Dampen a towel and throw it in the drier on high heat. While its hot and still damp lay it over your sheeting for a few minutes so the heat and humidity preform the sheeting to the curve. The extra moisture will also help the CA kick in the next step. When gluing, larkshead rubberbands on dowels. As you glue up, put a dowel behind the spar and loop the free end of the rubberband over the sheeting and onto the opposite end of the dowel for a form to fit spring clamp. It won't dent the balsa and should a little glue get on it, it breaks free easily.
After close cuts like you are making on the front sheeting edge, I use a razor plan to get almost a final cut. Almost no sanding needed. Really enjoying your build series.
GRAZIE sei sempre cortese alle nostra domande , ma il miglior risultato si ottiene sempre seguendo le indicazioni di un maestro , e tu in questo caso, lo sei a pieno merito , in attesa del prossimo video saluti Marco
Greg, that's a good comment and I agree. I've built dozens of RC planes and always wet one side of curved sheeting to get it to bend and keep it's shape with no worries about the sheet cracking.
Im a little late ,...I have used the spray bottle "wet" method ,works well , I use a heat gun and or a covering iron on steeper curves , warm it up with the iron ,tape it in place, till cools and it will hold most of its shape it even works without water, painters tape wont rip up any wood when removing it love the content , good luck, mike
You can remove most dents in balsa using a covering iron and a bit of water. Try the iron over dent first, if it does not come up, pipette a spot of water on the dent and try an iron over it again. The expanding water or steam will usually push the dent out. Can be done after covering is on, too.
Use Windex instead of water...balsa becomes like rubber and you can really do some serious bending without cracking. When it dries just as firm as before
Just a suggestion. May have been easier to wet the top so it bent around the formers without all the tension it appeared to have. That said I am enjoying the series. Thanks for sharing
Hi! For the leading edge I was using thin CA, that was the larger white bottle. For the center sheeting, I was using a thick CA which dries slower. The thin CA cures too fast , so the parts need to be put against each other and the apply the thin CA. With the thick CA or gap filling CA you can put the glue on the part before putting them together, but you still need to work fast and make sure the parts fit right, then glue.
Hi James. I've just finished your Barnstormer series and am enjoying the Smoothie build... mostly! The build itself is fine and your chat too but, oh my god, that bloody music! It's doing my nut in. I mean the plinky-plonky piano music which is even worse when the "whistling" kicks in. Please, please, please, please get rid of it. I've just endured about 20 hours of it whilst watching the Barnstormer series and if I have to suffer more, I'm going to have to unsubscribe. It is truly awful. Your videos are fine without music but if you have to play some, please pick something else! Thanks.
Hi Phil, thanks for the comment and suggestions. Yes its hard for me to figure out what is best way to present. I need the feedback and will cut the music down a bit and see how it goes. Thanks again for the input.
Dampen a towel and throw it in the drier on high heat. While its hot and still damp lay it over your sheeting for a few minutes so the heat and humidity preform the sheeting to the curve. The extra moisture will also help the CA kick in the next step. When gluing, larkshead rubberbands on dowels. As you glue up, put a dowel behind the spar and loop the free end of the rubberband over the sheeting and onto the opposite end of the dowel for a form to fit spring clamp. It won't dent the balsa and should a little glue get on it, it breaks free easily.
Those are really good tips. Its always a challenge to get sheeting even and down correctly. Thanks
After close cuts like you are making on the front sheeting edge, I use a razor plan to get almost a final cut. Almost no sanding needed. Really enjoying your build series.
Thanks! I appreciate your comments and tips.
GRAZIE sei sempre cortese alle nostra domande , ma il miglior risultato si ottiene sempre seguendo le indicazioni di un maestro , e tu in questo caso, lo sei a pieno merito , in attesa del prossimo video saluti Marco
Thanks! I appreciate it. I enjoy the feedback and I also learn a lot from others in the hobby. i Hope your building and flying is going great!
Greg, that's a good comment and I agree. I've built dozens of RC planes and always wet one side of curved sheeting to get it to bend and keep it's shape with no worries about the sheet cracking.
Thats a great tip. I did get a small crack in one of the sheets that I had to sand out. I will do this on my next build
Im a little late ,...I have used the spray bottle "wet" method ,works well , I use a heat gun and or a covering iron on steeper curves , warm it up with the iron ,tape it in place, till cools and it will hold most of its shape it even works without water,
painters tape wont rip up any wood when removing it
love the content , good luck,
mike
Thanks for the suggestions.
You can remove most dents in balsa using a covering iron and a bit of water. Try the iron over dent first, if it does not come up, pipette a spot of water on the dent and try an iron over it again. The expanding water or steam will usually push the dent out. Can be done after covering is on, too.
Great tip, I will try that in the future. Thanks for pointing that out.
Use Windex instead of water...balsa becomes like rubber and you can really do some serious bending without cracking. When it dries just as firm as before
Thanks for the tip. I have never used windex before and will try it out next time.
Just a suggestion. May have been easier to wet the top so it bent around the formers without all the tension it appeared to have. That said I am enjoying the series. Thanks for sharing
Thanks, that is a good idea. Didn’t think of it.
if you wet the balsa alittle it folds (bends) much easier
Ya, I need to start doing that in the future. Thanks for the suggestion.
Do you do all of your sanding in the evening? I was just wondering why you would need a "dusk" mask instead of a "dust" mask.
Haha. Typo
Always easier to wet the outside face of the balsa before bending over. I wet with windex.
I have to do that, I always struggle with bending it dry and need to adopt that method.
What thiknes balsa for sheeting 3/32* ? I'm building a Messerschmitt B-109
Hi, sorry I can’t say for sure, depends on size a plane probably. 3/32 is a common size, smaller planes maybe 1/16? Real big planes may be 1/8?
Ottimo lavoro , una domanda la colla è ciano a media densità? Saluti
Hi! For the leading edge I was using thin CA, that was the larger white bottle. For the center sheeting, I was using a thick CA which dries slower. The thin CA cures too fast , so the parts need to be put against each other and the apply the thin CA. With the thick CA or gap filling CA you can put the glue on the part before putting them together, but you still need to work fast and make sure the parts fit right, then glue.
Hi James. I've just finished your Barnstormer series and am enjoying the Smoothie build... mostly! The build itself is fine and your chat too but, oh my god, that bloody music! It's doing my nut in. I mean the plinky-plonky piano music which is even worse when the "whistling" kicks in. Please, please, please, please get rid of it. I've just endured about 20 hours of it whilst watching the Barnstormer series and if I have to suffer more, I'm going to have to unsubscribe. It is truly awful. Your videos are fine without music but if you have to play some, please pick something else! Thanks.
Hi Phil, thanks for the comment and suggestions. Yes its hard for me to figure out what is best way to present. I need the feedback and will cut the music down a bit and see how it goes. Thanks again for the input.