European foam Thickness

[m00ndancer]

But I'll draw your attention to a comment by David Windestal during the spitfire build, where he suggests extra weight is a bonus, helping the plane with wind penetration. Some of these really light planes aren't worth taking to the field if the wind is over 5 mph.

I can confirm this, my banged up, modified and repaired FT Spit is at 911gr AUW with a 3000mAh Graphene 15C 3s onboard. Flies better than ever. The best mod I did was to strengthen the wing spars with an extra spar in front of it. The foamboard I'm using gets soft on crash/use before it cracks. So I have to cover it in packing tape and add other bits of materials as support for it.

Before maiden:


Now:

 

[DKchris]

I've built several FT models from 6mm Depron covered with packing tape (and sometimes a little bit of extra spar/tail reinforcement) . I handled the material thickness deviation by scaling up the drawing.
Scaling has honestly been a piece of cake, as i simply have printed out the full drawing in 125% size using the poster function in Adobe Reader; it then automatically creates the required number of A4 or A3 tiles(depending on your printer size). Downside is off course that you don't get the nice crosshair alignment marks as in the pre-tiled drawings; personally I've never had any major problems with overcoming this though.

An interesting side effect of the tape and 6mm Depron combo is that my 125% models have come out with about same AUW as other builders have reported for their 100% original DTF versions, and I have typically flown the models with same size drive train as recommended for the 100% DTF version as well with good result, although the models logically do come out a bit more "floaty" in nature. My spit is positively amazing to fly, as it has near scale speed/agility/behavior in the air. Bit slow for "balls to the walls" combat though, admittedly. And my Simple Soarer came out just over 1lb, which is amazing for a 6ft wingspan thermal glider.
While the depron/tape versions will never have the direct material robustness of the DTF ones, their light weight make them pretty much just as long living, as far as I can tell.


EDIT:Just for info: the stuff I use is a "generic brand" Depron called Climapor "Innenwand-Dämmplatte" in German Bauhaus stores; it comes in a box with 20 1x0.5m pieces equal to 10 square meters and weighs 154g or roughly 5.4oz per piece(a 20 by 30 inch piece would weigh ~4.2oz).

 

[SlingShot]

Foam Board in Mexico

I found these 5 mm X 1.22 m X 2.44 m foam boards that weigh 1.6 kilos each for $8.50 USD. That's something like 7.6 Dollar Tree sheets at around 210 gms each. Should work nicely.

http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx/MLM-554714677-foam-board-de-5mm-_JM

 

[spud42]

Here in Aus I buy my foamboards from an Art supply and picture framing shop in either 3mm or 5mm to suit my requirements.

For those who like to tinker a little especially when there is a design which has come out tail heavy or too heavy in general is to riddle the tail or fuselage with lightening holes, like swiss cheese

When you have cut out enough to get the balance right plank the tail or fuselage with the thinnest Balsa sheet you can get.

The strength is good and the range of finishing options is vastly improved. you can also put cover strips around the raw foamboard edges to protect them also.

Not every piece of foamboard in the current designs is required structurally but rather most of it is for simplicity of construction or for aesthetics alone.

Judicial use of lightening holes in the foamboard will make your models lighter and the landing speeds a lot slower.

Hi, i am also in Brisbane and wondered where you were getting the foam board? i havent seen any board in the cheap stores but i have seen it at RIOT art store.
I have just found flitetest recently and joined up.

 

[Hai-Lee]

Welcome Spud42. I get my FB from an art shop on Sandgate Road., Deagon.

Where do you fly?

 

[morgan01]

Review

I utilize a Depron-like material with bunches of tape and paste 5mm thick. Works fine. Simply need to consider how you adjust the work for you kind of material.

 

[ericacohen]

European Grip Foam have quality hook plus loop material for fast easy pad loading.The europeans foam has high density foam that offers long buffing.

 

[florencewillburn]

I am new with European Grip Foam topic. This thread helped me to search more about it. I got that it is a quality hook plus loop material for fast easy pad loading. It have so many practical use.

 

[molliegrant]

European grip forum thickness is new information to me, now I am eagerly waiting to get more information about it to get a clear picture. I am very thankful to you to sharing such an informative post.

 

[nickf]

Hi,

I have just made a FT 3d using B&Q laminate floor underlay (https://www.diy.com/departments/dia...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CLnSyOCxtNoCFTQX0wodqyYOZw). With this you end up with 5M x 800mm of foamboard for £14 UKP. Much cheaper than importing Adams board.

Its not as strong as depron BUT if you laminate it with brown paper you end up with something as strong, and the same thickness and weight as the flitetest board, so you can build directly with the plans.

To laminate it I sprayed poundland contact adhesive onto the brown paper (shiny side), spread evenly with an old credit card, left for 20 secs so the propellant evaporates and then firm down onto the foam. It sticks down VERY well and also VERY flat so does not warp the board at all. Overlay you plans an cut out and you would not know the difference (apart from the board is green and not white!).

Hope that helps

nick

 

[jabberwockie]

Thanks for the info, did you laminate one side with brown paper and the other side with the plans or just the one side with brown paper?

 

[nickf]

Thanks for the info, did you laminate one side with brown paper and the other side with the plans or just the one side with brown paper?

Hi, I laminated both sides of the foam.

I first cut out the plan panel slightly larger than the guide lines, then cut out the foam with something like and extra inch more then the plan panel, then cut out larger pieces of paper larger than that.

I sprayed both bits of paper (one at a time) and laid them on/over the foam. I found that it was not prone to wrinkles, but if you did get one you could quickly pull up the paper and try again. I then rubbed brown paper vigorously with my hands so the friction built up a bit of heat and cured the glue (I guess an iron would do for whimps!). I then pinned the plan panel over the foam and cut out to the exact lines with a knife blade (mostly with a steel rule for straights and then hand carved curves). For the internal half cuts/folds etc I poked a couple of pin holes at the start and end of the l plan ines and then when the plan was removed used these as guides by folding/cutting to the small 'start' end 'holes'.

Hope that helps - I found it easy to be accurate. I did notice that this type of foam does need a shard blade to cut 'cleanly', particularly for the hinge bevels. Sealing the foam edges with hotglue worked but I found that this foam seemed to be more sensitive to heat melt. So I used raw PVA glue, this seemed to do a good joband also protected the foam from rattle can spray When I get mo I'll post a picky of my ft 3d build this way.

nick

 

[jabberwockie]

Thanks for that, chap. Looking forward to the photos.

Jim.