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Laser cut ribs for Wot4 & other classic designs


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The other day I noticed an EBay supplier who advertised Wot4 wing ribs. Price was moderate so I looked at the site. It's iGull Laser

I found that there is a range of about 70 sets of wing ribs for classic designs such as Super 60, Junior 60, Kwik Fli, Kamco Kadet & Kavalier, Veron Impala & Robot, Keil Kraft Ajax, Achilles, Southerner, Outlaw & Marquis, Vic Smeed Tomboy & Bandboy. Also Chris Foss Phase 5 etc. All are just rib sets or ribs plus other wing parts. So a lot cheaper than buying any of the cut parts sets for magazine designs. Not really cheap in some cases but a moderate price as it includes postage or ' collect from Argos'

Note that the Wot 4 ribs are probably from the very old Wot4 plan which had a slightly diffferent airfoil and maybe a slightly different chord ( yes, a plan was sold in the pre kit days ) But still a good basis for an own design fuselage.

I reckon this fills a gap in the market as wing ribs are a bit tedius to cut by hand and not many other suppliers offer just wing ribs. ( of course DB Sport & Scale also offer excellent wing ribs at quite low prices for their own Plan Packs )

Most of the plans mentioned above are available to download from Outerzone.

But has anybody bought from iGull Laser or heard of them before?

 

Edited By kc on 12/08/2015 17:38:42

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Neil's ribs are really good, nicely cut and good quality wood. He's a real bloke too so if you want something a biit different or a particular wood density etc thats no problem. Excellent service and not too pricey.

He's also a proper engineer, built his own laser beds, millers,  3D printers, etc really helpful bloke. Top notch.

He's an active single-channel enthusiast too, and has been a regular contributor on the S/C forum.

Cheers

Phil

Edited By Phil Green on 12/08/2015 17:58:35

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Phil Green. That's nice to know - gives confidence to order from him. Wonder why I have not heard of his products before!

Phil 9. That's not the same design as a real Wot4 - it's an alternative design called Devil Dancer from Colin Usher i expect it's perfectly good though. Or do you have info that it actually uses these iGull ribs?

The Wot4 ribs from iGull have a peculiar spar cutout shown in their photo. I can only assume it is made to use a 1/8 sq and also a 3/8 by 1/8 spar top and bottom ( or some sizes like that ) Maybe the 1/8 sq is spruce while the 3/8 by 1/8 is balsa ( or vice versa) or some unusual laminated spar arrangement. Not seen a spar like that before but it looks OK.

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Well it's not a Wot 4 as it says the designer is Colin Usher yet we all know the proper Wot4 is a Chris Foss design. If you read the devil Dancer words you get the impression Colin just drew an equivalent. I think he renamed from Watt 4 to avoid problems. The bigger versions Killerwatt and Megawatt presumably dont offend the Wot tradename! Anyway this one pictured is a 58 inch tapered wing version so these ribs wouldn't fit!

The other link shows the Devil Dancer and names the designer as Doris Pilhorn but somewhere I think it says she just did the CAD work from Ushers plan. It's just 2 versions of the Usher design one is straight wing, one tapered but same fuselage basically. But it's not exactly a Wot4.

At one time somebody on EBAY gave away a copy of a Wot4 plan ( copy of a genuine Chris Foss plan ) when you bought a plan for a built up wing to fit. Original Wot 4 plan showed foam wing which you bought with plan from Mr Foss. This original version had a slightly different airfoil and does not fit later kit built fuselages. I rather think this is the wing that these laser cut ribs fit. Probably almost as good but not the same.

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I am just amazed that nobody mentioned iGull laser cutting before on Modelflying! Perhaps it's just been on the free flight sites. However as there is no mention of the wingspan or even the type of model sales must be dependent on people knowing the design and having the plans. Many of the plans are available on Outerzone if anyone needs info or plans to download.

I have to say the Southerner 60 seems such an attractive model that having the ribs available for this tapered wing model makes it a strong contender for my next model. Outerzone has the plans - but it's a builders model ( = complex! ) and a great model for electric power.

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I didn't realise there was a website with contact details. A Google search produced the site here

Seems to be an amazing and very accomplished person. Look at the photos of his workshop! Check out the details of his CNC machines and also see the plans for his 48 inch Garden Cub indoor plane.

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Hi all

One of my customers saw this thread on the forum and asked if I would give some info on it ) I'm not usually a forum warrior, so apologies if this ends up a tad long

I advertise laser cut ribsets on fleabay with a store called 'iGull Laser" - my ID is 'cgulltech' - to see all the available items, just look for the storefront and you'll see all that are currently available. My website currently has nothing to do with cutting ribs, it's pretty old and is (was) just a hobby thing. It needs refurbished )

I only sell ribs and the occasional tip/braces/fin parts - I also do some FT (flitetest) parts as a help to some of the guys that do depron/foamboard modelling but don't wish to order from the US. This is only a sideline in retirement to feed my modelling habit, it's not Hobbyking and neither am I based in China (at least last time I looked, Edinburgh was in Scotland ) I also don't charge Chinese prices - but I do give 'free' UK postage )

@kc, the WOT 4 ribs are for the supplementary built-up wings for the WOT 4 Mk 1 from the plan produced by 'Yesterday's Aeromodelling Plans Service'. I checked the profile against a foam template we used in the 80' for the WOT 4 and it is very slightly different on the underside (it does say on the plan that they won't fit, but that was probably to ensure that any plan copyright wasn't breached) - it has about 1.5mm less 'camber'. I can't imagine it making much difference to the flying ability. You can get the plans on eBay I think - look for 'Yesterday's Aeromodelling Plans Service'. Regarding the cost of my ribs as not being 'cheap', I don't think you are aware of the cost and outlay involved in doing something that looks as simple as cutting a few ribs, try forking out 17k for a high quality RF laser, then something short of 1k for balsa and ply, then special boxes, shipping and finally the amount of personal time to completely redraw (accurately) all the ribs from crappy plans that have drawn parts that don't even match the plan they were made for ) Finally (and most importantly ) I need to make a small profit to feed my modelling habit. /rant )

@jeff2wings, really like the soarcerer, I haven't completed mine yet sadly - be nice to use your pics in the rib ad ??? Also liked the fact that you didn't spoil it with ailerons !

@Phil Green - thanks for the glowing report, I'll send you the money next week ) And you're right, I'm a real bloke (except at weekends, but we'll not go into that here LOL )))))

The range of ribs is constantly expanding - I do charge to redraw oddball ribs that no-one else would want, but if there are any 'common' ribs that anyone would like, I'll put them on my bottomless list Just mail me - [email protected] - I'll mail you when/if they become available.

BTW, the laser I designed/built was sold a couple of years ago - I bought a smaller commercial RF laser instead with some of the proceeds - it's red not yellow )

Neil

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Hi Neil, it's nice to have your comments and confirmation that the ribs are British made. I think you are providing a long needed service -sets of laser cut ribs without all the other parts. It would be nice to be able to buy just ribs for every plan that appears in the magazines.

The photo of your 'Wot4' ribs intrigued me - very unusual spar cut outs. I wonder what spars are to be used perhaps they are intended to be laminated from 2 different sections such as 1/8 sq and a 3/8 by 1/8?

It's not very clear where the plans come from for some of your ribs such as Tomboy Senior. Eventually I found it was a Model Flyer (ADH) plan by Boddo not a DB Sport plan as the initials suggest.

The availability of all these different sets of ribs makes me want to buy a couple of sets just to keep in stock for when the urge to make a new model suddenly strikes. Trouble is I cannot decide which to buy!

Edited By kc on 15/08/2015 18:02:32

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Hi Neil, a fellow scorcher of all things balsa and ply here smile p

I like the note about profit, I wish you would tell me how that works wink 2, agreed the time and investment in gear, software, learning and materials is huge, and I have a few years to say my machine has paid for itself, but I would never turn the clock back, I love it, the challenges of redrawing something from times gone and trying to make it work in todays era, the sense of achievement once done is priceless, oh and to see a pile of your cuttings flying around gives one a sense of pride blush

Anyway, welcome to the club

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Hi all

@Dylan, profit, I wish I could make it work better too ) Having a laser (and a CNC router makes short work of many jobs that would be fretwork/bandsaw I wouldn't even consider cutting some odd hole these days, I'd rather spend 5 mins on the computer then press a button - then add thin cyano

@kc, the spars are simply 2 off 1/2x1/8 spruce with 2 off 1/8 balsa sub spars - 1/16 vert webbing glued to the sub spars and mains.

@Stevo - thicknesser all my own work, I think the original files I have are 1999 - built in 2003 'ish and re-done in sketchup around 2009 to put on my website. Mine also has a disc sander )) I only use it to create 'proper' metric balsa when needed and only remove a hair at each pass. Didn't have much issue with adjustment, bed was shimmed to suit sanding barrel. Bells and whistles would be nice if it was something I used regularly, but it works fine for occasional use.

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Hi Neil , you are more than welcome to use the soarcerer pictures , this was on my "must build again " list it was the first r/c plane that I made and learnt to fly with so the laser cut ribs were a perfect excuse to do it ,only took me 10 days as well ! next on the list is a Kamco Kadet.....................smiley

image (8).jpg

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Neil, thanks for the Wot4 spar details- seems like good construction with something for the webs to stick to.

You will understand Stevo's comments more if you see Stevo's own thickness sander here

It seems more a case of great minds think alike!

I can see that most of the plans that use your ribs are available to download from Outerzone. They have the Kamco Kadet but where does the Kamco Kavalier plan come from these days?

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  • 2 months later...

@kc - apologies, just noticed your question, Kamco plans - and some parts/kits are available from Rich Booth at Kamco Models ...

http://www.kamcomodels.co.uk

Rich kindly agreed to endorse the parts for the Kadet and Kavalier. He actually still has some old kits of the Kloudrider available too.

Neil

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Thanks for the info on Kamco plans. A better price than many other plan services and it includes delivery!

It seems to me that both parties ( plan supplier and Neil ) might benefit by mentioning a link to the other's products on their site. Most people would want to buy both products and the availability of both items makes the project viable for more people.

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