ronin4740 wrote:Yes, it was I who ordered the glow plug caddy yesterday. Hoping to mount it to the flight box that my Uncle is building for me. He's the woodworker, not me - I just mash sticks and bury airplanes into the ground these days
Chris
Chris,
Thanks for the order. I will soon have a caddy that holds 6 standard plugs.
If you need more caddies when you order Estrellita parts let me know and you may get a bonus or two.
Last edited by DonStegall on Thu Apr 12, 2018 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Here is the turtle deck plug. It just needs a final sanding on the primer and then paint. I will be painting in batches next week. Should have the hatch plug (for vacuum molding) primed by Saturday. The cowl plug is now getting touch ups before priming on Saturday. The mold is in progress for the fiberglass version of the hatch. May have fiberglass hatches sometime next week.
This is a product that has been in development for quite a while. I finally have someone to produce them and we found laminated wood that won't split and crack as long as it is kept inside or in the garage. Once product development and testing is complete, they will be available direct and through Amazon.
The Tripod Test Stand will be coming in 3 lengths. The 16" Shorty, the 24" Medium, and the 32" Long. Testing still has to be done on the Shorty. It will probably be limited to 30-35cc gas engines and most any glow engine when using the shorter 20" legs. It will be available with 36-37" legs that get the engine waist high.
The video at https://youtu.be/QFx8WAQGou4 is long, but it shows you just what will be coming in the test stand kits. They will also be available in beam only and completely finished with epoxy paint.
Chris Mulcahy has one. I don't know if hwe uses it or not.
The big one is more suited to the bigger gas engines, but the Shorty with 20" legs will get your engine out of the dirt while you are test running it. And it will be pretty compact fitting in a 24" x 10" x 10" box.
Here is the plug for the vacuum molded hatch. It has some minor imperfections that will be taken care of by tomorrow.
I will be making a mold from this plug so I can make multiple plastic hatch and canopy molds.
Does it make you guys waiting on parts feel better to see photos of progress?
If anything needs to be adjusted on the molds after the first set is made, I will continue until you have good parts for the Estrellita EF1 and Shark EF1.
The Proud Bird EF1 plastic part replacements will be coming very soon as well. Starting those molds next week while doing these molds.
On Friday morning I filled most of the dings in the left half of the cheek cowl plug. I use a mixture with a very high concentration of quartz micro-balloons with just enough cab-o-sil that it stays where put. This makes it easy to grind and sand.
I had a few dings in the canopy/hatch mold, so I filled those. After hitting them with a pointed grinding bit to expose some epoxy through the primer.
Friday night I was filling the dings on the right side of the cowl plug and I decided I had enough filler left to "pot" the canopy/hatch plug to a sheet of waxed glass. So I put glue liberally on the bottom edges. Then I laid it on the glass and removed the excess.
This will have a bunch of benefits. When I'm vacuum forming the canopy/hatch, the surface on the bottom will somewhat sealed with the pull--down surface with the suction holes in it. My molds may look raggedy during part of their life, but if they get used, they get cleaned up. In this case I will be making a mold to make more plugs from. Making the plugs ready to use right out of the mold will be easier
Don't be spooked by this photo of the cowl plug with all of the patches on it. The canopy/hatch plug was much worse and I had it shaped within a couple of hours. I expect it to take me 1-2 hours to have the cowl plug ready for primer. And the parting plate is already cut out.
When I first started this project, I had not done a lot of glass work lately. I got my surface coat too thick with too much cab-o-sil. It caused a number of voids. If you can't patch and repair plugs and molds, fiberglass work may not be for you. I've been doing it for ~47 years and if I don't stay in practice the skills fade.
The hard part of this was getting the halves together. A whole lot of time with a Dremel sanding drum and a 1" belt sander.
The best measurement I could get from my kit, or from anyone else was 2.7" wide near the back of the cowl not counting the cowl.
I have this at 2.75" which should give .020" to .030" for the thickness of the fiberglass part itself.
This will be sanded and primed by Sunday unless I get sick.
The spinner ring is almost perfectly round at 1.75"
Thanks to Greg Doe, I now have wheelpants molds for the Outrageous.
These are close enough to the Estrellita and Shark to use them on those planes. Until I get the ones made from the plastics parts which is the part I'm behind on.
I've used the engine stand a couple of times, it works great. It's big enough that you can attach everything you need to run an engine, as well as radio gear if you want to operate it remotely. It's a good solid stand.
CSpaced wrote:I've used the engine stand a couple of times, it works great. It's big enough that you can attach everything you need to run an engine, as well as radio gear if you want to operate it remotely. It's a good solid stand.
Thanks Chris.
We will be launching the Standard line of Tripod Test Stands on May 14. The Deluxe versions made from Versa-Lam will be launched in early June. They cost a bit more and unless one is very particular, the Standard mounts will be just fine.
They will be available in the Shorty 16" long size, the 24" Medium size, and the 32" Long. The Heavy Duty is for engines over 120cc or so and have 1" pipe legs instead of the 3/4". The Shorty and Medium will be available with 24" or 38" legs. The Long and Heavy Duty have 38" legs, but we may change to to 40" legs.
Last week was not a good week for painting. Very high winds all week. Saturday was nice, but I went to OJA - Old Julian Airport for some un and socializing. And also to talk to Mike and Trey abut having one or more Warbird races there this fall.
I got primer on the cowl plug today. There are some minor imperfections that need to be filled and primed before it gets paint.
We are supposed to have rain all this week, but hopefully I can get a break and get some more priming, painting, and PartAll PVA spraying done over the next week
This is the wing fillet plug. I have the rear almost fixed it. After priming it is easier to see what work I need to do. The right filler needs the most work, but even that will be minor.
The plug for the vacuum molded plastic hatch looks good. I was having to spray the last coat is less than great light and I sprayed it very dry too make sure I did not get any runs. It should sand out ok. But if it doesn't, I will put a few more wetter coats on it.
The turtle deck looks real good in terms of lack of surface imperfections.
I was having to spray the last coat is less than great light and I sprayed it very dry too make sure I did not get any runs. It should sand out ok. But if it doesn't, I will put a few more wetter coats on it.
The cowl has some imperfections than need to be taken care of before making molds. The wing fillet plug also is getting some work today. Hopefully the weather will allow for final coats of primer. The turtle deck and plastic hatch plugs are getting sanded, compounded, and polished later on.
Priming showed a number of places that needed to be filled.
I see a little line I missed on the bottom. Will use some 5 minute epoxy will white micro-balloons and some cab-o-sil for a filler than can be sanded within a few hours.
These spots will sand out in less than half an hour.
There is a somewhat new resource on RCPRO that you can get to using http://EF1PylonRacing.com. That section will be getting a lot of updates, including listing kits and parts from many sources.
