J1 phonix biplane (april 2012 free plan)

[Alex Gibbs]

hi guys, recieved my april issue this morning :P

 

i really like the biplane inclluded in there

thing is... ive looked at the parts and some of it i cant find anywhere on the net

 

for instance, one of the parts is a 20x 4mm Trailing Edge. the closest i can find to that is 5x19mm  another one is a 10x3mm balsa strip, and noone supplies 10mm wide strips its either 9mm or 12mm

there are alot of these instances i have found, so my question is... should i buy parts just a little oversize and cut them down to size? (with great difficulty haha :P) or should i go for just under and keep with that and be a little off with the plan?

 

im a first time plan builder, ive built a kit before but not from a plan and my school has a laser cutter so im going to try cut parts out on there :P

 

any help/tips will be a treat :D

 

thanks guys :D

 

Gibbo

 

Edited By Alex Gibbs on 05/03/2012 23:16:10

[Daithi O Buitigh]

All you can do really is round the measurements to Imperial (working that .8 mm is 1/32" so if you go on the basis that 1/32 is 1 mm, 1/16 is1.5 mm and so on, you shouldn't be that far out

3 mm would be equivalent to 1/8, 4 mm should be close to 3/16" (you can always sand it down a bit if needed)

Edited By Daithi O Buitigh on 05/03/2012 23:31:24

[Alex Gibbs]

ahh i see, just spotted something... are balsa strippers any good?

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Mileage varies really - I've one that's pretty hopeless and another that is reasonably good (but you have to set it up with a piece of wood of the correct thickness to get it accurate. There are expensive ones that actually have a scale on them.

However - that's fine for stripwood - but not much use for sheet

[Alex Gibbs]

ohh right, i think ill purchase one and just a tad bigger balsa parts and attempt to make them the right size :D thanks daithi

[Olly P]

Alex - A laser cutter at a school! You lucky begger!

Well spotted on the sizes though. A lovely looking bipe, but my list is already too long!

[Alex Gibbs]

yeah i know haha :P

wheres the best place to buy balsa sheets and strips for thicknesses of 1 1.5 2 3 5 mm sheets from?

[Olly P]

I have always found SLEC to be a good price and very helpful.

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Here's a quick reference chart (I'd use the closest approximation for building)

1/64” 0.4mm

1/32” 0.8mm

1/16” 1.5mm

3/32” 2.5mm

1/8” 3.0mm

3/16” 5.0mm

¼” 6.5mm

3/8” 9.0mm

½” 12.5mm

¾” 19mm

1” 25mm

3" 75mm

12” 300mm

24” 610mm

36” 915mm

[fly boy3]

Hi Alex, when building from a plan, sometimes you will not get the exact size you require, then a few ,changes may be required. Re L/E you may have to buy a slighly larger thickness and sand down to size. Believe me it is not difficult to cut to size, we all have done this when building from plans. Don't forget its only a bit of balsa after all. Cheers

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Balsa sizes are nominal anyway - but even if they were 100% accurate, 0.5 mm isn't a lot to shave off (in fact you'd probably take that much off with one skim of sandpaper)