Need a little help with Cardinal build.

[Paul Taylor]

I am scratch building a Cardinal. I got a foam wing cut and it came in just like I ordered it.
Problem is I measured from cord to wing tip and did not allow for the wing tips. My thought is I can not cut the foam wing straight enough without the proper tools.

What are my options.

Here is real dirty picture of what I have.

The red line is what is on the plans, with the red tip block. The black line is the foam wing.



Thanks
Paul

[peabody]

Paul...Foam is easy to cut with an Xacto knife or saw blade...take your time..
OR, you could just build it with an increased span....

[Bob Reeves]

What are you going to power it with.. If a 40 cut it or just leave the tips square (a world champinship was won with square wing tips). If a 46 leave it and add the tips it will be fine either way...

[Paul Taylor]

WaHooo.... It will be powered with a LA .46.

It's good to go!

Thanks guys.

Paul

[Leo Mehl]

I think I would put 1" tips (carved) on it as long as you are using a 46  you will have plenty of power. I think you will find any way you do it It will work.

[Warren Wagner]

Paul,

The Cardinal is a superb design, created by one of modelings outstanding  designer...Windy Urtnowski.  You will certainly enjoy it.

Don't be afraid of foam....it's one of the most friendly material that we work with.  If you would like to retain the original design dimensions, you can easily cut off the excess material.   Any fine toothed saw will cut it nicely.  (I just went down into the workshop and tried a couple of hacksaws.   They both cut the styrofoam very nicely...slowly, with good control. )

Carefully mark, where you want to cut, with a fine felt tip pen.  Put the foam wing back into the original bucks in order to hold it perpendicular to your work surface.  If you want, you could put a flat board on the bucks and weight it down with a couple gallons of fuel, so that would hold the wing, and leave both hands for the cutting operation.) Slowly and carefully, cut off the excess foam roughly an 1/8" away from your line.   Now, using a large sanding block ( 1" x 3" material, as long as your sheet of sandpaper) with #80 or #120 grit, you can sand the rest of the excess material off, keeping the surface square to the rest of the wing. 

 If you want to be fussy, you can glue up a 90 degree sanding block like the one in the photograph. It's of considerable help in your situation, and it's handy for doing many other jobs during construction.  In this photo, I was truing up the tip surface to make a good, close joint with the wing tip.

Hope this is of some help to you, and gives you the confidence to modify the foam blank, to match the original drawing if that is what you wish to do.

If you need more help, just holler.

Cheers,

Warren Wagner

[Bill Little]

I have a bread slicing knife (not electric) I use to cut foam cores when necessary.  I put the TE (wing core standing up) on a flat surface and mark the foam with a Sharpie and a large triangle on both sides.