Have you tried and/or an you suggest carbon fibre booms for the electrohub?
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IFlyRCstuff
Flyer Of Many Things
It would certainly work, but prices are too high for me. I would go with light grade aluminum or the wood. CF also has a tendency to be very rigid, and in turn a little more brittle when standing alone.
Wood is easy to replace and takes the energy out of a crash instead of transferring it to more important parts. I like the wooden arms on my ElectroHub 
.
Aluminium will bend and is difficult to get straight again without weakening it.
CF might work, but is too expensive. I might switch to it if I don't expect to crash that much anymore.
. Aluminium will bend and is difficult to get straight again without weakening it.
CF might work, but is too expensive. I might switch to it if I don't expect to crash that much anymore
.Wood is easy to replace and takes the energy out of a crash instead of transferring it to more important parts. I like the wooden arms on my ElectroHub
Have ypu found wood locally or do you order from flight test? I found some wood at Home Depot but it does not seem as nice...
As quick as I go through wood on my knuckle I don't worry too much about the quality as long as they're mostly straight. Around here the wood from HD is horribly warped, have yet to find an even remotely straight piece. Lowes on the other hand it's rare that I find one that isn't straight.
At the store I use the metal shelves to test the straightness of the wood, I just hold it up and assume the metal shelf is straight as a reference. At home if there's much warp I can usually still find a straight section to cut my arms from.
As cheap as it is shipping would cost more to order it.
I've thought about trying CF...but the way I fly it would be too expensive. I could do the trick where you put a wood dowel inside to make a hybrid material that's super strong...but then I figure the forces would just end up breaking other more expensive parts.
I have been thinking about ordering some of David's CF booms since they're lay ups and not extrusions. But with him having a hard time keeping up with tricopter orders I figure it's better to wait until his supplies stabilize. Plus I'm just not in a big rush, I love my knuckle how it is
At the store I use the metal shelves to test the straightness of the wood, I just hold it up and assume the metal shelf is straight as a reference. At home if there's much warp I can usually still find a straight section to cut my arms from.
As cheap as it is shipping would cost more to order it.
I've thought about trying CF...but the way I fly it would be too expensive. I could do the trick where you put a wood dowel inside to make a hybrid material that's super strong...but then I figure the forces would just end up breaking other more expensive parts.
I have been thinking about ordering some of David's CF booms since they're lay ups and not extrusions. But with him having a hard time keeping up with tricopter orders I figure it's better to wait until his supplies stabilize. Plus I'm just not in a big rush, I love my knuckle how it is
Would Bass be strong enough? It's light...but I'd be a little worried about whether or not it's strong enough at those dimensions. I've been using just cheap pine or generic "hardwood" (looks like poplar to me) and they've been fine. The pine is lighter but breaks a lot easier.
the Home Depot wood has been fine in my experience... Though I guess I've actually been buying it from Lowes, but I'm sure it will all be fine.
I think the only reason I would buy the wood from flight test would be if I was buying the actual electrohub kit, since that kit seems to be a overall good value. But if I broke a boom it would replace it through a the hardware store
I get my replacements from Lowes too. Beech, is cheap and tough. A little paint and sandpaper and it looks just as good as any other.
I buy meter long sticks and paint and drill 4 meters at a time for BoomStick so crashes are a 10 minute repair. I find the concrete floor at Lowes to be pretty straight for testing wood dowel in the store and at my local Lowes I reject about half due to warping.
I buy meter long sticks and paint and drill 4 meters at a time for BoomStick so crashes are a 10 minute repair. I find the concrete floor at Lowes to be pretty straight for testing wood dowel in the store and at my local Lowes I reject about half due to warping.
Hehe, I've just been told that I am not allowed to put a dot with a Sharpie on the end of the warped ones so I can identify them easier . The sales person had a point though. Wood is a "living" material and that little warping might not be there on the next day when it had a chance to lay flat.
. The sales person had a point though. Wood is a "living" material and that little warping might not be there on the next day when it had a chance to lay flat.DO you have a tip on spacing of the holes? Do you use a drill press?
I am not too happy with the first set of drillings on build number one... I do have a spider quad though and the front legs are a pain to drill properly...
Don't know what CR uses, but I do use a drill press on parts like these -- if you've got one available to you there's no sense not to.
If you've got an unbroken boom (or a boom where the drilled holes aren't near the break) it becomes a template for the next boom.
- stack the template on the boom,
- slip the drilled hole over the bit (with the drill off).
- Press the bit down to the worksurface and brace the boom to drill (make sure there's no pull on the bit leaning it left or right)
- pull the bit out of the hole, remove the template and and turn on the drill
- press . . . and repeat to re-position for the next hole.
You should be able to make quick work of a half dozen or so booms this way. If you want to do MANY booms at once, it's best to switch to a jig -- position it on the press for one hole, then set up a fence and stop so you can quickly slip another boom in and drill. re-position the stop for the second hole and repeat when done.
If you're doing it with a hand drill, I'd take a nail with a diameter just smaller than the hole, and use it as a centerpunch to mark your new boom's holes. if you've also got a vice handy, you can put the template and new boom in the vice and carefully drill through the template piece into the new boom (try not to widen the hole). So long as your template is square, it should guide the new hole square.
BTW, once you've got a good template, try to keep it for that -- copy-of-copy errors can crop up if you toss your template each time and use a freshly broken boom for the next template.
If you've got an unbroken boom (or a boom where the drilled holes aren't near the break) it becomes a template for the next boom.
- stack the template on the boom,
- slip the drilled hole over the bit (with the drill off).
- Press the bit down to the worksurface and brace the boom to drill (make sure there's no pull on the bit leaning it left or right)
- pull the bit out of the hole, remove the template and and turn on the drill
- press . . . and repeat to re-position for the next hole.
You should be able to make quick work of a half dozen or so booms this way. If you want to do MANY booms at once, it's best to switch to a jig -- position it on the press for one hole, then set up a fence and stop so you can quickly slip another boom in and drill. re-position the stop for the second hole and repeat when done.
If you're doing it with a hand drill, I'd take a nail with a diameter just smaller than the hole, and use it as a centerpunch to mark your new boom's holes. if you've also got a vice handy, you can put the template and new boom in the vice and carefully drill through the template piece into the new boom (try not to widen the hole). So long as your template is square, it should guide the new hole square.
BTW, once you've got a good template, try to keep it for that -- copy-of-copy errors can crop up if you toss your template each time and use a freshly broken boom for the next template.
I use a vise and cordless hand drill (with bubble level on two planes) with a template I drilled with a Dremel drill press and a 9/16ths bit. I don't recommend the Dremel drill press. It was a PITA and the reason I learned to hand drill.
I build boomstick by the meter and have spare purple booms for my Anycopter, spare green booms for my BatBone and spare yellow booms and rails for my Knuckle I quad.
Boomstick is cheap. Buy a stack. Be sure they are straight. Don't store them where they will warp.
Practice with a meter and expect to throw it out. Set yourself up like an assembly line and by the time you completely ruin the first meter, you will be an expert and these will be no sweat at all. Don't overthink it and don't drill holes in your tabletop. :black_eyed:
Take your ruined meter of holey boomstick and try painting it. Figure out which colors you can see best where you live and paint the back of the copter that color. If you get good enough to do so soon enough, use parts of the test boomstick meter to build your template.
You will break booms on an Electrohub. You will smash your copter and wonder if this is what you want to do. When you can fix your copter in 10 to 15 minutes you stop worrying about crashing and smashing and you are set free to fly and push your abilities. That is when this hobby gets really fun and you will wonder how you ever lived without it.
I build boomstick by the meter and have spare purple booms for my Anycopter, spare green booms for my BatBone and spare yellow booms and rails for my Knuckle I quad.
Boomstick is cheap. Buy a stack. Be sure they are straight. Don't store them where they will warp.
Practice with a meter and expect to throw it out. Set yourself up like an assembly line and by the time you completely ruin the first meter, you will be an expert and these will be no sweat at all. Don't overthink it and don't drill holes in your tabletop. :black_eyed:
Take your ruined meter of holey boomstick and try painting it. Figure out which colors you can see best where you live and paint the back of the copter that color. If you get good enough to do so soon enough, use parts of the test boomstick meter to build your template.
You will break booms on an Electrohub. You will smash your copter and wonder if this is what you want to do. When you can fix your copter in 10 to 15 minutes you stop worrying about crashing and smashing and you are set free to fly and push your abilities. That is when this hobby gets really fun and you will wonder how you ever lived without it.
Hehe, I've just been told that I am not allowed to put a dot with a Sharpie on the end of the warped ones so I can identify them easier
Went to Lowes today and lucky me the warped ones were all marked with a sharpie.
Actually I wish.
I did leave with six good meters of boom stick.Similar threads
