bracesport DLG

[Wildthing]

That's how we keep getting better , live and learn.

 

[rockyboy]

Haven't caught up on the forums in a while and come back to this really freakin' awesome project! Hat's off to you sir - this is inspiring!

 

[bracesport]

@rockyboy - it was a bit of dreaming over Christmas on the 'how-to' and a desire to do it without complex tooling!

 

[bracesport]

So, onwards and sidewards!

Shrink wrapped the front fuse mould and layered up some unidirectional 0.8K carbon fibre onto the pool cue - I want to stiffen the boom a bit as a flexible boom can effect launch straightness and height - I pulled the current boom/fuse assembly onto the cue again to cure and we will see how it feels afterwards (I am going away for a few days so that will be good for curing) - I then layered up three layers of the 0.8K carbon onto the nose mould and wrapped it with cling film (ran out of shrink wrap) then fitted the outer male mould - depending on the strength of the finished part I may add some fibreglass inside as a second step - my BAMF fuse is a bit weak in the area of the fuse forward of the LE of the wing.

 

[Jackson T]

This is awesome @bracesport! I have spent many hours in the past trying to figure out how to make a good DLG, and here you are showing us all how it's done. How many g/m^2 of carbon cloth do you have on that boom all up? Keep up the great work and enjoy those thermals!

 

[thenated0g]

Great project. Been taking a break from rc stuff, good to see you still working on it.

 

[bracesport]

@Jackson T - I am not sure what the weight of the braided carbon fibre sleeve was, but it is damn light - I will try and find out.

Now that I have the process underway I have learned from my mistakes! But essentially it looks to be a good system if you have access to a 3D printer!

The flat carbon sheet I use is 0.8K which super lightweight.

 

[bracesport]

The stiffened boom and front fuse section came out of the moulds with a minimum of fuss - the front section needs a bit more sanding than the boom in terms of surface finish, but the process in impressive - the wing seems to nest on the fuse (so my measuring and gest-imation was pretty good) - looking inside the front section of the moulding you can see how well the forming works with these 3D printed moulds - I am thinking the wall section is actually a bit light, so I plan to add an internal layer of carbon or fibreglass (depending on what works best - I had been allowing 0.6mm for the wall thickness, but I think the walls are only 0.4mm and while they are awesome, I want to make sure I can survive some heavier nose in landings!

 

[Wildthing]

The stiffened boom and front fuse section came out of the moulds with a minimum of fuss - the front section needs a bit more sanding than the boom in terms of surface finish, but the process in impressive - the wing seems to nest on the fuse (so my measuring and gest-imation was pretty good) - looking inside the front section of the moulding you can see how well the forming works with these 3D printed moulds - I am thinking the wall section is actually a bit light, so I plan to add an internal layer of carbon or fibreglass (depending on what works best - I had been allowing 0.6mm for the wall thickness, but I think the walls are only 0.4mm and while they are awesome, I want to make sure I can survive some heavier nose in landings!

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Looks really slick

 

[bracesport]

another small update - given the wall thickness is super light and my flying is super 'nube' I am adding another layer of carbon into the fuse sections - this morning I made two new inner moulds (0.6mm smaller) to use to form the carbon into the current parts - I also layered up a fibre glass nose cone with roughly 3 layers of 0.6K cloth (very thin) - you can see the inserted parts in the second image.

 

[bracesport]

FYI - my BAMF 1.5 wing is 120g - tail feathers combined are 15g - I will weigh the fuse/boom tomorrow (no RX gear) - seems I have 110 g total to play with including Fuse/Rx/servos/battery/noseWeight.

 

[Wildthing]

FYI - my BAMF 1.5 wing is 120g - tail feathers combined are 15g - I will weigh the fuse/boom tomorrow (no RX gear) - seems I have 110 g total to play with including Fuse/Rx/servos/battery/noseWeight.

Boy that's light

 

[bracesport]

the first part of the stiffened fuse is 48g leaving me 62g to play with - it seems like we are on track to get close to the original BAMF weight - there will be some sanding of the fuse which will save a bit more weight too.

 

[Wildthing]

Any flex to it?

 

[bracesport]

the flex is minimal - I should have used a slightly bigger braided tube on the boom as that would have the fibres at a better angle for stiffness - the internal uni directional fibres seem to be doing the business!

 

[bracesport]

The front fuse section is 15g - when added to the main fuse the total is 63g - the AUW for the wing/tails/fuse is 198g - double checking the BAMF weight, my wing covers have a note for 252g (7g heavier than I thought) - so I have 54g to play with for the servos/Rx/battery/nose ballast.

I also used the forming mould to drill the wing mount holes - should be nice and square.

 

[bracesport]

I have epoxied in the wing nuts and am starting the cleanup process the negative side of this process is the outer surfaces are not facing the mould so do require more effort in cleaning them up - I will not go silly, but a tickle up is required!

 

[bracesport]

I glued the front fuse section to the main fuse and checked the nose cone - the nose cone is the least smooth of the parts so I will see how it cleans up and whether to use it or not!

 

[Wildthing]

That looks awesome

 

[The Hangar]

I glued the front fuse section to the main fuse and checked the nose cone - the nose cone is the least smooth of the parts so I will see how it cleans up and whether to use it or not!

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Fantastic work - the carbon fiber is so beautiful!