Using reference pictures and the drawings I measured where the wing root should sit on the side profile. As I want ZERO incidence in the wing I made a line parallel to the datum line (thrust line) for proper placement of the airfoil. I traced the airfoil shape and repeated the process on the opposite side.
I set the rasping bit of my dremel to 2.25" deep and went to town. Being careful with the first pass was tricky but weighing down the block and using two hands helps. After the first pass the end of the rasping bit was right on the edge of the foam and this part has no cutting portion. This allowed me to go deeper into the foam without going outside the edges. Getting the inside parts bored out required a steady hand, lots of patience, and a dust mask.
Time for hot wire cutting! I setup my vertical, jigsaw-style, bow and using little pressure let the hot wire do the work. Top and bottom profiles roughly cut and looking darn near perfect to start carving.
Time for the top/bottom profile to be cut. I had to print another copy of the views as I had cut up the previous top profile for the wing. Traced onto the foam, I setup for another run of cuts. I got one side completly cut perfectly. Unfortunately my wire snapped (old and thinner wire than on my main bows) about 1/4 of the way into the second cut so I finished the job using my small bow clamped to the table and a very steady hand. Its not perfect but the block is still useable.
With the fuselage block cut and ready for shaping, I moved onto preparing to cut the wing cores. These are the wing roots. I'm going with a positive template here for a couple of reasons but the primary one is the following: This will be THE most difficult set of wings I have ever cut. The reason is that the root is 14.75" long and the tip is 3.75" long. This means that for every inch I cut on the tip I need to cut nearly 4" at the root. The kerf, or the amount of foam the hot wire will melt, will be greater at the tip than at the root due to how slowly the wire will be moving at the tip. Remember the heat is the same along the length of the wire. Radiating heat from the wire will continue to melt the foam at the tip as I continue to cut the root. With the positive templates I'm hoping that this will aid in preventing serious damage to the tips during the cutting process as it will give me about 1/16 of an inch more of foam to work with. Remember, the tip is 3.75" in length with a NACA0008 airfoil. It's not just short, but thin as well.
My plan is to try and setup a video camera when I do the fuselage shaping and do a time-lapse. It should be fairly entertaining to watch the shape come together. Not to mention, you get to see me sporting my dust mask.
