added photos

added photos

Jose,

Nice work! Kudos!

Way ahead of the pack.

Charles

Electric sure is changing the style/looks of planes.   I like it.

Round Fuse,

began couple years ago when Jose handed me the Al Rabe article on round fuses, We talked over a year and decided to come up with a new fuse based on those criteria, Then Jose gave me an image of a fantasized H-1 racer,
we talked around that design for a while, since the number of Tweener was there, the first sketch was done around a year ago, then incorporated the number in the new design,

This was the fun part, Jose and I spent hours and hours last Fall in this fuse design, construction and get it ready for being built. Draw, print, cut and check, next rounds again and again, till we got to where we are.

There is no flat area on the fuse from nose to tail, it's quite large, interestingly less area around the fuse compare to the Tweener fuse, so fuse is wider, but less wood is required. Air flows nicer inside around battery and ESC.

The first ones are 60 size, but we formed a 35 size for next generation, (B. Lampione wants one of this size).
The differences between Jose's and mine are roughly

         Spinner        tail area (fuse)           bottom curve        Rudder
Jose    2.5           more room 4 horn           moderate          moderate
mine     2                    less                       extreme             taller

Images:
The fantasized H-1 racer

Fuse side Compare
top: Tweener
Middle: Jose
Bottom: Mine

Fuse top Compare
top: Tweener
Middle: Jose
Bottom: Mine

Very slick, Jose. I have always been fascinated by the amount of work that goes into something like this. I would have to be willing to build several in order to put in the sort of work you need to build so many molds.

Looks very good.

Good Afternon Jose;

  Curious, did you use vacuum to form the molded balsa shells around your male 'plug'?  One of the photos shows the plug covered in what appears to be plastic wrap, but there is no sign of an evacuation line leading to a vacuum pump...

  Can't imagine how quickly you had to work to lay up carbon veil, then trim the balsa skins to fit the compound curves at the nose and lay those up before the resin kicked off.  How did you keep those balsa strips in place prior to pulling vacuum (assuming you did)?

  Do you foresee ever being able to get rid of the formers aft of the wing, and allowing the fuselage skins themselves to carry the structural loads?

r/
Dave

Not much different than doing molded top and bottom blocks that you are reinforcing with fiberglass or carbon. I used saran wrap and ace bandages.

I like this thread.
Amazing work Jose.
And my brother works with fiberglass... Really interesting way to make fuselages, I mean, a whole model.

Marcus

Jose and Sina,

This stuff is awesome!  Thanks for showing it.  I remember reading the Al Rabe article and always wanted to try it.  

When you built your male mold did you make it one complete fuse then split it or did you build it in two halves?  If you did split it how did you go about it?

Thanks

additional photos
The last 2 photos show the full SV-22 full fuse and the female molds cast from fuse. if you look closely you can see the center line used for right and left parting point.

Jose,

Thanks for posting the info!  That is very helpful.