Fouga magister 1/4.5 moulded from scratch

Andy, Dirk,

I am very interested in this process of making plugs for molds using 3D printing. I am wondering how you are going to fill, seal and prepare the surface of the 3D print before making the mold? Will heat from the curing resin cause any problems?

A couple of coats of plastic primer will seal it fine, heat not an issue.

Hi John !

The heat generated from epoxy resin curing is minimal so that won't be a problem

For the sanding and sealing i'll do some testing as soon as i have the tube .

Cheers , Dirk.

Hi peter , glad i cought your interest !

The epoxy cured well overnight so i could remove the overhang and clean up the edges with a disc grinder.

I carefully cutted between the new mould and the upper parting board , removing the last .No problems !

This makes the other half ready to wax and to cover with pva .

Another long night ahead !

A labour of love Dirk, hats off to you...

Thanks Phil !

These building evenings became indispensable to me ,after a hard days work .It's like relaxation !

Great work Dirk, your shed time is amazing. Maintaining the drive to get it done is impressive.

So, printing was progressing well, and with about 9 hours to go I get up in the morning to see this!

Disaster! I thought maybe the filament had jammed or something else horrible. Turns out, the X carriage stepper motor wire had caught around the leg of the control box, then unplugged itself as the Z axis pulled it up. oops.

To the CAD machine, Batman!

A quick measure from the print bed told me how high the print had failed, so I cut the model and exported 2 noggins as shown above to fix the intake mould.

A quick print of two of those, stick on with thick cyano, rub some red spot in, sandy sandy sandy, and it's nearly ready.

nicely rescued

... indeed, very nicely saved, Mr Batman...

Dirk will be well chuffed with your intake for sure.

Cheers & stay careful, Andy

Chris

Brilliant work Andy, very impressive

Cheers

Danny

Don't worry about the seam Andy ! The printed tube is only the plug , right . Once it is primered and painted , it will all be forgotten. Lucky you didn't have to print it all over !

It looks like the surface is much better than most prints i've seen ! Less work for me !

I'm overall impressed !!

Greetz , Dirk

Thanks Bob ! I DO feel blessed about my building possibilities like building time ,a nice warm shed , the tools , and a wife who let's me work on planes all these evenings !

Hi all !

My last post ,the second half of the canope plug was ready to mould just up to the pva .

As you guy's know by now ,the following step is the black moulding resin applied with a brush. I forgot to take a picture but you all seen that more than once , right ? With the resin still sticky it was time for the first layer of glass cloth , however , first i fill the sharp corners with thickened resin (cotton flakes applied with a candy bag with the tip cut off )

Next is the first layer of 50gr glass and the second layer of 100gr

the following 6 layers are 200 gr glass , all with a brush and spunge roller laminated.

zzzzzzzzzzzz...

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Turned upside down it lookes like this :

Time to clean up the edges and remove the ply base !

Also removed the wooden wedge , remember ??

All went OK so i could move on with the two bottom moulds. From a piece of scrap ply i made up two little parting pieces to split the two moulds.

Secured them with foam blocks on the backside.

I had a little problem with a marbel that jumped out of its opening ,brushing on the black resin. This made the resin creep through the marbel and its opening : Marbel stuck !! Trying to remove it damaged the mould in that area .I restored it with a little resin dripped around the marbel. When this is cured and cleaned up , this side is ready to wax ,pva ,and glass !!

That'a all for today ! Thanks for watching and stay safe ! Dirk

Hi all !

After the waxing (5x) and a coat of pva from yesterday , it's time for the moulding resin on the first bottom half .

This supposed to be tacky in 30 minutes but in fact it takes more than an hour . I think the activator has lost a part of its value ?

After a break , i started with the glass and epoxy : Same drill ne layer 50gr , one layer 100gr , and six layers of 200 gr.

I hope that this is all cured by the time i get back here tomorrow. Themperatures drop to 10deg inside here.

Fingers crossed and goodnight !

Hi all !

The epoxy cured overnight but still got elastic when cutted with the disc grinder , due to the heat generated .I cleaned up only the edges wich i needed for the next step :The 4th and last part of the canope mould. After the waxing and the pva coat , i brushed on the black resin , and when it got tacky i started with the usual coats of glass and epoxy. This completes the forming of the canope mould. When everything is cured well , i'll clean everything up and place the connecting bolts....to remove them all and open the mould.

If all goes well ,i'll be making a canope next days ! that will be the third usable part in this build (after the rudders and tail cone )

I hope Andy's 3D printed thrust pipe gets here soon so i can mould that too. If not , i'll prepare the fuselage to copy it .

Stay tuned !

Definitely a dedicated modeller, hugely impressed

Thanks Alan !

After two days curing i could finally clean all the edges and open the 4-piece mould .Due to the wax and pva the parts lifted whitout much wringing.The plug survived ,always a plus !!

You can clearly see the pva film still sticking to the mould (front corner )

After a good clean up with water , to wash away the pva , the waxing can start again.

After the wax , a coat of pva and paint , the two small pieces are going to be bolted to their corresponding half .

this way i will be making two canope halfs . Then glue them together to a one piece canope.

Stay tuned and thanks for watching !