Balsa Funbat

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
So a bit of an anecdote today.

I have been looking for a laser shop to get my ribs cut - it's the hardest thing to cut by hand. The closest ones have been 8 hours and 3 hours drive away and I've had to have friends get my cut pieces and post them to me. Shipping more than the cutting.

And after some Googling and calling I found out that I have a shop in my town.

Less than two blocks from my house.

How crazy is that? I don't believe it myself.

Cutting up to 16x20 inches with simple pieces would be under $5.

What kind of CAD program do you use for the design work? Years ago I had a free program that allowed me to do some basic layout designs for some truck fabrication I was doing, and it might work OK for some airplane designs I've been thinking about.

As mentioned above, a bootleg version of AutoCAD 2015. Full of features, but hard to master (compared to SketchUp). Sketchup seems to be popular for the RC community, but I grew up with CAD so I like the precision of it.

Don't know about the fuse...but a lattice wing would look killer :D
http://www.airfieldmodels.com/infor...ers/construction/lattice_wing_skins/index.htm

Lattice - never heard the term, but I did see the picture before. Sorry, this wing will be ribbed - especially since I found a place to laser cut those intricate ribs :p

Wow, with a nice transparent film that would be a show-stopper!

Now there is an idea I've had for a while. If I go with the covering method you guys are familiar with (not something I can easily get my hands on) then I'll try to get transparent film. I LOVE the looks of the Sig Seniorita with it's transparent red film, showing the intricacy and work put into the model:

Senorita304-30-2011.jpg
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Lattice - never heard the term, but I did see the picture before. Sorry, this wing will be ribbed - especially since I found a place to laser cut those intricate ribs :p

It's hard to see behind the lattice but he still has ribs. The lattice is just there instead of rib caps or a skin and gives some extra strength and unique look :D
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Lots of progress today. I worked 12 am almost to 4 am. I will hate myself tomorrow at work, but this is sooo enjoyable...

This is the wing structure I chose. I decided to modify the fuselage with a wing saddle to accept the full wing.

fubat.progress.5.jpg

Here is today's work. I drew all the ribs, the servo trays, the supports for the aforementioned, the shear webbing to go between the ribs, and then most of the plan drawing to work over.

Reminder to self - tomorrow draw the support tabs for the ribs to aid assembly. LINK
This ensures that the ribs are all straight during assembly. They are laser cut in a way that they are easy to break off when the wing assembly is complete. They must not be in the way of the 3x3mm reinforcing strips.

fubat.progress.6.jpg
 

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
One thing I've done on the leading edge for a few builds is to swap out the wood LE for a carbon fiber tube. I've found it to be stronger, straighter, and nicely curved.
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
One thing I've done on the leading edge for a few builds is to swap out the wood LE for a carbon fiber tube. I've found it to be stronger, straighter, and nicely curved.

I wish I could - carbon fiber is unavailable here, and it costs a fortune to import.

If I had CF I would have made a round main spar instead of the top/bottom spar with shear webbing.

I still have not figured out where to get covering film... This may be available within my country though.

Thanks for the tip anyway, I'd use it if I could :)
 

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
I assume shipping costs for a full roll of film or a regular stick of CF is very expensive due to the size of the package, otherwise you'd simply order from Hobby King or some other supplier?
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
I assume shipping costs for a full roll of film or a regular stick of CF is very expensive due to the size of the package, otherwise you'd simply order from Hobby King or some other supplier?

Correct. CF is cheap at HobbyKing, but they add a cardboard tube which weighs a ton and that costs shipping. It's only reasonable cost if you buy for a whole RC club LOL...

On top of that add an import fee of about $45 for every package under 4 kg!
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
So I added the tabs on the ribs to aid in construction:

fubat.progress.8.jpg

And I also started adding details to the main top down plan (the one I will build over):

fubat.progress.7.jpg
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
So my progress has been stuck for a while... so I got bored today and started playing with sketchup styles... Looks nice in a daVinci kind of way :p

fubat.progress.10.jpg

fubat.progress.9.jpg