Seaplane!

zev

lumpy member
foam board? water? not a good combination. that said, if you remove the paper and cover with packing tape, (experimental airlines style) you can make a very nice water tight surface. flitetest hasn't really done anything with that building procedure though, yet.

even just floats for the blender, or flyer would be awesome.
 

JasonEricAnderson

Senior Member
I'm planning on doing some further tests with the poly treaded dollar store foam. I'm thinking of making a simple float and floating it a tub of water with time lapse for 15 minutes and see if the float holds up. I may double treat the float just to give it the best chance of success. If I can find some of that colored packing tape I'll test both.

The other issue with a sea plane is how would you protect your electronics? You'd want heat dispersion for your ESC or I'd think a tiny Gladware box would work with wire connectors passed through caulked holes.
 

aiidanwings

Senior Member
I'm planning on doing some further tests with the poly treaded dollar store foam. I'm thinking of making a simple float and floating it a tub of water with time lapse for 15 minutes and see if the float holds up. I may double treat the float just to give it the best chance of success. If I can find some of that colored packing tape I'll test both.

The other issue with a sea plane is how would you protect your electronics? You'd want heat dispersion for your ESC or I'd think a tiny Gladware box would work with wire connectors passed through caulked holes.

http://www.tapebrothers.com/Colored-Carton-Sealing-Tapes-s/218.htm

I made a foam board airboat using this as a covering.
 

buggyboat

Member
"I made a foam board airboat using this as a covering."

That would be cool to see. Do you have photos?

I think for a swappable seaplane, the power pod would have to go upside down and on top of the boat part. Just thinking.
 

Carl

Junior Member
I made a flying hydro plane with dollar tree foam board. Took all the paper off which takes a lot of strength out of the foam board, would be interesting to hear from someone who tried urethan, to how well this water proofs the paper for water craft and keep the strength the paper adds.
I built a water tight enclosure, which did give me a hot ESC. I add silicon to all my ESC's ends after losing one on a rainy day (smallest bit of water burns them out). This makes the ESC water proof and allows me to mount the ESC on the exterior behind the prop for cooling.
 
Coating with polyurethane works wonder. (this was all done with the paper left on.) I had just finished costing my cut outs for the ft old fogey, I dabbed off the excess and went inside to watch the 2nd half of the 49ers vs Green Bay season opener (I did this during halftime) all of a sudden i hear water. I think nothing of it an keep watching. At the end of the 3rd quarter I go and check my foam to see if its dry. I walk outside and watch in horror as the water from the sprinkler is pouring onto my cutouts. I quickly move them out of the water and wipe them off. Much to my surprise, no water damage, and this was after at least 30min of being pelted with water. It really works and will no doubt do the job on a seaplane or on floats.
 

epic.engineering

Senior Member
As far as electronics go, I know a lot of the scaler truck guys are using plasti-dip to water proof there electronics, receivers, speed controls and servo's. Most of those guys submerge those trucks in mud and water and they keep on trucking..lol

skip to 16:35 if you want to see how water proof it is, but in a plane if water soaks the electronics something has gone really bad..lol

 
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epic.engineering

Senior Member
I used to cut the corner off of ziplock plastic bags and stuff my electronics in and zip tie the end on some of my ground rc back in the day. never had one go pop because of water or heat. I've never paid attention to the temp on my aircraft. Most of which are ultra micro's with everything all integrated or heli. I've only been on this forum for 2 days and not I feel like scratch building and trying everything..lol
 

daniel_t

Member
I just started building a Drake II with DT foam board http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=849098. The plans I'm using call for 6mm depron or FFF but I can't find a reasonable source for either. I've been thinking about how to make it a swappable, but I don't think that's going to happen.

As for the paper issue. I was planing on going with an idea from MetalAviation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ3enmfBJ_g. He strips the paper off, then laminates two sheets using spray contact cement. He says that he ends up with high strength and stiff 9mm foam. Of course the plans I'm using assume thinner material so I have to make some adjustments.

I have some minwax, maybe I should try that first and see what happens...