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An evening on the WWW wielded loads of free plans for a slope soarer. Unfortunatley one one was not made of either Correx/ Depron/glass. The one I found was a Limit EX.

Has anyone everbuilt one of these? Off to get some Balsa this afternoon and hope to make a start soon.

Better still anyone know of a build thread. Google didnt sem to turn anything up but others oftern suceed when I fail. 

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So.....been playing with the wire cutter..... made a shape of the wings (X2) from the plan.

/sites/3/images/member_albums/28772/DSCF4345_0.jpg


Now, do i just stick the outer and innner ribs on the the relevant faces, as they will be staying there anyway and draw the wire across to give the wing section? I cant see any problems with orientation as its a flat bottom section and the leading edge is the front of the ribs....Any advice appreciated as i will try to cut the section tommorow. cant do it now as its raining and dont fancy the fumes in the garage.

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Most peeps use a template rather than the actual "ribs" - whatever you choose, ensure it is completely smooth, as the slightest roughness will cause the wire to drag and the foam will melt unevenly. Its important to start and finish at the ends of each rib at the excat same time, so practice !
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Me and my mate eh? That will be a Black and Decker Workmate then! 

The only way i could vary the wire temp is by length. I have a set output PSU (12v @ 1000mA)and 1 thickness of wire ( 0.33 mm stainless steel braided) though is seems to be working well so far for stuff that was laying round in the garage! Got a cut width of 300mm at the moment wich is more than i need for this little wing. 

I did get the "starving horse" patina when trying to go to fast in the initail trails. As long as i go less than 10mm/sec seems to be as smooth a infants rear end! going even slower seems not to cause the foam to melt either!!!!!! have i chanced upon an ideal setup ?

One thing I didnt forsee was the well tensioned wire slackeining off when it heated up. Needed to retofit a couple of decent rubber bands to take up the slack.  

Anyway, i cant remember having so much fun cutting things up since i was a child! Made a smashing fleur de Lys pattern free hand whn playing earlier! 

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Andy Freeman wrote (see)

An evening on the WWW wielded loads of free plans for a slope soarer. Unfortunatley one one was not made of either Correx/ Depron/glass. The one I found was a Limit EX.

Has anyone everbuilt one of these? Off to get some Balsa this afternoon and hope to make a start soon.

Better still anyone know of a build thread. Google didnt sem to turn anything up but others oftern suceed when I fail. 


Hi Andy.

I have built a Limit Ex in Depron.

Here is a build thread.

Here you can see the video

/ Robert

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Thanks for the link Robert.

Well last night I cut the wing section and skinned both wings with balsa. (photos to follow). So grateful to those who gave tips, especially the point about cuting from LE to TE proportianally....I would have ruined the foam without that one.

Cant belive how much simpler than cutting spars/ribs and so on....although I have only done that once as well. More to follow. We could rename this "the build thread from the totally inexperianced."

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/sites/3/images/member_albums/28772/DSCF4354.jpg



Two wings cut and skinned in 1/32 balsa. What a saga i had. The first one was fine, the second i manged to skin in the wrong thickness of balsa and had to start again.

I then started to struggle with cutting the new core. Why? no idea and after cutting 2 perfectly on my first two attempts i was sorely annoyed. eventually after 3 disaters i retentioned the wire and got another good one straight away. Wire stetching possibly????

Next step LE and wing tips. I will post some more pics as I go if anyone is the least bit interested!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, lack of interest has not dampened my enthusiasm. Made only a little progress as work and offspring have been demanding of me.

still, I will post my progress and welcome feedback on where i can improve..

/sites/3/images/member_albums/28772/foam_wings.jpg



First ever go with a hot wire cutter....looks rougher than they are in reality

/sites/3/images/member_albums/28772/skinned_wings.jpg



Foam cores skinned with 1/32 balsa. again a first for me. used UHU POR glue as I was afraid to melt the foam.

/sites/3/images/member_albums/28772/le_fitted.jpg



LE strip fitted. needed a fair bit of sanding to get to correct size..

/sites/3/images/member_albums/28772/wing_ends_clagged_on.jpg



An aircraft takes shape.... easier than I thought it was going to be. Clagged the wing ends on and much furious sanding later got them something like. Was not impressed with the rigidity of the wing, probably due to my dodgy use of POR to glue the 2 X no1 ribs to the foam. therefore went and tried another first for me. Glass fibre. Bought Resin and 75g/m2 cloth.
/sites/3/images/member_albums/28772/wing%28glassed%29_dry_fitted.jpg



1 layer of cloth , as per some www site I found. rubbed down ready for a second application of resin. I belive, this ought to make then nice and smooth.

Now, do I glass the fuselage or do i use solafilm or similar? OR i had thought of painting with one coat of epoxy. Suggestions please!!!!

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I am no expert but I would not glass the the fuselage unless I felt it needed the extra strength. I am following what you are doing with interest. I can never have much enthusiasm for building a rib and spar wing (I'm too lazy) so a skinned foam wing has always been attractive to me.

I have a question for you. How did you hold the balsa sheet against the foam cores while the glue was curing or did you use the POR like contact adhesive?

Keep up the good work 

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