Re: High School Student Inquiring about the Science Olympiad Event Wright Stuff
I am no expert, but my TSA students have very successfully used the second winding technique you mention in your post. Lube the rubber with Armor All or Sil Slick or some type of silicon-based rubber lube every time you wind. Read up on break-in of your motors before the first winding, choose a method, and be consistent. You can determine max turns per inch through destructive testing of measured loops of rubber from the same batch and width as your motors. You don't mention using one, but winding with a torque meter has proven highly effective for us, especially for lower ceilings - we built one from the Ray Harlan plans. Find the launch torque which gets you just below the ceiling. Wind to 90-95% of your calculated max turns (0.9 x turns-to-break/in x motor loop length in inches) and back off to the torque that you found would keep you out of the ceiling. The rubber will take more turns each time, particularly if you wind it over and over without letting it rest. Try making up more than one motor - we use sets of three - and rotate through them for more consistent results.
The match between the prop, the rubber, and the airframe is the real key and I won't pretend to advise you on how to achieve that except by experimentation. There are many true experts on this forum that I have gleaned much information from over the years; hopefully they will chime in with better guidance and will correct any gross errors I have made.
Good Luck,
Billy Batkins
Received on Tue Jan 26 2016 - 19:39:48 CET
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:48 CET