Post by dennisp on May 20, 2009 17:23:21 GMT 8
After much discussion and e-mails the cost of a pair of booms and a center wing with shipping from the USA and duties was just a silly 4D number so I abandoned the idea and started work on the EDF conversion of the FB Velox. With the damaged parts always in view at the SSW I decided OK I just have to fix this model….
Having decided to do the easy fix first to get into the swing of things I tackled the boom with crunched nose first, the good news was I had all the broken bits and one side of the boom nose was in relatively good shape so a little tracing on paper of the parts and the mess could begin. The picture below shows the boom nose after removing much of the damaged balsa.
The other boom was not quite as easy as the four stringers that form the box of the boom two were cracked, the other issue was the cracks were between two ply formers so the replacement of the stringers was just about impossible So it was back to the drawing board once again.
The obvious struck me in that why not make a box within a box..?, so the covering was then removed to see the extent of the damage.
The side sheeting was just matchwood, but the commit button had been pressed so there was no turning back now. The damaged sheeting was totally removed with boom firmly down on the building board so no warps could occur and the first task was to take the strain off the upper and lower boom sheeting. This was achieved by bonding some 3/32” birch ply to the sheet and also to the boom stringers.
To ensure rigidity after its attack by a walking tree the exposed side sheet was then fitted with a doubler of 1/8” ply. Next step is to box the stringers in the traditional way that the main spar of a wing if done, which would also form the supports for the top 1/8’ box cover.
Now add the other 1/8” ply plate to complete the main inner box.
Add the top balsa sheet......
Job done...,, with a initial sand to shape a and then put aside until the centre wing is repaired so that recovering of the parts could be completed in one messy session
The centre wing repair will be the next thing to be tackled so stay tuned to this channel...
Having decided to do the easy fix first to get into the swing of things I tackled the boom with crunched nose first, the good news was I had all the broken bits and one side of the boom nose was in relatively good shape so a little tracing on paper of the parts and the mess could begin. The picture below shows the boom nose after removing much of the damaged balsa.
The other boom was not quite as easy as the four stringers that form the box of the boom two were cracked, the other issue was the cracks were between two ply formers so the replacement of the stringers was just about impossible So it was back to the drawing board once again.
The obvious struck me in that why not make a box within a box..?, so the covering was then removed to see the extent of the damage.
The side sheeting was just matchwood, but the commit button had been pressed so there was no turning back now. The damaged sheeting was totally removed with boom firmly down on the building board so no warps could occur and the first task was to take the strain off the upper and lower boom sheeting. This was achieved by bonding some 3/32” birch ply to the sheet and also to the boom stringers.
To ensure rigidity after its attack by a walking tree the exposed side sheet was then fitted with a doubler of 1/8” ply. Next step is to box the stringers in the traditional way that the main spar of a wing if done, which would also form the supports for the top 1/8’ box cover.
Now add the other 1/8” ply plate to complete the main inner box.
Add the top balsa sheet......
Job done...,, with a initial sand to shape a and then put aside until the centre wing is repaired so that recovering of the parts could be completed in one messy session
The centre wing repair will be the next thing to be tackled so stay tuned to this channel...
