Ballerina by EarlyBird

[EarlyBird]

True. They must be hard to dance like that.

[Nigel R]

What sort/size servo are you using there?

BTW, I find pre-cutting and glueing the crossgrain sheeting allows me to sand it nice and smooth before it is permanently attached to the fuselage.

[EarlyBird]

Posted by Nigel R on 23/07/2020 10:48:52:

What sort/size servo are you using there?

BTW, I find pre-cutting and glueing the crossgrain sheeting allows me to sand it nice and smooth before it is permanently attached to the fuselage.

4M-100AMG-022 from 4-Max as recommended by George.

Watch this space!

Great minds think alike they say.

Cheers

Steve

[EarlyBird]

Bottom sheeting I decided to use Nigel's method, I did not know at the time but had seen it on the forum somewhere and as I had not done it this way I thought I would give it a try.

Cut the sheeting and dry fit the pieces. Use tape to hold the pieces together.

For each joint fold back using the tape as a hinge. Apply glue, lay flat and weigh down.

Once dry I trimmed the sides. Glue the fuselage bottom and lay the sheeting on.

Then weigh down as usual allow to dry.

Cheers

Steve

[EarlyBird]

And this is what I ended up with.

This has to be the easiest I have ever done sheeting. The result is good. I am amazed

As I type the front sheeting is on the way, drying anyway.

Then hinge the battery hatch.

I am going to have to think about the wings.

Cheers

Steve

[EarlyBird]

Front sheeting glued in place.

Sanded to fit.

More work on the cowl fuselage joint.

and that is another good days work.

Cheers

Steve

[EarlyBird]

Hinge the hatch.

Mark the location of the hinges.

Cut the slots on both sides and dry fit, it looks like I was so engrossed with the slot cutting I forgot to take photos. Here is the first one completed.

And it appears to work

Repeat for the second hinge.

Which I will do later as I am going flying today I missed my flight line medicine yesterday

Cheers

Steve

[EarlyBird]

Second hatch hinge.

Start with a hot soldering iron to form a pilot slot.

Cut the slot with a knife.

Dry fit the hinge

Test fit

It works

The hinges need a bit of adjustment to make them line up.

Another step completed, nearly.

Magnets to fit, which can wait.

So that is all for the fuselage. Onto the wings

Cheers

Steve

[EarlyBird]

Wings at last.

Laid the plan on the board with the leading edge slightly over the edge. Covered with clear plastic.

Then the tedious job of pressing the laser cut ribs out of the sheets.

Laid them on the plan in pairs.

Test fitted the spars.

The slots needed filing down so the spars were flush.

I also removed the knobbles where the laser cutting was not done.

This is the same process, roughly speaking, that plan builders follow? Except there are a few more steps starting with cutting out the ribs.

A lesson I learned was - do not expect the parts to fit even if it is a laser cut plan pack.

I started building over the plan with the leading edge sheet and bottom spar. I then used the ribs to place the trailing edge spar. It was at this point that I realised the leading edge sheeting covered up the rib numbers!

What did I do?

Start again?

No. I looked at previous plan builds here, Magic

Now I am cutting out shear webs then I will glue the ribs in place using the webs as spacers and to keep the ribs vertical. Will it work? I will find out soon.

Cheers

Steve

[EarlyBird]

I learned a few things yesterday.

But being a novice plan builder that is expected.

As you know I pinned the leading edge sheet to the plan covering up the rib numbers.

I then cut shear webs and dry fitted.

Lesson one cut all the parts before starting to work over the plan, obviously this does not apply if you have two copies of the plan. That's one reason to have two plans. I am sure there are more.

Cut and glued some parts for both wings.

Lesson two some parts are handed, I remembered before applying the glue this time.

The inner rib is not vertical due to the dihedral also there is a beach block for the U/C leg.

I marked the centre of the dihedral plate and cut the shear web to suit.

Now a question, thinking caps on I hope.

Obviously the beach block is square so I assume I have to either sand/plane to fit or bung a load of epoxy in the gap. What is the usual procedure?

Cheers

Steve

[Peter Miller]

I am assuming that this is a dry assembly at the moment.

You don't need a sheer web on the dihedral brace. The braces is far stronger than any sheer web.

You should have the top spar fitted before fitting sheer webs or are they just resting there to give rib spacing.

The slot for the front wing dowel should be longer.. You can still do that even if R-1 and R-1a are glued together.You could even do that by drilling down a bit further in a completed wing.

[EarlyBird]

Thanks Peter.

You are correct the shear web is just to give the dihedral angle not for strength. It's all dry fit and not fixed on the plan anymore. Test fit, adjust and dry fit is what I am learning to do. Once I have all the parts made I will start pinning and gluing.

The slot! so much for laser cut parts. As I have already realized, even though they are laser cut do not expect them to fit perfectly.

I have looked at the beach blocks and the gap is only fractions of a millimeter so I have been losing sleep over nothing.

Cheers

Steve

[Peter Miller]

Good practice to dry fit and make sure that A) everything does fit and B) you know how it is meant to go.

Dothey provide a grooved beech block?

I usually make mine by laminating 1/8" ply but it does the same job

[EarlyBird]

Good to know I am doing something right

'Do they provide a grooved beech block?'

No they provide the bare minimum. Ribs, formers, fuselage sides, fuselage ply doublers, wing tips, fin, rudder, tail plane, elevator, dihedral brace, wing bolt mount and wing plate.

Sounds a lot.

I have made the U/C mounting as on the plan. Which is the only thing missing.

I bought ply and light ply for another project so I used what I had.

Thanks again Peter.

Cheers

Steve

[Peter Miller]

INteresting.

Well, I havebeen watching all the time. You are certainly doing a very good and accurate job of the building.

To be honest far more painstaking than I usually do!!

[EarlyBird]

When one does not know what one is doing then attention to detail is all important.

Hopefully one day I will have enough experience so that building from a plan becomes second nature to me as it is for you.

Steve

[EarlyBird]

Posted by Peter Miller on 26/07/2020 08:53:45:

I usually make mine by laminating 1/8" ply but it does the same job

I have decided to use ply instead of the beach block. I am thinking three laminations with the middle made of two parts leaving a four millimeter gap for the U/C wire. When I fit the U/C the gap will effectively become a pilot hole.

Neat

Cheers

Steve

[Peter Miller]

I am not sure what the magazine plan shows.

My undercarriage mount was two laminations of 1/8" ply, the bottom one being to two parts topmake the slot fir the U/C wire.

Then there should be a hardwood block against F1 with a hole for the upright of the undercarriage leg.

[EarlyBird]

'I am not sure what the magazine plan shows.'

Exactly as you described above.

I was thinking of replacing the hardwood block against F1 R1/R1A with laminated ply.

You have me thinking again Peter, which is good because I like to consider all of the possible solutions.

Meanwhile I have started assembling the wing

Cheers

Steve

[Peter Miller]

Yes, a laminated ply block will do the job.

[EarlyBird]

Laminated ply block it is then. Thanks again Peter your input is invaluable.

At last I can get some glue on my fingers.

Glued the ribs to bottom spar, aileron spar infill and capping strip. All weighted down and left to dry.

When dried this is what it looked like.

Top spar and shear webs installed. Again weighted down and left to dry.

and that is all for today. Back tomorrow for more work on the wing.

Cheers

Steve

Edited By EarlyBird on 26/07/2020 19:47:37

[EarlyBird]

Another day dawns and thoughts turn to the inner wing rib.

I have dry fitted the parts and drawn guide lines ready for gluing.

Centre of U/C wire marked to drill the hole for the leg.

The rib is in two parts. Because of the dihedral brace it would be easier without it but I don't think that is a good idea, The only issue is lining the two halves up, as you can see I have used a square and a scrap piece of balsa pinned on the line of the rear half.

Not convinced that this is perfect, Maybe I should wait until I have had my second coffee. Thinking cap on again, if I could find it.

Cheers

Steve

[Peter Miller]

ONce you have built the right wing complete with sheet you build the second wing and before fitting the top sheet you join the completed wing on and then add the second wing root rib. so everything will line up automatically.

You will see the sequence if you look at any of my build blogs.

[EarlyBird]

Oh yes!

So if the front and back halves are slightly out of line on the first wing then when joining the second wing they will be slightly out as well and fit perfectly.

What am I losing sleep over this for?

Anyway I have tried again and now it looks better.

Take it apart and glue it.

Peter I have read many many many build logs but as English was never my strong point I obviously failed to grasp the simplicity and automatic error cancelling that your method provides. Now it is so obvious.

Novice plan builders!

For me it continues to be fun.

I am going for a lie (or is that lay?) down.

Cheers

Steve

[Peter Miller]

Oh Yes!

I try to make things as easy and foolproof as possible because this old fool can really make a dogs dinner out of things.

My problem is that I got at things too fast and can miss things. by making things simple it helps