n00bs Gonna Build a Carden

[Neil4]

I had the same thing happen to me on my 35% Dalton. I screwed up some of the wood that came with the kit so I needed some more. As funny as this may sound I got my wood from tower hobbies. I got 4 planks of 1/2in balsa for $10! I was a little worried since it was tower hobbies brand of wood and that it was only $10 but I was pleasantly surprised. The wood came well packaged, no dings and straight as an arrow. If this next order you placed doesn't work out for some reason, try tower hobbies.

Neil

[gareth.ky]

Tower would have worked and I have always had good service from them. They only do 36" lengths and the ailerons are nearly 48". I could splice two planks together if it came down to that.

[Neil4]

Yeah that is what I did. I got the 36" long ones and just spliced them together. As long as you keep the cutting angle on the band saw the same it is fine.

Looking forward to seeing how the DA 85 pulls you 35% Carden. I maiden my 35% Dalton 260 on wednesday with a DA 100 and it has very good vertical with a 27x10 PT prop on the front.

Neil

[gareth.ky]

Gonna do a few post on some different things I'm doing...

First I had an idea for making it easier to see when the surface is centered up to the bevel material. I drew some parallel lines on the hinge material. One set of lines is just inside the widest part of the surface and the other set is just wider than the narrow end. The lines are measured out from the center line.

Now this is really hard to get on camera but you can see very easily when something isn't centered. The lines wont disappear at the same point on either side of the surface. Its that simple. Very small deviations can be seen easily and corrected. Here is an example from CAD. On the left is a correctly aligned surface. On the right the surface has been rotate 1/2 a degree. The difference is easy to see where the line pass close to the narrow end.

This has got some big advantages for things like rudders and ailerons where you cant see one end of the stock to check if its centered. With these marks you can align any kind of surface the same way.

I was so happy to get this figured out that i cut the stock off the elevator that I had just replaced (I hadn't beveled it yet). I replaced it using this method. It worked great and I'm happy with the way the rudder and elevator turned out now.

[gareth.ky]

One step I haven't seen too much about is installing the stab tube retention bolts. Even if you do Walt's stab root plate mods you still need these bolts to hold everything tight up to the fuse. It's one of those things I put off because I was afraid i would wreck the stab or the tube or both.

You start by preparing some dowels with holes in the middle to fit a blind nut. I used a bit of scrap wood to make a quick jig to get the drilling right. this is a one time use jig, once you move anything, like the clamps or the table it wont align right again. Just use the right size Forstner bit to make a little hole on the scrap and then put the dowel in the hole. Hey presto, the dowel is retained and centered on the chuck.

From there you need to figure out where to drill in the stab for buried treasure. If you cut the surfaces according to the plans the stab tube runs parallel to the hinge line. The instructions say to locate the dowel 4 1/2" from the root. Going from that i measured things up and fired up the drill press. I used my smallest Forstner bit to drill through the skin and down into the stab tube. Mine worked out just fine with everything in the right spot. Use something shiny to check the location of the hole.

With the scary bit out of the way I used the larger Forster bit to cut the hole for the dowel. The dowels are set in with the blind nuts down so they rest against the stab tube. I used Oak dowel and its to sand so I cut them down to size before I glued them in. They get glued in place with epoxy and micro balloons.

You want the stab tube to end up centered. Take some measurements and do the math. Wrap some tape around the tube so that it cant go in any further than its supposed to when its centered. I made up a pointy bolt to help me mark the tube. You just kinda work it in and out repeatedly and it will leave a mark.

Then its off to the drill press again to drill on the mark. I made some crazy arrangement of clamps for this but it worked. You just drill through one wall of the tube, not all the way through.

With that done you put everything together on the airplane and use Mr. Pointy Bolt to mark the other side and then drill that hole. If your lucky then it will all just go together without a fuss. I didn't have any trouble.

[gareth.ky]

Once more thing before I go to sleep. It fits in the car!

The spinner cone will have to come off but the prop can stay on. The rudder doesn't have to bend much. I'd much rather remove 1 bolt from a spinner than take apart the rudder linkages every time I fly.

Not sure what else I can fit in the car with the airplane.

[rcplanefan]

Gareth,

Great stuff here. I finally got the time to go all the way through your thread over the weekend. You give tons of thought to most of what you are doing and it shows. Your workmanship is also top-notch.

You are going to love the way this plane flies. Are you coming to the Nats this July? I would really like to see this plane in person.

Ken

[gareth.ky]

	Quote: Originally Posted by rcplanefan
	Gareth, Great stuff here. I finally got the time to go all the way through your thread over the weekend. You give tons of thought to most of what you are doing and it shows. Your workmanship is also top-notch. You are going to love the way this plane flies. Are you coming to the Nats this July? I would really like to see this plane in person. Ken

Thanks man. People like you and Walt that post these build threads help out a lot. My thread is probably way too tedious but I'm doing it for the newbies.

Not everything is straight or perfect on the airplane. Some things I have corrected and some I have just accepted as not worth the effort to fix. I should do a post showing everything that's messed up! You dont have to have a perfect airplane for it to fly well to look great.

I hope I can be at the NATS. I think the Oklahoma Crew wants to go as well.

[gareth.ky]

Spent most of the evening covered in Fiberglass dust Dremel makes some bad-ass tungsten carbide bits that can cut this stuff really easily. The cutoff wheels do a good job of rough cutting things to start with.

So close but not quite 'done' with the build yet!

Balance point with the motor, spinner, can, and the three servos on the tail is about 2" in front of the wing tube. So its going to be close to spot on with the wings on. I'll probably just have to put the batteries up near the firewall.

[gareth.ky]

Yea, still some things to do, control horns, ailerons need work, tank tray & so on. But basically its as done as its going to get before I start finishing it. Man this project has taken a lot longer than I though! Right now its time for a cool beverage and some Deadliest Catch.

I keep looking at it all put together and wondering "HOW did I build THAT!?"

[tommy321]

Congrats Dude! Been watching this from the start, and enjoyed all the detail you put into it... Two big for ya.

Grab a beverage and enjoy pushing that thing around the driveway making airplane noises! You've earned it!

Tom

[why_fly_high]

NICE! Now........................................COVER IT! I'll test fly it for you.

Dan

[gareth.ky]

Thanks for following along tommy321. I know its kind of a loooog thread.

Dan I want you down here when I'm setting up the fuel system and stuff like that. This weekend I'm all about getting some covering DUN.

I did some CAD work last night. I cant find a 5" wide double horn to use the rudder G10 horn that I got. So I get some G10 on the way from McMaster Carr. I'll be making a 4" horn. I'm thinking about doing a Comp-Arf style G10 servo arm. These screw on to a round plastic servo wheel. Anyone know if they work well?

[rcplanefan]

Gareth,

Are you doing a pull-pull arrangement on rudder? I'm assuming that is what the 4" horn will be for. If so, G10 should work fine in a double-truss arrangement. Not sure about using just a single sheet, but I also don't know much about the CompArf setup. And if you haven't seen them, AirWild sells some really nice aluminum servo wheels. Would definitely recommend them to attach the G10 to.

I'd also get as much done as you can before you start to cover. Tank tray, horns, everything. You'll be surprised how much you ding up doing these things, and it is really hard to fix dings after the covering is done!

Ken

[gareth.ky]

It will be a push-pull setup using a double horn and solid linkages. The servo is in the bottom of the fuse. Like this:



SWB makes a 4 1/2" double arm I could use also, that's probably what I'll go with since I don't have any metal servo wheels.

Here is what was talking about. Its a G10 or phenolic plate that bolts to a metal servo wheel:



Those photos are out of one of the 2.6 meter (35%) instructions manuals. They use double truss horns on the 3.0 meter size airplanes. The double truss design is nice for using ball links but not totally necessary for strength, at least as far as I can tell. This stuff is tough!

Your probably right about the tank tray and I'm certainly going to do control horns before things get covered. I'm really just waiting on clearing this stuff up about how to do the rudder before getting on with that step.