n00bs Gonna Build a Carden

[gareth.ky]

It's confession time. On Saturday I broke down and bought a band saw.

Dan was kind enough to lend me his saw. I want to make fun of his tool but its on loan so I'll try and restrain myself. Its got a really small table and I couldn't find a wood cutting blade for it. I was really worried that I might have an accident with an entire wing on there. I just wasn't prepared to make things worse than they already are.

Right now I'm waiting on some odds and ends to come in so the saw can be operational. The tension pin/screw in the top of the saw was bent in the box. I had to call for a replacement and it wont get here until next week. Then there is the issue of blades. I PM'd Walt to ask what he used. He says he uses a 3/8" wide blade with 6 or 10 TPI(teeth per inch). This saw is an uncommon size so the blades need to be made up custom (low quality blades can be bought from the manufacturer but we don't take kindly to that in my shop!). The blade that comes with the saw is only 3TPI and can really tear up some stuff. Ask me how I know.

I called Suffolk Machinery.com, maker of the timberwolf blades and told them about my application. They recommended I go with 10 TPI for cutting balsa, lite ply and even MDF. Several yards of Swedish steel should be at my doorstep later on this week.

As soon as I have had some hands on time with the saw I'll have a review. I got it on sale. Its from China and made by the same company as another well respected brand of saw. It does have some advantages for us hobbyists though, its cheaper and has more resaw height than it should for its size/power. Anyone care to guess what it is?

So until all the parts are here I'm going back to the fuse to get some work done there. Hopefully I can get into doing the hatch this weekend.

[buttface]

I wish I was 27 again
I be terdy in two munce...
I'm PUSHIN' THIRTY HEAR DAMIT!!
Damn time fys!!!I could swear I was 21 couple of years ago.

[gareth.ky]

Man 30 is not too far off, I'll be 28 in about a month.

[Simpleton]

You'll wonder how you ever got by without it. Not being any good at puzzles, I don't know what saw you got, but a rip fence and a T slide guide (I don't know what they're called, but it slides parallel to the blade, holding the wood square and perpendicular to the blade) are handy. My saw came with neither, but they were easily fabbed from some scraps of wood.

Ripping cap strips and sticks from sheets of wood is so easy. I'll read where somebody is building a kit and uses the wrong stick, or screws one up, usually followed by "a quick trip to the LHS got me going again". No more! A little practice and you'll see that even freehand cutting isn't too hard, the smooth action of the bandsaw makes it a lot easier than the jerking scroll saw. My scroll saw gets used about once a year when I need to cut the inside of something.

But beware. A scroll saw will kind of shake your finger up and down without cutting it too much, you'll have time to feel it and get out of the way. A bandsaw will slice through a finger before you really know what happened. I have a buddy with a shortened index finger, bandsaw got him (he's a butcher, not a builder, but same difference).

[why_fly_high]

	Quote: Originally Posted by gareth.ky
	Dan was kind enough to lend me his saw. I want to make fun of his tool but its on loan so I'll try and restrain myself.

You get what you pay for. Just for that you better not ask me to call for you at any contests this year. I will just call you a tool and walk off.

Dan

[gareth.ky]

	Quote: Originally Posted by why_fly_high
	You get what you pay for. Just for that you better not ask me to call for you at any contests this year. I will just call you a tool and walk off. Dan

See I was tying to be nice. That saw is jacked up. You need special ear protection. The bottom wheel is missing its tire. Balancing a 5 foot wing panel on something the size of a shoe box isn't going to end well.

Now I'm gonna have to make a video!

I'll admit, I could have done the elevators on it. I'm just a Tool Monger.

[why_fly_high]

All is cool dude. There is a reason why it was sitting in the closet. I didn't know about missing a tire, I'm thinking it was there when you borrowed it. I use the big dog saws at work when I need to do real cutting. Enjoy playing with your tool. Is the sander I loaned missing anything now?

Dan

[gareth.ky]

Yea, I can't seem to find the sawdust that was all over it.

[gareth.ky]

She's up on her feet!

I'm getting a bunch of stuff done this weekend that I was afraid to do, like drilling the landing gear parts. I used some masking tape to transfer the hole locations from the bottom of the fuse to the aluminum. I am still shocked that it went off without a hitch.

I credit my success to this mysterious device:

Called a Center Punch, its spring loaded. You put the tip on the spot you want to drill and press down. The spring will 'pop' and the tool will make a nice dent in the surface in the shape of a drill bit tip. This keeps the bit from wandering when you drill. I didn't really know I was supposed to be using one all along but its cheap and it really helps!!!

I used band saw to cut on some 2x4 into this handy little fence for the drill press. The fence stops the piece from rotating, all you have to do is hold or clamp the work down. Some clamps like this could be even better.

I put in Vern's sweet tail wheel in the back. You can see the back plate I made to hold the blind nuts. This isn't coming loose.

The bandsaw made quick work of cutting off the hinge material on the left elevator. I'll be working on beveling the parts this week.

My latest screw up is cutting too much material away from the turtle deck to fit the fin. I almost got it right:

[FlyguyXII]

Lokking good!! I cant wait to hear how it flies. Are you going to be lightening the fuselage sides at all?

[gareth.ky]

Lets not go there yet. I've been working really hard to keep the weight down and not cut any holes in things. If its needed for balance then maybe.

[gareth.ky]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Simpleton
	You can hit the glued on sand paper with a heat gun and it really speeds up the peeling off process, and comes off cleaner than just peeling it off at ambient temp.

Just got a chance to try that, works Great!

I have the bottom deck sitting in glue right now. When I went to fit it up I found that one side of the fuse had a small bulge in it. I had to cut out several of the sticks and do them over.

This time I had the band saw so I gave that a try. I marked the cuts with a knife and then basically free hand cut them on the saw. I just put the stick up against a bit of 2x4 as a fence and move the fence by hand. Works really well. I still messed up some sticks but only like 2. For the lateral sticks you can set the miter gauge to the right angle and just use that. They come out exactly right and you can do them really fast.

[Simpleton]

I'll post some pics of my home made adjustable rip fence this evening. It's great, just take a piece of the stick you need to copy, set it next to the blade, slide the rip fence over where it's juuuust touching the stick, and set it. Then you can just slice off stick after stick the exact same width. Some scrap balsa is handy to fine tune the width of the sticks, but it's fairly simple to get them perfect in short order.

[gareth.ky]

Post away.

I have a nice miter gauge on the way, an Incra 1000. You can put a stop on the fence to cut parts to the same length. It slides in the saw tables track so its basically a sled.

There are some places in the build where you have to join sticks and the plans call for some serious angles. I could only cut a 45 with my little hobby saw. With the miter gauge you could do stuff like that.

Also it can cut those 2.5 degree angles that I had so much trouble with.

[why_fly_high]

Jeez, is this a build thread or check out my tool thread? Get the thing done already. We need to get flying!

Dan