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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: Wynn Robins on August 24, 2009, 08:49:54 PM
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I'mlooking at electric designs and want to use a round nose section to allow cooling etc - what is your favourite method of building round fuselages?
Also any tricks on molding compound curves in one piece of wood - I have built them before using bucks of the actual fuse shape - but still had "wrinkles" in the sheet when trying to do compound curves
thoughts/advice appreciated
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I think Robins View Productions has a video on molding. I think Windy has a video also. DOC Holliday
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Yep, make a buck and mold it from balsa. You can actually do some pretty complex shapes when you get some practice at it You can also make a foam buck and glass it then melt out the buck. There are certainly several methods.
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As an alternative to molding there is the old school method of planking. Make a top and bottom keel, add round bulkheads, hold in a jig of some kind and lay 1/4 wide or so strips of (usually) 3/32 or 1/8 balsa from front to rear. Bevel slightly so as to get a good fit on the sides. Sand to your hearts content. Usually comes out heavier than molding and watch the alignment but can be made to work. 8)
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For what it's worth: look at the threads by Al Rabe on the stuks forum.
1. he makes sheets by glueing them with thick CA before wetting.
2. he emphazises that you have to compress the balsa all the time! When wrinkles occur , wet again!.
3. My obvious hint: make only one half-buck and use it twice for two shells, arranged mirror wise over the fuselage.
I made a circularly round fuselage whereby the main buckles occurred in the region of the wing cavity, so a lot of excess balsa could be cut away there.
4. Look up the construction story of the YAK by Derge Delabarde. I think it is on a Brazilian Forum.
5. By using Walter Musciano's method of vertical keel building, you make life a lot easier.