Re: Newbie questions. After you finish laughing, please help!

From: Kurt Krempetz <krempetz_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 13:18:01 -0700 (PDT)

HI Don,
       This Sunday March 16th, the Bong Eagles is holding an indoor event from 8am to 5pm.  I highly suggest you come and chat in person about your questions, there should be many people there who will be glad to view their opinion, show you what they do etc.
 
Cheers,
Kurt


________________________________
From: Don Weigt <dweigt47_at_gmail.com>
To: indoor_construction <indoor_construction_at_yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2014 2:04 PM
Subject: [Indoor_Construction] Newbie questions. After you finish laughing, please help!



 
Hi, Group.

I'm a new member.  I've built planes for half a century, and an AMA member most of my adult life, but never built anything as light and delicate as indoor FF models.  I hope some of you will take pity on a newbie and answer some basic questions.  I was going to send them to Model Aviation's Indoor columnist, Jon Kagan, but I see the January column was his last....

I recently tried to assemble a Parlor Mite from a kit I'd been storing for 20 years or more.  This was my first experience with sliced ribs.  They worked better than I expected.  The stripwood cutter described in the instructions worked pretty well, too.  It was made from part of a single edge razor blade and some wood for a base and spacers.

Then I got into trouble.  My first assemblies broke when I tried to lift them from wax paper.  I'd used small amounts of wood glue.  I finally got that solved by using parchment paper instead of wax paper.  My next wing and tail parts came off the paper fine.  But, the wing has quite a twist in it.  The twist may be from tension in the glue joints, or perhaps clamping the LE and TE to the building board twisted them, then they sprang back when released.

So, what are the better choices for glues? 


How are you building these models without a lot of warps?


The instructions mention adding warps to help hold up the left wing against motor torque, but not how to add them.  My assumption is that if I knew how to add them, I'd also be able to remove them.  So, how is that done?  Wetting the wood seems likely to make things worse.  Steaming the structure may work before it's covered, but not after the tissue is added.  Dry heat could soften the lignen in the wood and let it take a new form, but how would that work after covering with condenser paper?


How do you secure the covering to the frame?  Wouldn't even thinned dope add a lot of weight?  How could it be applied to the top surface of a 1/32 square wood leading or trailing edge spar or 1/64 thick sliced rib and not have it end up on at least three sides?  It seems to me I read something about using thinned glue stick adhesive in a past issue, but don't know where to find the info again, am not sure it was glue stick adhesive, and don't recall what thinner was used.   :--O

Other simple problems seem hard to answer.  How to pick up, position, and steady ribs while the glue is applied and until it's dried is puzzling me.  I tried using little blocks to hold the ribs in place, but they moved around.  I kept breaking the ribs when I picked them up, whether with my fingers, electronics pliers, or dental tweezers.


So, you can tell I have some problems with the basic processes.  Any guidance will be greatly appreciated!  As an aside, I think basic construction methods would be very useful now and then in an indoor column or other publication.  The info is probably out there already, but I don't know where to look.  Can you please at least point me toward the "library"?

Thanks,

Don Weigt, Madison, WI
Received on Mon Mar 10 2014 - 13:18:02 CET