Well weekends are for building the big pieces , I tackle smaller components during the week,the weather on saterday kept looking like rain, but I managed to water paper the rudder, tailplane and fuselage , and spray the final coats of 2k white.
In the photo above you can see a dowel through the fuse which makes handling easier,it also acts as a referance marker for the wing joiner tube which needs to be bonded in later.
I went about it like this, and hoped that my initial wing positions on the plug were accurate,I did take as much care as possible at that stage.
The template (HQ 3/12 )was placed on the fuselage and the pilot hole drilled, a thin carbon rod was pushed through and the fin checked for verticle, it was spot on , so far so good.(dont use the column as a referance the glider was leaning a little, check the carbon to the wall top)
Happy so far ,now I check from above (the wooden dowel fitted) the carbon rod on the centre line, the dowel is 90 degrees to the centre line and parallel to the set square, everyone happy.
Next I started with the major shear web which will extend 2.4mtr into each wing , on the Ventus I made the shear web out of a spruce strip with a carbon sock over it and it worked ok, as this span is greater , a different approach is required.
I purchased several sheets of 5 and 6 mm balsa(pity I did not have my scale with) I choose the pieces for stiffness and lightness but just look at the variation in weight. No problem the denser balsa will go inboard the lighter to the outside.
I cut and glued 2x 5mm x 40mm strips grain lengthways , then I cut endgrain pieces from the 6mm sheets. Next I cut out strips x4 of 45 degrees 196gram carbon cloth , lovely stuff this.
The proceedure is as follows onto a mylar sheet on a flat surface , you lay a strip of peelply, next comes the long strip of balsa, I wet this with resin first then lay on the carbon strip. I then wet out the carbon and place the end grain balsa pieces on ,each one lightly brushed with resin.
Next came another layer of carbon , wetted out and then carefully the layup was flipped over , carbon onto the peelply. The same proceedure on the top and closed of with peelply and mylar.
The next big step is the cutting of the cores and preparation for bagging the wings.
Until then .
In the photo above you can see a dowel through the fuse which makes handling easier,it also acts as a referance marker for the wing joiner tube which needs to be bonded in later.
I went about it like this, and hoped that my initial wing positions on the plug were accurate,I did take as much care as possible at that stage.
The template (HQ 3/12 )was placed on the fuselage and the pilot hole drilled, a thin carbon rod was pushed through and the fin checked for verticle, it was spot on , so far so good.(dont use the column as a referance the glider was leaning a little, check the carbon to the wall top)
Happy so far ,now I check from above (the wooden dowel fitted) the carbon rod on the centre line, the dowel is 90 degrees to the centre line and parallel to the set square, everyone happy.
Next I started with the major shear web which will extend 2.4mtr into each wing , on the Ventus I made the shear web out of a spruce strip with a carbon sock over it and it worked ok, as this span is greater , a different approach is required.
I purchased several sheets of 5 and 6 mm balsa(pity I did not have my scale with) I choose the pieces for stiffness and lightness but just look at the variation in weight. No problem the denser balsa will go inboard the lighter to the outside.
I cut and glued 2x 5mm x 40mm strips grain lengthways , then I cut endgrain pieces from the 6mm sheets. Next I cut out strips x4 of 45 degrees 196gram carbon cloth , lovely stuff this.
The proceedure is as follows onto a mylar sheet on a flat surface , you lay a strip of peelply, next comes the long strip of balsa, I wet this with resin first then lay on the carbon strip. I then wet out the carbon and place the end grain balsa pieces on ,each one lightly brushed with resin.Next came another layer of carbon , wetted out and then carefully the layup was flipped over , carbon onto the peelply. The same proceedure on the top and closed of with peelply and mylar.
I now placed a piece of wood (straight and flat) on top and loaded on some weight
(you could also vacumn bag this sandwich).
I cleaned up the edges with my belt sander and now have a strong light shear web which will be built into the wings between the carbon tow spars.
The next big step is the cutting of the cores and preparation for bagging the wings.Until then .
5 comments:
That looks so far off parallel Mike, it could actually be perpendicular. Glad we don't get you to line up lanes on a freeway:)
Cheap shot, cheapcigar. We all know Mike builds all his models on the floor with basic hand tools (although I did once read on this blog he used high tech laser alignment tools with azimuth correction) so sometimes a few degrees here or there should not really be a problem. In fact, just look at the picture above the one to which you are referring and you will notice that nothing really lines up with either the post or the wall – but I’m sure that’s just due to an error of parallax.
But angles aside, the main thing is that these beasts look very impressive fly and fly well – and that I’ve seen for myself! And Mike, you’re still an inspiration to all of us and keep forging ahead – albeit in parallel, perpendicular, acute or obtuse!
Soo sorry. Anonymous -- Touchy Touchy :)
I was just making a joke. It was just the way Mike worded the caption. The wing joiner dowel is perpendicular (very perpendicular actually) to the centre line, not parallel.
Read carefully before you shoot someone for making a joke my friend!!!
I am so honoured that my grammer is so carefully checked , so what is the difference between perpendicular and parallel, and to which part of the set square are we refering to...blah blah blah
you know what they say if it looks right it'll fly right.
Thanks for the interest ,the project is going ahead well, keep posted.
Cheers Mike
Sorry cheapcigar – didn’t mean to shoot you down . I understood the parallel/perpendicular error in the caption and did realise you were making a joke. Mine just didn’t come across correctly.
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