Hints n Tips
Credit for the first 4 tips goes
to Alan ...........
1 Repairing
u/c plates - repair damaged area with balsa & ply (after
removing any fuelproofer). Glue in 1/2 sht hard aileron stock. It is
best to let plate into ply doubler. Liberally coat area and inside of plate
with
epoxy to fuelproof. Glue in plate (1/4 ply). On larger models I have
drilled through to TE stock and pegged with BBQ stick dowels.
2 Fitting
tailwheel after rudder - d'oh! (Rudder should be levelish with bottom
of fuz) Drill hole at 45º at
bottom of rudder. You may have to drill through fuz as well. Fit a collet
to act as a bearing against tail mount.
Measure, and bend wire to 45º Screw
assembly in place. Easy!
3 Fitting out low wing planes on the bench. Get a shoe box and cut out ends
to fit fuz. Cover edges with bubble wrap and tape down. Get a piece of foam
lagging and fit to fin. (Or fit fin last).
4 Joining
foam wings, and with u/c mounting blocks using a ply brace. Mark position
of thickest
point, or rear of u/c block
cut out. Using a square,
mark a vertical line to the top surface, and then along the wing to the
end of the block cut out ( or about 4" if there isn't one). This must
be accurate! Move the square back ( to the TE) 1.5mm and draw a line parallel.
Turn the wing over, and repeat . Do the same for the other panel. Make
sure
the lines match up exactly! Remove 4 strips of veneer. Temporarily fit
block (or not!). Cut a piece of 1.5mm ply just less than the depth of the
section,
and the length of the slot. Allow for dihedral and taper. Dry fit u/c
blocks. Tape 2 hacksaw blades together (not junior), and using the veneer
as a
guide, CAREFULLY cut a slot. Repeat. Dry (push) fit ply brace. When happy,
glue
in place using PVA (but avoid getting any on veneer) or epoxy, to one
side followed by u/c block. When dry fit other panel, followed by joining
tape.
Smooth down with Solarfilm backing - this gets a nice finish to the epoxy
- and secure with masking tape until dry. Finally, fit LE dowels after
drilling through to the brace. This makes the structure really durable
and stops the
u/c blocks crushing the foam during hard landings.