Fouga magister 1/4.5 moulded from scratch

AS promised : The second half , this time with the filled marbel prints ,should fit the other side.

We will see tomorrow !

Very nice solution Dirk, brilliant modelling again!

I must confess I was as lost as the others as to how you were going to generate a smooth inner surface the way you were going, but can see now that the outer surface of the plug is dimensioned to be the inside of the part.

Really impressive drive and energy to keep going, well done.

Cheers

Danny

Thanks Danny ,You're probably not the only one who was lost without the finished part in sight !

I lifted the second half from the mould-plug today and presented them to eachother : Perfect fit ! i couldn't even feel the seam inside !

To make a proper tube from these halves , i'm going to glue them together with epoxy .But first i'll protect the inner edges with tape to avoid epoxy on the inside.

After sanding the contact surfaces , for better attachment , i placed a fillet of epoxy on one side.I used a candy bag with the tip cut off.

Put them together ,perfect aligned by the marbel imprints , and pressed them together with clamps.

Before the epoxy dryed out , i removed the tape and wiped away the rest with acetone.

Perfect !!

When everything is cured , i'll remove the side boards and cover the seam with a glass cloth ribbon on the outside.

For additional strenght during the removal of the side boards , i taped the seam inside.

I carefully cutted away parts of the side board , not completely yet ! The seam is very weak now !!

Secured the seam with some glass cloth (100gr)

When this is cured i'll do the remaining pieces. After that , a second ribbon will be laminated over the total lenght.

Looking good so far but very time consuming !

Hi all ,

It was a bit too early to remove the remaining side board pieces on the first side so i did the other side and a part of the middle piece. The seam is very weak in the area where the side boards are gone so better safe than sorry !!

For the same reason i left a little corner piece in place.

... great job as usual, Dirk.

I have a - probably very daft - question > couldn't you leave the middle piece (between the 'legs' of the thrust tube) a bit more substantial, ie. leaving part of it still reinforcing the tube joint?

Of course, you might need that 'space' for equipment later on in your build?

Keep tracking on, young man.

Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris !

I need every bit of space in the fuselage i can get to join the fuse halves and place the ribbons of glass cloth ( when the time comes.)

Secondly , i wouldn't trust the tube without the connecting glass cloth ribbons !The fan will be producing round 11kg off thrust !! In the event of a blown tube it would be very hard to repair. I even saw inlet tubes collapsing under the vacuum ! I even consider a carbon string around the tube...

I get your drift though ! Thanks for thinking along !!

Cheers , Dirk

Hi guys !

Today i removed the last bits of the side boards and connected the remaining area's with glass cloth.I also laminated the second layer (two inches wide)over the first. After removing the inside tape tomorrow , the thrust tube is ready to install.

The airbubbles you see under the glass ribbons are not located between the tube and the ribbons , but between the tube and the inner tape , so no problem !!

Next days the fuselage plug will turn up on the bench again !!

Stay tuned and stay safe out there !!