IMAC Dalton 300 ml build thread.

[orthobird]

I took some advice from Wayne, and did what he did with his wings. I obtained this 1/4" square carbon fiber rod, and cut each one to 48" length.
I have glued these to the top and bottom of the wings.
It is amazing at how much rigidity this adds.
Now, if I flap the wing in the air holding it by the root, the foam does not flex at all!!
well, at least not to the naked eye, where as before adding them, they had obvious movement with this maneuver.

the rods were glued in using West Epoxy resin (slow set).

 

[orthobird]

I need to add, that I weighed the wings (wing foam + root cap) and once I added these carbon fiber spars, it added an additional 4 ounces per wing. ( 3 ounces for the carbon fiber and 1 ounce of epoxy resin).

Each spar is 1.5 ounce and the glue for that one spar is about .5 ounces.

 

[orthobird]

I have, this year, transported my airplane to 8 contests, and when they were far away, I would not take my trailer, instead, I would remove the stabs and transport the airplane in my SUV.

SO, I did something totally different for the stabs connection. This will save me the time for "finding" the extension lead connector.

I used these MPX connectors, that are meant for install, and obtained them from Taildragger RC, you may want to check out their website, they have got a lot of goodies!

 

[orthobird]

Well, turns out, all of the servos in this bird were damaged!
I have replaced all the servos in this airplane fuselage. I still need 4 more for the ailerons.

 

[orthobird]

well, here she is:

I cranked her on, and turned on very easily! No problems there. I am now using a 30 X 13 prop EVO, 2 blade Mejzlik.

Went back in the shop and started to work of cutting the 1/16th blast sheets to make the wing skins. I will be making 8 of them, yes, 8!!

This will take a good while, since i am edge gluing them with titebond, and I have limited table space to do them, so it is one at a time, put aside, then work on another one!

 

[Dirt Doctor]

You can also put wax paper between the sheets and stack them on top of each other! It make take a little longer but they will dry
1

 

[orthobird]

Bobby, you just read my mind!! I asked my wife to grab me a big roll about 10 minutes ago!

 

[jamesrxx951]

Not sure if you are interested but I started using the plastic wire loom in one of my planes. The weight started to add up. Plus it was hard to work with in some areas. I was turned onto the cable sleeve from http://www.cableorganizer.com/over-expanded-pet/ you can get colored heat shrink there also for the ends. I am planning on getting more for my next build. May try amazon first.

 

[orthobird]

Thank you James, I will look into that!

Just did the 2nd wing, top side skin to glue on.

I did some measurements.

A. The foam wing, with the carbon fiber rods and the root caps (+ phenolic and phenolic support), weighs 7.5 ounces at the tip and 17 ounces at the root.

B. The above wing (A.) + With the top side sheeted only, the weight is 10.5 ounces on the tip and 22 ounces in the root.

This turns out to be 24.5 ounces for wing A.
and 32.5 ounces for Wing B.

so adding the sheeting and glue added 8 ounces of weight.

According to this calculation, the other side sheeted will weigh another 8 ounces, making the wing up to 40.5 ounces.


this is going to be 2.53 pounds. Then add the leading edge, trailing edge, Hinge line LE and TE, then servos, extension, and tip cap, + 2 servos, probably, I am guessing, wing will be around 3.5 pounds.

More measurements to come tomorrow.

 

[orthobird]

I did not mention this earlier, but it is important that, when you compress the wing/skin/glue sandwich, the top of the wing is facing up.

I do not know how this works for the guys who bag it.




Each wing weighs the same = 31 ounces, after trimming, and now on to glue the other skin on each wing. I am gluing on each skin one at a time. This takes way longer to do, but I can concentrate on making sure that one skin is centered properly, and this guarantees there will be much less error. I will re-measure the weight after the wings have top and bottom skins glued on.

I figured out an easy way to make the skins for the wings.

Using my work bench, I have drawn an out-line of the skins, and made the borders bigger by 2 cm all the way around.

THen, using the technique as mentioned by Tony in the updated manual (November 2014), I am not and did not edge glue the remaining 3 skins. All i did was set up the balsa 1/16 by 4 by 38" pieces within the lines on my table, making the grains parallel to the trailing edge, and assuring to stagger joints, and also cutting joints at a variable of 45 degrees or 60 degrees. I apply the masking tape, and keep it on during the sandwich glue foam skin compression mode of the procedure.

I will make the remaining 4 skins for the "NEW" Dalton later today as well.





On the rights side of the picture, this is the leading edge, the left side of the table is the trailing edge. The solid lines are skins for the left top/right bottom, and the dashed lines is the outline for the right top/left bottom.

These skins are now in the foam shuck and the balsa sheets are not edge glued. the tape is on the down side, facing the foam shuck.

This is what it looks like with the tape holding it together. This system is way much easier to do, and saves a great amount of time and less messy, and the sheeting comes out looking good since there is no glue marks from the titebond.