Welcome to http://www.extra330s.com
- These set of pages document
Steve
Johnson's assembly
of his Carden 40% Extra 330S.
- Pics 1 thru 26
display the progress from Jan 29th to Feb 3rd.
Esssentially only 6 days
-
1) Terry Boston gave me a
great idea for building the fuse sides. Normally I
build the 3/8" fuse trusses over the plans first and
then glue the 1/8" balsa fuse sides to the 3/8"
frame truss. Terry suggested that I first glue the
1/8" fuse sides and then glue the 3/8" trusses
over the sides. First I made sure that the top edge
was straight with the top edge on the plans. The rear of
the fuse side is shown here.
-
2) Then glue the top
3/8" stringer onto the fuse side. I used thick
Zap. Then line up the end of the fuse side with the end
on the plans as shown here. I then used a triangle
to mark the fronts of the vertical stringers on the
inside of the fuse sides.
-
3) The pre-cut
3/8" vertical stringers are glued to the inside of
the fuse sides using thick Zap. Build both sides
but make sure you build a left and right side.
-
4) Then glue the
3/8" bottom string onto the fuse sides. This
doesn't need to be marked.
-
5) I then glued the
diagonal 3/8" stringers in. Be careful to note
the direction of the diagonal. This is the right
side and matches the plans. Both sides were framed up in
about 20 minutes. I found Terry's suggestion to be
much easier and faster to build the sides. Thanks
Terry.
-
6) I glued the
1/8" lite-ply stress plates using carpenters
glue. Make sure you note the top and bottom
orientation of the wing and stab stress plates.
-
7) I used a router
attachment on my Dremel tool to cut the stab and wing
tube holes in the 1/8" balsa fuse sides. The
cutting edge of the bit is about 1/4" below the edge
of the router attachment.
-
8) The 1/8"
lite-ply stress plate is used as a guide to cut the holes
in the balsa sides.
-
9) Time to frame up the
fuse. I first pinned 3/8" balsa blocks on the
inside edge of the motor box top view on the plans.
-
10) These blocks locate
and center the motor box on the plans. Just align
the motor box front to back as shown here.
-
11) I used 6"
builder's triangles to make sure that the fuse sides are
perpendicular to the work bench. I also pre-cut all
of the top and bottom 3/8" cross braces before this
step. I cut and sand the cross braces in top /
bottom pairs so that each pair is exactly the same size.
-
12) I pinned 3/8"
balsa blocks on the outside edge of the fuse sides onto
the plans as shown here. I glued in F2, F3, F4 and
F5 at this time.
-
13) This picture shows
all of the top and bottom cross braces glued in. Take
time to make sure that the fuse is straight. All of
the subsequent steps go real easy if the fuse is
straight. That's my new 40% Carden Edge fuse in the
back ground.
-
14) Here it is
again. That's an 8'x4' work bench that's starting
to look small.
-
15) Here's what is
behind that work bench. This is the 40% Carden Cap
that Randy Brown says belongs to him. This just
shows you that it is really mine. The other is my
40% Carden Giles 300.
-
16) Here's a picture of
the fuse with the top and bottom diagonal 3/8"
stringers glued in.
-
17) This is a picture of
the fuse framed up and right-side up.
-
18) Terry Boston shared
another trick with me. He suggested gluing the
1/16" straps to the top hatch and turtle deck first
before gluing the 1/16" sheeting. Normally I
glue on the sheeting first and then glue on the
strapping. This gives a nice clean edge when you
glue the turtle deck to the fuse. I used Probond
for this step.
-
19) I pinned 3/8"
balsa blocks to the work bench so that the foam turtle
deck wouldn't spread out when I placed weights on top of
the foam.
-
20) Here's a picture of
the bottom rear turtle deck weighted with driveway
bricks. I used Probond for sheeting all foam
surfaces. Notice that there is no 1/16"
strapping used on the bottom foam pieces.
-
21) Here's a picture of
the front bottom 1/4-panels being glued. Those are
1'x1' stones that used for weights. I have a piece
of wax paper in between the two 1/4-panels so they don't
glue together.
-
22) I used masking tape
to hold down the foam pieces onto the fuse frame. The
1/4-panels and the rear bottom turtle deck are glued on
using Probond again. The foam pieces fit perfectly
with no pre-sanding required to make them fit.
-
23) Here's a picture of
the rear of the bottom turtle deck.
-
24) Here's a picture of
the front of the fuse with the top front hatch placed on
top of the fuse.
-
25) I glued the rear top
turtle deck on with thick Zap.
-
26) Here's another
picture showing the rear of the fuse.
-
27) I like to put a lite ply rib at the
end of the stab tube. Otherwise, the stabs &
elevators are built as per plan.
-
28) I glue the tube and lite ply rib
into the foam using ProBond glue.
-
29) Here are the stabs / elevators
weighted with 1'x1' patio stones. I let the glue
cure over night
-
30) Before I glue the phenolic wing tube
into the wing cores, I drill 3 holes along the wire line
using a 5/16" brass tube. The first hole is
about 1.5" from the root and one hole is in the
middle and the outer hole is about 1.5" from the
lite ply rib.
-
31) Here's picture showing how I use
the 5/16" holes as funnels for pouring the glue into
the wing as I rotate the phenolic tube into place.
I keep
filling up each of the holes as I rotate the tube into
place.
-
32) Immediately after gluing the
phenolic tube into place, I glue the wing tube lite ply
rib into place. I let this whole set-up dry over
night before doing the wing skins.
-
33) Next I cut the servo wire
tunnel. First I use a 1/2" copper pipe to cut
a hole from the center of the root through to the bottom
of the wing.
-
34) I use a soldering iron with a copper
wire shaped like shown in the picture.
-
35) I use a straight edge ruler as a
guide for the soldering iron. This picture shows
the servo wire tunnel already cut out (although this
really isn't a 'tunnel')
-
36) Once I tape the sheeting together, I
open up the edges and pour ProBond glue along the edges
as shown here. I other words, I don't glue the
sheeting together. The edge trued sheeting makes
this job fast and easy.
-
37) I pour the ProBond glue as shown
here on the sheeting. This amount of glue will
cover about 1/2 the sheet. I don't skimp on the
amount of glue but I try not to over do it either.
-
38) A I use my kid's hockey cards to
spread the glue as shown here.
-
39) I weight one panel at a time with
several 1'x1' patio stones as shown here.
-
40) Next I cut out the leading and
trailing edges using my scroll saw. I like the
ProBond wood glue for gluing the leading and trailing
edges onto the foam cores. The masking tape holds
the leading and trailing edges onto the flying surfaces
until the glue is dry.
-
41) Here's a picture of the wings with
the leading and trailing edges glued on
-
42) I use a Master Airscrew plane to
rough plane the leading and trailing edges. In order to
make sure I end up with a truly straight leading edge, I
first scribe a center line from the root to the tip using
a fine point marker. The final sanding of the leading and
trailing edges is done with 12" and 24" sanding
blocks.
-
43) Here's a picture showing the root
cap glued and taped onto the foam core. The 1/4" ply
wing bolt blocks are glued into the 1/4" balsa root
rib first.
-
44) Here's a picture of the canopy
hatch completed.
-
45) Front view of the completed canopy
hatch and engine box.
-
46) Another view with the dash.
These
methods and techniques are niether supported nor promoted by
Carden Aircraft,
this webmaster, nor the contributors to this site. They are
merely the methods used by the contributors and are solely here
to display the contributors methods in how they are building
their model aircraft.
A sub web of http://www.rcflier.com
A sub web of http://www.edge540.com
This web site is hosted by
Bob
Hudson