Xigris

[Eatin Crow]

Next I boxed in my aileron servo bays.
I did it a little differently than I've seen on other threads.
I assembled and glued mine in the bay itself.  
The piece of styrofoam is used to shorten the bay a little since
it was a little too long for the JR 9411SA's I'm going to use.
I braced the two hardwood pieces that will take the servo screws so that
when the polyurethane glue grows it won't disturb them.
I made sure I had the servo at the height I wanted and that I remembered to
put the cutout in the side of the balsa "wall" to allow the servo leads to pass thru.
The tape is to try to keep the expanding glue from rising above the wing sheeting.

[FlyAll10s]

John, are you on vacation, or are you toiling over some aspect of the build?  I need my pattern fix..... reeeeeeeal bad.  

[Eatin Crow]

lol
Joe, as a matter of fact I was just out working on it.
I'm afraid this past week I've been messing with other stuff, besides the Xigris,
and what work I have done on the plane has been random, go back and tidy up
kind of stuff.
I did get back on the leading edges, which I've been putting off...it's been so many years since
I've had to sand any like this.
I do best if I do a little then leave them...come back do a little more, etc.
I stumbled on something that really helped this morning.
I left the garage lights off but I had very bright sunlight coming in the east window helped
by the reflection off all the fresh snow.
This made it possible to create a "terminator line" along the leading edge when I held it up to check
the contour and straightness.  Of course I also have about three different sets of glasses to change out
to get the right "range" when sighting down along the wing but so far I think it's turned out well.
One down...one to go!
Then the wing tips.
I'm thinking about drawing a lot of grid lines along the tip block so I can try to keep the tops and bottoms
symmetrical.
Here's a couple pix.
I flipped the wing over one pix from the other.

[Eatin Crow]

I now have my stabs installed.  The tube is drilled and tapped with the bolts holding them on.
I used 4-40 flatheads.  I slipped a short piece of wooden dowel inside the tube and CA'd it before I
drilled.  I hope this adds some stability to things.  I used the steel "V" block shown to try to get things
squared and centered.  The Allen wrench shown is from my heli stuff.  These are precision ground and rock hard.
Makes moving the adjusters very easy.
Next up will be the balsa caps for the aileron and elevator hinge lines.

[Eatin Crow]

Here's the new measuring device someone was asking about several posts back.
It's the one from AeroPerfect. 
It's very accurate and very easy to use.  The only problems are it isn't cheap and there's
not much other use for it besides setting up a model airplane!
 
You can call up different screens. 
I just set my nose at -.5, the wings at +.5 (shown on the screen) and my stabs at -0-.
It will read to the 1/100th of a degree.
After sanding my leading edges I ran the incidence meter along both wings measuring at several stations.
It showed that I got them very, very close.
It helps to have gotten a darn good set from ZN...they must be dead true!
 
JLK

[Eatin Crow]

I have started to glue the balsa strips that will become the hinge line to the wing.
The slots were pre-milled by ZN.  I lengthened them slightly.  The balsa stock that comes
with the kit for this is more than enough.  I tried to pair up the strips so that total weight
for each wing would be close to the same. 
Since I used polyurethane glue I wanted to do the wing side first and then tomorrow do the aileron
side.  I was afraid things would become a hand full and I'd get glue everywhere. 
I used scrap balsa for spacers to hold the hinge line tight.  On one wing I had to make shims
from printer paper to get them tight.  The other wing didn't need the shims.
 

[Eatin Crow]

I've developed quite the collection of sanding blocks and bars.
Someday I'm gonna splurge on one of the Permagrit ones but until then,
for the bars anyway, I use adhesive backed paper from places like McMaster Carr, etc.
The stuff really sticks well...in fact, when it comes time to remove it to replace the paper
it can stick too well.
 
Tonight I got some polyurethane glue on my finger while I was trying to get the wing done.
I couldn't take the time to get a paper towel so I wiped it off on the vertical edge of my workbench.
That should be a safe spot right?
Well, when I wanted to true up one of the balsa strips I had cut off I used the very same bench edge as
a sanding guide and got glue on the sand paper.
When I was done for the evening I started to try to peal the paper off.  As usual it started to stick and tear.
In the past this led to scraping, cussing, smearing the remaining stuff around with solvent...just not fun.
There had to be a better way.
Everyone is going to probably say "Jeeze John, that's how everyone does it"! but here's what I did.
I took my MonoKote gun and heated the sand paper side of the bar as I pulled it off.
Worked really slick!
No mess!
 

[tggilkey]

Hey John --
The build is looking good!

The only advice I have is to use your shirt as they were intended to be used: the tails for wiping fingers and hands, the sleeves for the nose when when the hands are full of glue or grease...

Tom

[astropuppy]

Jeeze John, your a quick study. It only took me 5 years to figure out the heat gun method. That's an improvement though, It took me 20 years to figure out talc dissolves a lot easy in straight thinner than it does in thinned dope.

[Eatin Crow]

AP...
Wow!
That brought back memories.
When I flew F3C back in the mid '80s I flew Schluters.  They came with the hardwood and ply
pieces to build the servo trays and radio platform that was installed under the canopy.  You had
to build this and then fuel proof it some kind of way.  On mine I tried to make it look as professional as
I could and would add talcum powder to clear dope.  Apply it to the wood then sand and repeat until I was
satisfied.  I'd then spray it with Formula U.  Looked like a piece of plastic.
Xigris...
Got the hinge line balsa applied to both sides of the wing/aileron.  My favorite part is making all those
shavings with the razor plane.
But watch out!
If you use polyurethane glue the razor blade will cut it but then the piece can be trapped in the razor plane and leave
gouges in the balsa.
Guess you can tell how I know.
One thing that helps prevent this is to run a razor blade along the expanded glue line and trim it off before you start to
plane and sand.  I hope the picture below shows what I mean.
And finally, the finish sanded hinge line.
Looks good!

[Eatin Crow]

I'm getting ready to cut the ailerons free of the wing.
When I do, all I'll have left is to cap the ends where the cuts
will be made but first I wanted to inlet for the balsa block I'm
going to mount my carbon control horns to.  Once again I used
my Dremel's milling attachment. 
As you can see I'm using some 2-56 Rocket City hardware I've
had forever.  My stock is running low.  I wish they weren't so hard
to find now.

[Eatin Crow]

So what the heck am I doin' now?!?!?
 
I'm sorry I haven't posted any updates these past couple days.
I've been distracted with one of my other hobbies.
I've gotten all inspired to get involved in it again and have been busy
digging stuff out or trying to find things I haven't used in the past several years!
I'll be busy with it over the next two weeks but still plan to keep plugging away on the
plane.
Don't worry...
I'll be back...
I'm not going anywhere!
 
JLK

[astropuppy]

spill it, what's the other hobby?

[Eatin Crow]

Wow!
It's been a month since my last post!
I have been heavily involved in the other hobby.  I didn't realize how much I missed it.
In fact, I am seriously considering taking a break from pattern this season so I can
concentrate on the other.  If you really want to know what it is PM me.  I won't hijack
Chris' website talking about other stuff.
I have been working on getting my Sickle back together.  I sent the controller in for a checkup and
I am rewiring the connectors on my batteries so I can connect and disconnect them without taking my
canopy off.  Also, had my regulators checked out and will be moving the radio switch to the outside
of the fuse.  Again, so I don't have to take my canopy on and off to get to the radio switch.
I plan on starting back on the Xigris but if I sit out this year the urgency will certainly be gone.
Later!
JLK

[Exfokkerflyer]

My Xigris is getting closer. Finished covering today, not my best work but it will do. The flared rudder was a lot harder to cover than I thought it would be, but I ended up doing okay with it. Okay, not great.

Aileron servos are in with linkage and are complete aside from setting throws etc. With Futaba BLS-153 servos all up weight of the wing panels is 12.6 ounces each. Pretty light, though the C2 wings are smaller than the norm.

T-can has not been painted, hope to get to that tomorrow, may go all silver for simplicity. Wheel pants have been sanded initially but still require work. I wasn't real happy with the quality of them so I'm still undecided how much work I will put into making them pretty.

Below is the pic of the completed finishing job. It's a 5-10 foot finish... but I haven't built anything like this before.

Tom M