Well after fixing some problems (The z drop was a software issue, I needed to move to the beta version. Also a x gear on the roller popped loose) I was able produce the rest of the parts without a hitch! I have also finished filling and sanding the poblems in the first set of wings. whats left is now is to cut and glue the parts together. Shouldn't be much longer till its together!!

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I am using 1" blucor from lowes. A 4'x8' sheet ran something like $11 its about the same cost or cheaper per volume as/than the fanfold.

 

Well I decided to redo one of the wings (2 panels) as with all of the filling and sanding they still didn't look as nice and I was somewhat worried about the additional weight etc. One of the panels turned out great the second one on the last side I missed a bunch of step in my x making the whole thing several inches too short. So gotta tear apart the machine again and figure out whats going on there. But even with that a whole mess load of progress so I am happy. Lets see where to start. One wing is assembled minus its mount plate. The wing mount plates are on the fuse halves. The horizontal stabs, elevator have been assembled and glued to the fuse halves, The rudder has been glued with the hinges in place. The cowling mold has been made and cast as has the canopy halves, They will just make the former!! Hinges for all control surfaces are cut up transparency film from the semi-older overhead projectors of the 80's 90's era. halves were glued together primarily with Gorilla Glue but with a thin layer of Aleen Floral Hot Glue. That worked wonderfully strentgh of the GG but with the perimeter of hot glue no foaming on the outside and I could move the parts as soon as it cooled, it had about a 30 second work time.

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Well between Vacations, Tornadoes, minor phlatprinter/computer problems, and coding for the 3d Printer, I bet you all thought this project was dead! Happily Not SO . The project is really starting to shape up now. I formed the cowling with the phlatformer and that went well other than forgetting to take a picture of it. The Canopy was also attempted several time but it was just to big to get a good form from so I went to plan B and unfolded the canopy in sketchup and printed it out of some FFF. This worked well enough and with a little sanding and spackle it will look awesome.

The biggest holdup was getting 1 wing panel out. For whatever reason this one of 2 identical panels was being stubborn. Actually I found the reason to be this: The pressure roller upgrade that the Phaltboyz sent out was installed in between the panels. In the new set the pressure is not really tweakable and is slighty higher than what I had before. This isn't a problem for the FFF that most will typically put through but when doing 3D it was enough resistance to make the X miss steps.

It was an even loss no ridges were typically seen in the final cut but it was ending several inches short. The pressure is not alot different but enough so that with the size of the panels I was cutting from the stock I did not have enough material to withstand the slightly higher pressure. this forced x motor to work hard by trying to force the pressure bars back up on a crushable ramp. For the short term I made a couple wide rails for when I do the 3D printing that will help resist the extra pressure. Long term I will try to find springs with lower tension. I also had a plastic pulley on my z break which I replaced with an aluminum one, Great response with that Mark and Trish thanks for the quick turnaround on it .

Once I had good wing panels all around I assembled the second wing. In the photos I took one of the electronic placement before the halfs were glued. I also took a picture of the aileron during assembly. I tried to show the several thin plastic strips about 2" long that I cut from the transparency sheets they use for overhead projectors. these strips after a little roughing act as fantastic hinges. I glued these in mainly with a thin layer of gorilla glue but around the outside I used a thin amount of hot glue. Doing this did two things, One allowed me to move on immediately to the next step, two sealed in the gorilla glue so it did not foam out.

Once completed I could finished up the wing mount system to the fuse ( two metal tubes that slide into each other, and two blind nuts with thumbscrews). I then found the location for the elevator servos, Immediately below the horizontal stab with one servo for each side (Photos only have one servo in place). Cut pockets for them. Finding a location for the rudder servo was rather difficult as I wanted to be able to replace any item that might go bad without having to make a whole new part. What I worked out in the end is that with the elevator servos on the bottom that I would run the wires on the bottom until I came to were the fuse hollows out. I would put a hatch there to allow access and place the Rudder servo inside. This left me with cutting a channel for the pushpull rod. I did this with a dremel and used coffee drinking straws to form a sleave for a more wear proof channel (At least I am hoping it prevents wear and tear on the surrounding foam). After that I taped the two fuse halve together, trimmed the connection tubes for the wings, then started sanding to allow for better alignment in the nose, to fit the canopy, landing gear, and rudder. So enough blabbing for now heres the pics of the progress Attached files erted_files/29569=12019-CanopyTestFit2.jpg" class="gc-images" title="CanopyTestFit2.jpg" style="max-width:300px" />

 

Not a whole lot done this weekend on this project but some progress. Unfortunately not much of it went very well or easily. I cut the hatches easily enough then I went to glue the two halves together, thats when the trouble started. I initialy used some aileens tacky glue. Which I used for the fuse half layers before and it worked well. This time however the tail did not clamp properly and there was a gap. With this glue I have learned that if a gap forms the glue will be brittle and not hold. I split the halves apart and was going to use the GG and Hot glue (GG/HG) technique. This was even a bigger disastor. So what I learned is that if you use the GG/HG you need to make sure that the HG will cool quickly enough so that you can get around the whole part before the GG foams up to much. This was my mistake it was to warm in my shop so the HG took 3-4x longer to set and well The whole thing became a big mess. While the end result is stronger than the Aileen's tacky glue would have been I have an even larger gap by the canopy, a similar gap by the tail that was there before, and even a slight twist was introduced (grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr). Not much I can do about it now and I don't feel like remilling the entire fuse. Here's some pics. I will probably be investing in a quadzillion clamps and weights shortly. I also cut out the motor mount plate and landing gear plate. which took four times to get some decent cuts from the 1/8" liteply as the x would keep getting caught from bits that the bit made.

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I looked around at various landing gear options. In short I didn't like the price, or the weight of the commercial options so I decided to make my own. I designed the shape in Sketchup and cut a form from 1" foam then used an aluminum yard stick for the gear itself bent it around the form and used a dremel to cut off the excess. Worked out pretty good, we will see how it handles the landing but looks like it will hold up great and give a little shock absorbance as well.

The Fog juice was used for the AVE engine so that I could see how the currents were forming. Though you might be surprised by it it was in the pictures and video as well otherwise you couldn't see anything. I just didn't put it away yet Attached files

 

That looks like a very big landing gear, jovian.

 

Yoram, yes it is perhaps slightly to large, but you know I can go buy another $3 yard stick and still be under half the price of a commercial set Honestly it didn't look that bad in sketchup but does look off when set on the fuse. ITs easy enough to make another set and change it out on the plane after its completed so I will stick with this set and see how it looks finished.

Mark, No lightning holes. Theres not much room for them as its only an inch wide. Besides that I am a little scared of how tail heavy this plane is atm so a little more weight in front is not going to hurt atm. If it does need to be lighter I will probably make another set that isn't so wide thereby reducing the amount of material

 

Just to give a small update. These last several days have been sanding,filling. and sanding. I have just started to put on the first coat of WBPU as a sealer and hope to be laying paint down by next weekend.

 

Thats just it. The shape doesnt change much just gets smoother.

 

Heres some pics of the plane with cracks being filled. sanded, and with the third coat of paint drying. The first two were sanded to near nothing. This one will also be sanded heavily then one more coat and a light sand then we can get to some color. Despite all this filling (2x) with a sanding, painting, sanding... I am still not going to fully achieve the finish I was hoping for. I needed a better finish on the foam before the paint went down. Live and learn I guess.

The final picture shows my luck with this kind of a thing. I had just finished this wing set it aside and when I look back over there is a moth stuck to it spinning around trying to get unstuck. The photo was taken after the evil insect was removed. Attached files

 

Well I managed to get some color on the plane this weekend. Will be ready for the final couple coats of WBPU tomorrow with some fine 400 grit sanding. Not much to say here other than I tried the Frog Painter tape that has popped up in my Lowes/Home Depot recenetly and it is AWESOME. Didn't peel up a speck of paint and I'm using acrylics, also had some of the best lines I have ever been able to get. Still needs a second coat of red then the black. Underside of the wings will remain white with black strips.

I didn't originally intend it but yes I do realize the colors look like a favorite superhero(s) of mine.

For any who are interested I do have a picasa web album with more photos (from the whole Build).
https://picasaweb.google.com/110166352029977374243/Jakuta?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPiqjLCuvIG-RQ&feat=directlink Attached files

 

Nice job, Nick. I hope it will fly as good as it looks.

 

wow that looks great

 

The Post Paint Put Together. Well I finished painting and wanted to put stuff together to see how it would look and feel. I still need to hook up electronics, program radio, Find collars for the wheels and axials, and get the cowling attached with some velcro. Complete weight minus battery is 4lb 3.3oz (Battery is 1lb 0.6 oz I missed my max weight goal of 5lbs AUW. Paint weighs a lot!) and without the battery the CG is nearly spot on (Yeah that was one of the design goals). I guess that means its time for pics

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