dirk tinck Posted November 14, 2022 Author Share Posted November 14, 2022 Hi guy's , Right , the motor ! Finally i can present the EDF to the thrust tube (3D printed by Andy Meade )wich were both waiting on the shelf for too long ! The tube determines the position of the fan by the lenght . I was told that the split in the tube needs to be at , at least 128mm ( diameter of the fan ), behind the fan. This given , together with as smooth as possible lines determined the ''pants'' shape of the tube and the position of the fan, preferably as close as possible to the CG. It was a lot of mesuring and fitting with two goals : 1 : As light as possible 2 : I want to be able to take everything out in case of repairs or problems with the shape or position of the fan-formers. Yes even the tube !! These are the templates i made before the fuse halfs were joined: Transfered to poplar ply and doubled the edges to glue in the fuse , not the former itself ! (first try ) After a few days i'm this far : The tray's itself (carriers) slide in from the front and will not be glued but secured with screws. Nothing is glued for now as i'm not sure yet wich glue to use between formers and fuse . I'm thinking something flexible ... The formers will get a lightening session to take as much weight off for obvious reasons... I guess i 'll be needing the dremel next day's😷!! 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 (edited) Hi Dirk, I guess you must be chuffed that you can finally mount your beloved EDF into the fuse... even be it temporary... After all those months of intense composite jobs, this must be heavily rewarding. Happy Dremeling now... Cheers Chris PS : ... my composite 'sock' for the wing joiner went absolutely fine... thanks for your assistance and advices. You're mostly welcome to stop by in Zaventem when/if you're in the neighbourhood... Edited November 15, 2022 by McG 6969 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 Great work Dirk, coming along very nicely, superb craftsmanship throughout - very impressed that you made your own bespoke offest hinges for the gear doors. fantastic!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan p Posted November 15, 2022 Share Posted November 15, 2022 That looks one big beast of a fan😲 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Fenton Posted November 19, 2022 Share Posted November 19, 2022 On 15/11/2022 at 00:13, McG 6969 said: Hi Dirk, I guess you must be chuffed that you can finally mount your beloved EDF into the fuse... even be it temporary... After all those months of intense composite jobs, this must be heavily rewarding. Happy Dremeling now... Cheers Chris PS : ... my composite 'sock' for the wing joiner went absolutely fine... thanks for your assistance and advices. You're mostly welcome to stop by in Zaventem when/if you're in the neighbourhood... Chris, you probably know this but I have found out the hard way. I was advised that the resin will shrink a little and to leave the carbon plug in the sleeve for a while. I left the two parts together for a couple of days, thinking that was enough, now two weeks later I slide the tube in the sleeve and its a very tight fit. I think when I do the wing sections of the sock I will wrap 3 or four layers of the cling film..... Anyway it is still a great process, so thank you Dirk 🙂 The Fouga is looking amazing BTW, and you are doing a brilliant job on it, the dedication is well beyond me. Cheers Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted November 19, 2022 Author Share Posted November 19, 2022 Hello again , @ Chris , glad i could help Chris , i'll drop by one of these day's ! @Phil , thanks for the comment Phil , @ Alan , It's the biggest i had so far !! The fan-formers are ready to glue in the fuse now , i lost 50gr of ballast by lightening them ! I did a glue-test on a piece of wood-epoxy with TEC 7 ( construction glue ) wich stay's flexible after curing. The result was satisfying so i think i'll go with that. When it turns out its not suitable , it's much easyer to remove than epoxy glue !! Let's hope i don't have to ! Tomorrow the formers will be glued in the fuse so i can start the next stage ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted November 19, 2022 Author Share Posted November 19, 2022 Thanks Danny , Glad it turned out ok ! I'm making another tube next week ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted December 17, 2022 Author Share Posted December 17, 2022 Hello all ! better late then never right ? Making the wing tube and fitting it was easy ! I mounted everything to do some ''bench flying'' ...or garden flying as this is getting to big for my bench ! I chose the landing gear doors as the next challenge and what a challenge it was ! It took me ages to get it right without any servo ! There's three doors per wing : one at the landing gear strut hinge is operated with a rod attached to the strut one attached direct to the strut one hinged to the wing at the root side operated with a complicated alu hinge wich is operated by the wheel... The doors themselves are yet to be made and fitted , just think of them as already in place🧐 20221217_225220.mp4 Some of the parts need to be enlighted but the system works ! 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 Hi Dirk, ... still showing some amazing dedication to your project... ... some great 'garden flying', that's for sure... ... where do you keep getting that unbelievable amount of energy... ???... Greetz Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted December 17, 2022 Author Share Posted December 17, 2022 Hi Chris ! I keep thinking ,one day i'll be making big holes in the sky with this !!✈️ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted December 17, 2022 Share Posted December 17, 2022 ... I'm pretty convinced you will, Dirk. ... and really wish I could share that moment at some time. Groeten Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Stainforth Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 Dirk. What an incredible labour of love! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul De Tourtoulon Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 Coming on a treat,,,, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 Gosh - this is awesome. You have far more patience, dedication, and skills than I! Do you have a target date for completion? Or will it take as long as it takes..........? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Cooke Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 That really is a work of art Dirk, really impressive. Adding the door panels will be the easy bit, your alignment, actuation and pivot work already completed is where the real work lies! Impressive if you've achieved that with hand drawings alone - ie - no CAD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Kece 1 Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 Awesome... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted January 12, 2023 Author Share Posted January 12, 2023 Hello all !! First , let me wish all of you , and your family's a happy new year ! Finally found some time to post again ! Before i made the gear doors , i finished the linkages for ailerons and flaps. The split-flaps are operated with a single servo in the wheel bay for easy acces. That means i needed a rigid system to alter the movement 90 deg. in the double flap-servo bay. For the flaps i used M3 ball links For the aileron-linkage i opted for normal M2 ball links The servo is removable with its ground plate and alu T-scrap supports. Proper screws yet to be added. On with the gear doors ! The doors will be made in the wing moulds for a perfect fit. I cleaned the door area of the moulds , waxed it and gave it a coat of pva as a release agent. No paint , no airex , just 400gr. of cloth will follow ....tomorrow. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted January 15, 2023 Author Share Posted January 15, 2023 Hi all ! I made the grear doors as planned and after curing i lifted them off the moulds , no problem. It could be the new parts are'nt fully cured but they feel to weak for the job. I'm now sorry i didn't add airex between the layers cloth. If they don't get harder , i'll make another set with airex , but that means i have to use vacuum and 2 wing moulds don't fit in my bags ! That means another 2 days ! While i left the parts to cure , i used the time to finish the nose gear door control. Another item i can remove from the long "to do list" 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted January 20, 2023 Author Share Posted January 20, 2023 Hello all , Wth the gear door lay-up fully cured , i disc-grinded the doors out of the frame but left the main gear door in one piece .(it has to be cut in 3 pieces later) With the gear strut in retracted position , i presented the door to the door-opening. Satsified with the fit i marked the position of the mounting holes and filed these area's with a blob of thickened epoxy. Imediatly presented the door to the opening again and left it to cure. To prevent the epoxy sticking to the mounting supports , i protected them with a piece of plastic , easy to remove. After curing i lifted the door and drilled the mounting holes in the door. Now it was time to cut the door in 3 parts like the original.This was done with a very small disc grinder (proxxon)to prevent losing to much material. After some fitting i was happy with the result ! I made a video but it was too large to upload , sorry , i'll shoot another tomorrow. Sorry for the wrong screws in the fotos , these will be replaced with sunken ones later... It might take a while to finish the other wing as there's a lot of fitting !! Thanks for watching ! 6 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan p Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Immaculate work Dirk👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted February 5, 2023 Author Share Posted February 5, 2023 Hello all ! The gear doors on the second wing are fitted and working ! I also fitted the servo hatches and made some supports to accept the screws that hold them in place. Next item on the list is fitting the tip tanks . I made one long time ago as a test for their weigt and came out on 77 gr without the nose. Come to think of it , i still have to make them ! I used the mould of the glider version as they are exactly the same When i designed the wings , i added a tube to hold the tip tanks . All ! need now is a 10mm wooden dowel ,glue it in the tank at the right place and reinforce the joint After curing : the fit ! In case of touching the ground on landings ,they could damage the wing so i'm going to make a weak point in the dowels where they exit the tank , like a sawcut or so... Let's hope i'll never need it but that's the break point to save the wings ! Next thing is to make the windows in the nose cones and get the nav-lights in. Stay tuned !! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted February 11, 2023 Author Share Posted February 11, 2023 Hi all ! The nose cones are out of their moulds and the openings for the windows are grinded with only pic's as reference... The plan was , right after this , to make the windows... Man i didn't know you could lose so much time on a small part like these !! Here's what i tried : I placed the nose cone back in the mould , covered it with a layer of PET-G ( Heated) folowed by a wooden cover with a hole in the middle to allow compressed air above the PET-G . This would force the PET-G in the opening of the window to forme a perfect "glass" window... It failed...big time... like ten times!! Wasted enough time and PET-G with this "reversed vacuum forming" i went the other way : vac uum !! Too hot , too cold , too thick , not enough pressure , too much ..... First thing now is to make a plug of the window... Pic's later ... x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 'Good' to see that even the best can fail! You'll crack it Dirk! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McG 6969 Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 Probably vacuum molding is the proper way to go with this. ... pretty sure you'll nail it in the end, Dirk. "Geduld & moed" they say, isn't ? Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted February 11, 2023 Author Share Posted February 11, 2023 Oohh , i will Ron ! It is just a lot of time and material wasted !! So , we need a plug that has the inside form of the nose cone but we need it on the outside !! I filled up a nose cone (protected with very thin plastic) with car body filler , after curing , sanded it down 1mm , and took away 1mm of the window edges. This will allow space for the 1mm PET_G of the window. I'm going to do a test drive without paint to see where this is going... Got a 0.8mm PET-G ready in the vacuum frame the oven at 130 deg. and the vacuum leaner ready to suck ! x As soon as the PET-G "hangs" , some 3-5 cm. it's ready to be used ! 20230211_163129_2.mp4 I hope this worked ... x x x x x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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