Metal rc?

[poor boy 101]

Hey guys I was wondering if it was possible to build a plane completely out of Arizona tea cans as their aluminum is very light. I think I am going to try and make a j-3 cub the first time around then maybe try and make a beatiful 2 meter wide spitfire with retracts and everything and fly it at flite fest 2020. I think that will look badass. Any suggestions. I have never done anything like this.

 

[poor boy 101]

I am thinking about using my soldering iron similar to a hot glue gun and be able to boast of a full metal flyer.

 

[poor boy 101]

I am thinking about using my soldering iron similar to a hot glue gun and be able to boast of a full metal flyer

 

[Grifflyer]

It will probably end up too heavy especially if you plan on using lead solder to hold everything together. You also have to worry about having a plane made of metal while trying to transmit a radio signal, And aluminum cans are only 0.0102 cm thick and have very little compression strength.

It might work better as a display model.

 

[moret]

Metal blocks RF so have a way to have dual receiver antennas out side of the plane. Place them so you can always "see" one of the antennas from your transmitter.

 

[poor boy 101]

Of course i’m Running crossfire. Also kinda want speed so having a big buff motor will be fun. My dad does a little metal working. And he has a few tricks to keep the weight down. I am thinking now about making it 1.5m wide and use a monster radial motor on 6s. Want to make it scale so flaps and retracts. Idk any good retracts for something that big. Does anyone know some good ones?

 

[Merv]

I’ve tried & tried, but I can’t solder solder aluminum. Let me know the trick.

 

[poor boy 101]

Oki I will talk to him tomorrow. You might need special tools thou

 

[PsyBorg]

Soldering aluminum requires chemical prep to be done properly. It would also add a ton of weight. I would make sheets like on real aircraft and then do crimp style joinery like they do with siding on houses. Then maybe use cut off straight pins as rivets once the aluminum is super glued to the wooden frame. The crimped edges if overlapped properly would look similar to scales of a dragon or snake.

 

[speedbirdted]

If you plan to solder aluminum sadly it will be neither strong or light enough to build an airplane that functions very well. I would say TIG welding is probably your best bet (in fact I have seen large scale gas models built this way) but TIG is an entirely different (and much, much more expensive) animal.

 

[poor boy 101]

Oki so I think I am going to rivet it together instead of soldering. And use thin flashing on the outside and and two ulumimium box spars with a monster motor. Planning to cheat and use some balsa struts for the wing. All up weight for the plane without a battery will be 6lb

 

[Merv]

All up weight for the plane without a battery will be 6lb

Six pounds with out the battery! That’s huge.
If I were to build something that large, I would use composites, fiberglass over foam.

 

[poor boy 101]

Or I could use this motor. https://store.flitetest.com/great-p...trunner-brushless-motor-gpmc42-60-480/p647312 It supports up to 7.5 lb sport planes. And that’s with the rough weight it might be slightly more or less. https://www.motionrc.com/products/a...nsite&retailreco_campaign=raslbestseller&fp=5 Here is the battery that I plan on using. Should give me ~4 or 5 minutes of flight time.

 

[poor boy 101]

Soldering aluminum requires chemical prep to be done properly. It would also add a ton of weight. I would make sheets like on real aircraft and then do crimp style joinery like they do with siding on houses. Then maybe use cut off straight pins as rivets once the aluminum is super glued to the wooden frame. The crimped edges if overlapped properly would look similar to scales of a dragon or snake.

Thanks almost exactly what my dad’s plan was. Instead of using the aluminum we are using stainless steel flashing. Very thin but a bit more strong and less prone to little scratches and in the long run will add only 1/2 a pound with the thickness we have chosen. Even with the heavy wing loading I love speed. If it’s too fast that’s what flaps are for.