Gromit's Phase 5 Build

A bit of a rush to try and get things done before lunch today, but the bell crank came out okay, and I managed to sand the wing tips down, but not profiled the ends yet.

4Pedalsfly wrote: Quote from Chris
"I've made a little mini hotwire cutter that I used to cut out the servo holes, wing bolt hard points and the servo wire trench".

Good to see you back on the forum.
I'm currently messing about with a foam flying wing & would be interested in details of your mini hot wire cutter.
I've been hacking out holes etc with saw / blades.
Thanks
Colin.

Hi Colin,

This is the one I used on the Atlas for the servos and retracts, it's just a bent bit of guitar string sandwiched between two bits of MDF, that sets the depth of the cut, and then just follow the template.


It did a neat job:

On the Phase 5 I made a second 'cutter' V shaped that was much better for cutting the servo wire trenches.

The last one is a hand held bow, the wire is tensioned by screwing down the bolts, it's naff and I need to make something better, but I also keep thinking I might take a punt at one of these: hobbyking.com/en_us/hot-wire-foam-cutter...ter-kit-eu-plug.html

Chris - Thanks for the info @ £8.50 it's a real snip from HK - on the list for when I place my next order.
Regards
Colin.

Cutting the ailerons out took longer than I'd expected, but I think a lot of time was spent trying to work out the best method. In the end I made two cut just through the balsa skin and removed a strip from the top and bottom of the wing. Having cut through the middle of the waste foam, I detached the aileron and cleaned up both halves with the hot wire cutter using the balsa edges to guide it.

The hot wire cutter produced a nice clean edge, I gave it a swipe or two with some 240 grit paper and I was ready to glue on the 1/4 inch strips of balsa.

I did toy with the idea of just cutting the slot, and while the aileron was still attached at the wing tip and at the root, gluing in the two 1/4 inch strips of balsa into the gap, but I chickened out.

My only slight concern is that when gluing on the 1/4 inch facing strip onto the aileron it was hard to know if I was twisting it when pulling the tape tight. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

I got a warp in one of my control surfaces. To fix it i cut a slit theough the leading edge all the way to the foam and full length. A ttwist back into shape and a drop of thin ca and it was straight again.

Thanks for the tip Mike, I'd not have thought to do that, thankfully my ailerons seemed to have come through the ordeal (mostly) none the worst for it.

This evening seems to have been a process of removing material only to glue new material back in its stead! So I now have four ailerons, or is that two flaps and two ailerons? Each end capped with 1/8 balsa. Two of the servo wells are lined with 1/8 balsa, if I'd decided to do butt joints I'd have managed to get all four done, but for some reason I did mitres and only when putting the glue on the final piece did I realise I'd forgotten the hole for the servo wires. I decided it was time to call it a night.

Those wings are looking like , um, wings now! They look nice too.

That's coming along very nicely. Regarding the mitre joints...you'll learn [maybe]

MikeSeale wrote: That's coming along very nicely. Regarding the mitre joints...you'll learn [maybe]

Regardless of the omission of exits for servo leads those mitre joints are excellent. My project is getting near to the servo recesses and my only hope is I can "butt joint" decently.