Mandrewoid
New member
Hey guys, I'm just new around here and I have never actually built a plane before. Today I got to watching some of the videos on the DIY foamies from FT and Experimental Airlines (The Armin wing). I am learning a lot about how models are built, and it doesn't look nearly as intimidating anymore. One thing I thought was pretty cool is that in one of EA's videos he compares the different styles of foam formers, and how much weight they can carry before deflecting and eventually failing.
I've been reading a lot about models in the past 2 weeks, and it seems quite common in the with balsa wood builds to wrap the wing in fibreglass after? I am supposing that this is where the wing gets a lot of its strength, and the balsa is there more or less to give a shape to wrap the fibreglass around. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong.
Anyways, this is why I posted in the 'Mad' corner:
What if you were to build a foam wing, (a-la Armin wing or FT style, doesn't matter), coat it in carbon fiber, and then fill the wing with a solvent to dissolve the foam? From the look of those foam wings you would shed a lot of weight, and the wing would probably be stronger than the original foam only shape. If anyone has the resources to try this out on a small 2-3 inch wide section of wing just to see if it works, you'd be super awesome in my book forever.
If this doesn't work, I have also given thought to wrapping a foam wing, then applying a PVA mould release, then wrapping it again and just tapping the wing former out with a mallet. The neat thing about this is that if you only tap it out 85% of the way you can rewrap the exposed part again, rinse and repeat, effectively allowing you to build an 'infinitely' long wing that appears like 1 solid piece.
At first I was really scared of CF partsmaking but WJP004 on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh5B6MCXRHiEFl6VaERQKJUGFRj4Coh4H
makes it look so easy that I think most people who already scratch build their own planes should be able to do something like this. Especially if they already have learned how to fibreglass a wing.
Let me know what you guys think!
Andrew
I've been reading a lot about models in the past 2 weeks, and it seems quite common in the with balsa wood builds to wrap the wing in fibreglass after? I am supposing that this is where the wing gets a lot of its strength, and the balsa is there more or less to give a shape to wrap the fibreglass around. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong.
Anyways, this is why I posted in the 'Mad' corner:
What if you were to build a foam wing, (a-la Armin wing or FT style, doesn't matter), coat it in carbon fiber, and then fill the wing with a solvent to dissolve the foam? From the look of those foam wings you would shed a lot of weight, and the wing would probably be stronger than the original foam only shape. If anyone has the resources to try this out on a small 2-3 inch wide section of wing just to see if it works, you'd be super awesome in my book forever.
If this doesn't work, I have also given thought to wrapping a foam wing, then applying a PVA mould release, then wrapping it again and just tapping the wing former out with a mallet. The neat thing about this is that if you only tap it out 85% of the way you can rewrap the exposed part again, rinse and repeat, effectively allowing you to build an 'infinitely' long wing that appears like 1 solid piece.
At first I was really scared of CF partsmaking but WJP004 on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh5B6MCXRHiEFl6VaERQKJUGFRj4Coh4H
makes it look so easy that I think most people who already scratch build their own planes should be able to do something like this. Especially if they already have learned how to fibreglass a wing.
Let me know what you guys think!
Andrew