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Dom Smith F7F-3 Tigercat


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  • 2 weeks later...

Currently I'm at the complete disaster stage with the nacelles . in order to set up the retracts I have to keep butchering what I had done before also I have no alternative than fit the lipos in the front portion of the nacelles more butchery so I feel the only way forward is to have a break and redraw nacelles with all the mods I have learnt meanwhile I am going to give the Anet 3d printer conversion to laser cutter the time instead . 

pic of the nightmare that is my workbench (all tidy now )

 

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Yes I remember Hilda Baker to be honest its quicker to whip the sd card out than connect via USB then I can't be bothered to reset the camera time just lazy I guess. 

It was touch and go Ron at one point I felt like creating a smash scene but I calmed down. Sometimes it just best to step back for a rethink. So the bench is cleared cleaned and vacuumed now my 3d printer is being butchered ?

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Great effort Martin. It's a shame the nacelles build is a bit  "bogged down" at the movement but it will all come good in the end. Clearing up the workbench often give the new perspective one needs to push on again with a project.

 I find that I am trapped in a repetitive cycle of  clutter /declutter. I work until my workspace becomes unusable and/or I can find any of my tools because they are all buried under the mess. Then I tidy it all up and everything is fine for a bit until the clutter builds up again. Will I ever develop tidier habits.? Seems unlikely at this stage of life.

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  • 1 month later...

I have built my laser cutter from scratch instead of modifying the Anet printer, using a GRBL controller  just got to sort out the configuration  before I can started cutting for the Tigercat . I am having trouble with tracking more research more studying I will get there I think.

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  • 3 months later...

Hi there I'm nearly ready to get back on track with my TC I have been side-tracked building a laser cutter/engraver and a CNC router learning both machines operation has been a struggle but I have cut some round formers successfully and also engraved 12 boxs for the grand kids for Christmas so that out the way I should be active again

thanks for waiting ? 

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  • 4 months later...

Hi everybody it's not been easy getting back on track with the Tiger what with having Covid and yes I was fully vaccinated plus the booster and I'm glad for that it was not at all pleasant and would have been a whole lot worse. Back to the Tiger I was having a heck of a problem deciding the best way to proceed with the nacelles one obstacle being to U/C I lacked the skill to make a scale set up and could not access my son-in-laws machinery again because of Covid . I already had a set of servoless main retracts and have managed to  source oleos and wheels from RC Motion for the Flightline Tigercat (same scale and wingspan) this is a foam model but the spares will suit me perfectly it feels like cheating but there is no way I can complete this cat without a bit of bending. The nacelles are a pig to build and the first attempt ended up in the bin I cannot in all honesty achieve a fully scale model the next attempt is a more measured approach and I am slowly getting there. Anyway if any one wants me to continue to post the build with pics of progress and the parts borrowed from the Flightline cat give me a shout . 

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Hi Eric It's what you expect as you get older and to make matters worse I have just missed sitting on my seat properly and crashed backwards in to my 3D printer and onto the floor that did not feel good and still waiting on my latest PSA results the last one showed an upward trend ?

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Hi there Martian, Sorry to find out about your health issues and glad to hear you are getting better.

 

As always its great to see your build posts and while its a frustrating for you changing your design and struggling with various  parts of the build its really useful for me and other novice builders to see the build process and not just the result. Don't get me wrong the finished article is always the nice to see, but to see in detail the thought process and different building techniques is what stands out.

 

I need to make a start with the second Ta 154, but still can't decide what to leave out to get the weight down to something near reasonable so well done to you for your progress so far.

As for the U/C I spent hours and hours (way too many) trying toe get the Ta154 ones to something like scale, but in the cold light of day should have bent a bit of wire and saved myself a load of weight in the process, live and learn I suppose!

 

Edited by Chris Walby
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  • 3 weeks later...

Some progress on one nacelle all planked with retract in place it is sitting nicely in place exposed after carefully cutting access for retract doors all seemed good UNTIL!!!!! I extended the retract and realised the main wheel is about 40mm short so therefore is to close to nacelle ? , this is by no means my neatest or an easy build . So now I have to do a combination of 2 things first raise retract unit as much as possible which won't be much or just try a longer oleo , just looked again I placed the retract as far forward as possible to get depth and clearance in nacelle profile a longer oleo means main wheel will be further towards rear of nacelle . What a real pain I have a warbird Mustang kit to build sometime which I may sell on also I have an ambition to build a Burnelli CBY-3 but not until this cat is built.

 

 

 

 

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Hello again ,well after much pondering I think I have a solution to the retract problem. I have cut out more of the internal bits in the nacelle to give me 30mm for strut length the retract mounting will remain the same using the original oleo which I turned down to fit in the retract unit which has a 10mm pin mount I have ordered a small amount of quality ali rod and tube to extend cutting a section of rod to 45mm and a section of tube to 50mm I can sleeve and bond the join. sorry 1 pic out of focus.

 

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Hello. I only have a mini lathe and its slow progress but I have turned down the parts for the oleo extension for a tight fit and bonded with high viscosity super glue I now have good clearance when retract is extended and good prop clearance. I will have to build up the lower rear of the nacelle to accommodate  main wheel I will use blue foam after cutting away the balsa skin.

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Hi, Don't think it will be an issue but worth a check and that's when the retract is in the correct orientation the servo has enough power to fully retract and fully extend (against airflow). Not normally a problem however with doors or sometimes appendages attached to extended legs it gets close/exceeds it cut off limit, just not a good time to find out on the maiden.

Cracking build with lots of information and details for the rest of us to follow, keep going and it will all be worth it in the end!  

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