Arcus/Duo/Janus/Nimbus

[ARUP]

Does the little special tool just glide along the bottom inside skin/ hinge without cutting though? It just removes excess foam and cleans out the trench?

[lenb]

watching!!!

[French1]

Does the little special tool just glide along the bottom inside skin/ hinge without cutting though? It just removes excess foam and cleans out the trench?

Mike

in fact the trench is cleaned before using a flat screwdriver, the tool allow to dig a small trench in the fiberglass below the veneer.

layup is wood / FG / Peel ply / FG / FG / Foam

On the outside you need to go through the veneer and FG and from the trench you need to go through the double layer of fiberglass to free up the peel ply

Clear enough?

Stéphane

[ARUP]

The peel ply is the hinge? I always thought the peel ply was just used to get exterior finish and was discarded but you have used it differently.

[French1]

The peel ply is the hinge? I always thought the peel ply was just used to get exterior finish and was discarded but you have used it differently.

Yes peel ply is the hinging material

[Steve P]

Interesting. I've always used Kevlar in the past (learned via the Phil Barnes approach) but the current argument is that Aramid is more brittle when wetted out with epoxy while the Peel Ply is more durable and resistant to tearing.

[French1]

Second part of the job...

First carving the foam on the wing side in order to make a pocket where the future moving surface lip will slide in

Untitled by steffruelle, on Flickr

Then lay up of two layers of 1.5-2oz fiberglass. Less easy as it seems as the tape will fray!!!

Untitled by steffruelle, on Flickr

Then as second layer of balsa, slightly narrower than the first one that close the moving surface in order to allow the moving surface to move properly

Untitled by steffruelle, on Flickr

A bit of carving, first using a sanding block and then using 80 grit sand paper in the gap between the moving surface and the wing. Leave a comfortable gap in order for the covering material to not bind on the wing

Untitled by steffruelle, on Flickr

Untitled by steffruelle, on Flickr

ET VOILA!


CLOSE

Untitled by steffruelle, on Flickr

OPEN


Untitled by steffruelle, on Flickr

[Swiss1]

Nice Stuff French1

Jeremy and Ben
SCCAAA TT TN

[ARUP]

I'll second that... nice stuff!

[French1]

Lets get these wings done!

Tip added, usual method, a thin plywood between LE and TE plus some balsa top and bottom.

This avoid the tip when they are balsa only to be dented

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Et voila

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Stephane

[ARUP]

No fancy winglets? C'mon, now! You are on the home stretch!

[French1]

No Michael, the Janus is a too old sailplane to have experimented winglets, at least I found none retrofitted with some winglets.

[French1]

Janus is back at the top of stack of work..

Program of today : servo pockets

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

I just drill corners then use metallic roller with xacto knife to open them and using a rotary tool to crave the foam out.

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr




Then come the time to shape a piece of plywood in shape for having the servo flush on the lower surface


Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

presure is your friend..

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

and here we are, just add a plywood cover and two screws and it is done!

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

[ARUP]

Glad to see you back on this one!

[French1]

Starting on the fuse,

first the stab holder simple piece of plywood with two bind nut, a bit of 5mn epoxy to put it in place and some slow epoxy with filler and cotton fiber to lock it place

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

then the servo holder that is also used as the fin stiffener (very very important!) to avoid fin stress.

Control of geometry

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

the magic plywood ..

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

And a bit of compression for a good bond and geometry

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

[ARUP]

Looks like you are making great time on this! Nice work!

[French1]

Moving along mike...

[French1]

Time to move to the landing gear

first cutting the doors, I use for this a metal ruler and the back of an xacto knife then a hack saw

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Couple former to hold the undercarriage, and a tray for the rudder servo

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

a bit of epoxy and FG

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Doors are hinged with bicycle tire tube glued with CA

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

tabs for the door end point

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Then gluing the tube to the fuse with slight stretch, it will allow the door to close by themself

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Et voila!!! (click on it to see the video)

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Stéphane

[hello82]

great build Stephane...love the idea of the bicycle tube for door hinges.

Matt

[ARUP]

Nice retract mount and cool trick using wingnut and bolt in slot for servo adjustment... correct?

[French1]

Correct Mike, I love that system for maintenance, very easy to put in and out and big plus you can adjust the tension on the cables with one screw..

[French1]

Now let tackle the tow release.
As I am planning to install a motor in the nose, I don't want to use a regular to release, I will use a side to release on the Janus.

I have built a servo holder and moved the servo close to the undercarriage to give me some space in the front of the nose. Servo is a A6265 with 328 oz at 6V, never want again to have too weak of a servo....

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

I glued a plastic tube on the side of the fuse and made a blob of microsphere and epoxy where I will carve my tow release

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

And from the outside I created the cavity that I will use as tow release, plastic tuve is on eache side and a piano wire come to lock the loop

Sans titre by steffruelle, sur Flickr

Another thing down on this ship, still some more to go but getting closer

[Steve P]

+1. Great, effective approach to a release especially if you don’t want to spoil the nose of the sailplane. I have done 3 different examples and all worked flawlessly.