit more space there - 😆 - what wing should I build first, maybe I could lend your chord profiles to get started?

In the meantime I want to try my Pheonix hybrid on the slope.

 

[thenated0g]

i would start off with a clark-y for the same reason that flitetest uses them. The bottom of the airfoil is completely flat, i have gotten away with only cutting the top on a few planes. The fact that the bottom is flat means you cant really mess up the angle of incidence (think thats the term). Basically it makes it pretty easy to make the wing be aligned with the horizontal stabilizer. Its not going to be a fast flying plane and its not going to make a good slope soaring wing, but its a great starter "will probably work for anything" airfoil.

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Clark_Y

 

[thenated0g]

Heres a hot wire cutting playlist a made a while back, just videos i found on youtube over the years:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMieSP4Ym7qrEwUGwXHBptd4e7GSY6Q1g

 

[thenated0g]

Covered the second wing and marked out parts locations. On the other sides elevon i added a small section of carbon fiber cloth on the bottom side right where the control horn will mount. It goes about an inch inwards, but most of the carbon goes out towards the wing tip. My thinking on this is that it will stiffen up that whole area and reinforce the control horn as usually it is pulling. This should hopefully stiffen up the elevon and help with twisting.

 

[mayan]

Wow nice work buddy.

 

[bracesport]

second that - this is looking impressive!

 

[thenated0g]

 

[Grifflyer]

It's coming along nicely!!

 

[CapnBry]

Oh wow you literally mean spakle. Does that add a lot of weight or is spackle just primarily water?

 

[Grifflyer]

Oh wow you literally mean spakle. Does that add a lot of weight or is spackle just primarily water?

Spackle starts out as a paste and ends almost like dried mud.

 

[thenated0g]

This is the lightest weight stuff i can find at ACE hardware. The bucket almost feels empty when you pick it up. Doesnt really add any noticeable weight but makes the top finish (paper or tape or laminate or fiberglass) look noticeable much better.

Was reading up on fiberglass and vinyl, guess vinyl doesn't stick well on its own and the recommendation seems to be glossy paint. So layed down some grey primer to fill in some of the weave and will do glossy on top of that. Also put cores together and was happy that my parts layout matched up. Also started drilling the main spar hole with a copper pipe. I have an outer carbon tube that will be glued inside the cores and an inner carbon tube that will connect the wings together.

 

[bracesport]

that's a very clean finish - love your work - is spackle essentially 'plaster of Paris'?