Category Archives: Experimental

More on Wheels

Experimental

I had some balsa wheel blanks that Lloyd Shales gave me. I also made some on the laser from some heavy paper.

I found you could glue the hub into the paper but it’s a bit tricky. I was able to ream the holes of the balsa ones and push the hubs in. They stayed in place well with friction.

I need to put some thought into the hub design. I suspect I can come up with a folding wheel that has two points of contact with the axle. Then it doesn’t need a plastic hub. We’ll see what I can come up with for the next experiments.

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Daytons are Shipping!

Experimental

The first batch of test Daytons are starting to go out. Packing them was interesting. I wanted to fit the sheet without folding it. I will try and fold some too to see if that hurts them or not. But for now I want to be sure.

I managed to get the propellers into the frame of that flat-box. I made the boxes using the laser since they needed to be precise to stay under the size of an envelope but still have room for a sheet of paper.

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Another Flat Box Design

Experimental

I just came up with a quicker way to make a “no-bendelope” (flat box). This is for shipping up to three Squirrels or two Sparrows.

I usually make two slices to form the sides and border it with cardboard. With this system I’m using four folds and only adding the frame to two of the sites. Works very well and it considerably faster. I think it’s lighter as there are less glue joints and less cardboard. Very rigid too!

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Decorating Model Airplanes

Experimental, Outreach

I’ve done some experimentation with printing on tissue paper to produce these designs.

You can cut tissue to 8.5×11 then use a glue stick to attach it to 8.5×11″ photocopy paper. You then run it through a color ink jet printer. You just need a little bit of glue on the edges otherwise you won’t be able to separate the tissue. Mind you if you only put it at the very edge you can cut around the edge to release it. Remove the tissue from the photocopy paper as soon as you print it so the glue doesn’t dry.

For the design you can use any graphics package but I like InkScape since it’s free. You can download it and run it in Windows or Linux.

Here are a few designs that I’ve made over the past couple of years.

If you’d like to try and print on tissue here is a Squirrel Template.

Any design ideas out there?

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Laser Motor Sticks for Squirrel

Experimental

The Squirrel has had laser cut parts for a while but the motorstick was made using legacy equipment until last Sunday (Sept 16, 2012). The old system worked so well that it wasn’t believed that the laser would be better. The legacy machine is ready for maintenance so I decided to give laser a try.

After a few experiments I discovered that the laser worked much better than I expected. The parts are a bit straighter and accurate. I believe they are stronger. I was even able to use some softer wood which seemed too weak when cut on the legacy machine.

I had to add break-off tabs since the motor sticks were falling into the machine. The rest of the Squirrel uses 1/16″ slats to prevent parts from falling so with the part thickness it comes to 1/8″ from the cutting grid. So laser doesn’t have to be refocused when switching between Squirrel parts and the 1/8″ motorsticks.

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