PART - 1
MODELING TIPS
PART - 1
This page is for tips and tricks used on RC and other models . Many of the tips on this page I thought of myself, but I am sure many of you have thought of the same things or "Seen it somewhere before" .
If I know it came from someone other then myself I state so in the tip.
All the usual disclaimers apply, think
before you try anything the first time!
If you have any ideas that you would like to share
with others let me know via EMAIL at wenzej@bellsouth.net I will add any tips I receive to this page when I get a chance.
TIPS
Tip 1
Next time you are using brightly colored self adhesive trim strips put a band around the handle of your hobby knife. It will make it easier to find and you are more likely to pickup the dull end. If you put a small piece of wood about the size of a tooth pick under the trim strip, it will keep the knife from rolling off the table and stabbing you in the foot.
TIP 2
Glue a small block of Styrofoam on your shelf or wall and stick a few of
your new knife blades in it. It keeps them handy and makes them easier to pick up and put
in your handle. Of course you still have to pick them up to put them in the Styrofoam.. .
a small magnet works nicely for this and can also be used to pick up pins and small screws
…
Tip 3
When covering a model you will find that the best knife is no knife at all ! Use single edge razor blades. They are cheep (you can buy them by the hundred in most paint or hardware stores), cut for a long time, and are much easier to use then a hobby knife.
VERY IMPORTANT take a small one
inch strip of masking tape and tape over half of the blade or you will spend most of your
time putting band-aids on your remaining fingers! When the blade gets dull take the tape
off and cover the dull side. If you make the tape longer it sticks out and gives you
something to hold on to. You can also tape the two ends and leave the middle of the blade
uncovered this will allow you to use it like a razor plane to round off edges. Tape or
glue on a piece of balsa wood and use this as a spacer to cut ¼ inch borders for
overlaps.
TIP 4
Saw this one somewhere. Next time your wife yells about the balsa dust from sanding steal one of her large fluffy bath towels and use it to sand on. It not only protects the airplane from dings, but it will trap a huge amount of dust. When done sanding fold it carefully then take it outside and shake it out.
Note: see disclaimer above, I am not responsible for what happens when your wife catches you doing this!
TIP 5
Quick! What size in mAh is the receiver battery in that plane you built 2 years ago? How old is it? How many cells? Don't know???? What I do is type out this information like this….
Dragon Lady Built 1996
Battery Pack #4
800 mAh 4 Cells
Charge Rate 125 mA
Date Purchased 7/96
I reduce it on a copier or print it out real small. Then I cut this
information out and glue it inside the airplane where I can see it with the wing off.
Don't forget to make one for your transmitters too. The battery pack number is used in a
log I keep to track information from the battery analyzer. By tracking analyzer
information you can spot a battery going bad.
TIP 6
Ever been at the field and had a less then perfect landing in the high weeds that puts a small hole in your covering? Me either, but in case it ever happens, you might have to patch it. Usually this is done in the field with a piece of adhesive trim strip, unfortunately this stuff is very hard to remove at home when you try to fix the hole more permanently. Buy a roll of clear contact paper, cut it into small squares and use this to do your patching. It matches any color you put it on, holds well (if you get all the oil off first) and comes off easy when you want it to. Note: when you cut any kind of covering to use as a patch always cut so it has rounded corners or is a circle you will be amazed at how much better it stays on.
Clear contact paper is great to protect AMA required address labels,
membership cards etc. too. It also has many non-airplane uses. It is the only thing I have
ever found that will cover labels and stick to vinyl loose leaf note books in a hot car
without turning to goo.
TIP 7
When cutting sheets of plastic shrink covering nothing beats glass for a
surface to cut on, it will not dull the knife or slow it down when cutting. The covering
material will kind of stick to the glass if the backing is removed all by itself for easy
cutting. You can also use low heat to make it stick even better for critical cutting. You
can use solvent to put together large panels of covering without it sticking to the work
surface. The best place to find a suitable piece of glass is at the flea market. Look for
an old glass top coffee table. The rectangle ones work super if you have the room. Stay
away from non-safety glass it breaks too easy…Saw this one somewhere….
TIP 8
When using a covering iron you should cover the iron with a cloth to keep it from scratching the covering . The little socks the hobby stores sell are way too expensive to use. What I do and probably everyone else does too, is just use a piece of soft white cotton cloth (an old T shirt is best.) Wrap it around the iron and put a rubber band around it. Works great and best of all it's free…
When you try to take off the rubber band it can be hard to get off, just cut it off with your knife (don't be so damn cheap.)
TIP 9
If you can find a kitchen spice rack at the flea market get one to put
your CA & epoxy glue bottles on. The kind made for small bottles works very well. The
empty bottles can be used to keep small hardware items in also.
TIP 10
Get a candle for your work bench. Not much good for light, but if you
rub screws on it before you screw them in they will go in much easier. Works well on
plastic wing bolts and threaded rod that has to be screwed into the ends of Sullivan
gold-N-rods. Soap works well also.
TIP 11
Next time you go to the dollar store look for a package of cheap paint brushes, you can sometimes get a pack of 20 for, gee, well a dollar. They work super for mixing and spreading epoxy and even can be used for painting!
TIP 12
Next time you empty a CA glue bottle don't throw it away. Refill it with carpenter's glue, you may have to cutoff the nozzle more to make a bigger hole for the thicker glue. In any case keep the top in case you ruin the top of your next bottle. UPDATE: Ted Wilson of Anchorage AK (Ted.Wilson@med.va.gov) says he takes used CA bottles and tops and puts them in a old Jam jar filled with acetone in a few days it removes all the old glue and makes them like new again.
If you use extension nozzles on your glue bottles put a small pin in the
end when you are done using it to keep it from clogging up. UPDATE : Just thought of this
the other day instead of a pin use a push pin the kind that are used on bulletin boards.
They have a large plastic end that make them easy to remove from the bottle, they
also work on bottles with out extension tips.
TIP 13
When using CA hinges use a marker to draw a black line across the middle
of the hinge. This way you can tell if the hinge is being pushed into the wing when you
put on the aileron. I have had some hinges do this and end up with a sixteenth of an inch
in the aileron and the rest in the wing, not very strong. If you can't keep the hinge from
being pushed into the wing stick a pin through the middle of the hinge it will not weaken
the hinge at all.
TIP 14
A spray bottle of water on your bench comes in very handy for
bending balsa sheets. If you spray a little water on the wood before you use filler it
will stick much better and go on smoother.
If you need something to spread filler don't use a normal putty knife it is too hard and scratches balsa easily. Instead buy some spreaders from the auto store, the spreaders are sold for spreading body putty and are very inexpensive. They are soft plastic and can be cut to size. If they get a bad edge after a while just use some sand paper to clean them up.
The soft plastic that the spreaders are made of can also be used to mix epoxy on, when the unused epoxy sets just flex the plastic and it will pop right off.
While at the auto store look at the pin striping tape it comes in a lot
more colors then the stuff at the hobby store and is about half the price. It is fuel
proof if left to cure for awhile after putting it on.
TIP 15
A handy thing to have around when covering a airplane is a old folded
king size bed sheet. It is soft and heavy enough to hold down a wing when stretching the
covering over the ends or use it to prop up a fuse upside down when working on it.
TIP 16
If you use T bars for sanding, gluing sand paper on them can be a mess and the stick on paper at the hobby stores is expensive. I find that stick on sandpaper made for electric sanders at hardware stores works just as well, or even better.The only problem is you need to cut it to size.
If you use the old style T bars the kind that have a thin vertical handle, you will find putting a piece of masking tape on where you hold it makes it much easier to hold on to.
Take a file and round the corners of your T bars you will be much less
likely to gouge what you are sanding.
TIP 17
If you need a hose clamp for your fuel tubing try this , Cut a small piece of tubing about a quarter inch long and put it over the tips of a pair of needle nose plies then spread the plies and slip the end of the hose through the smaller piece. Put on the hose and slide down the clamp piece over the fitting. (From one of the guys at the field)
TIP 18
Finding your hobby knife on a cluttered workbench can be a frustrating and possibly painful experience. So give your knife a good home, get a cardboard tube from a roll of covering and cut it (if you can find your knife) about one inch shorter then the length of your knife make an end for the tube out of lite ply or other wood and seal up one end with it or fold over the end of the tube and staple. Now CA the tube to a convenient place like the end of your work bench or under a shelf . You will wonder how you got along without it providing you remember to put the knife back where it belongs.
TIP 19
The following tips are from Jesse (shipe@prolog.net)
Use bamboo skewers for repairs and reinforcements.You can buy a pack of a 100 or more fora buck or so at the grocery store. Also great for mixing epoxy as they are stiff enough to stir with .
{Note: Bamboo is very tough flexible stuff and hard too. It may be
difficult to get some glues to stick to it.}
Use a discarded 35mm film case (the plastic can the film comes packed in) to hold you glow plug igniter on your field box. Drill two small holes through the walls of the container about an inch apart then use two small screws with washers to mount the container open side up on the side of you flight box. If you have a very long tip on your starter you may have to cut a hole in the bottom of the container to allow it to stick through.
{works great tried it myself . One tip I can offer is to make sure it is
not on the side you carry the box on or you will hit it with your leg.}
Automobile windshield washer antifreeze cleaner works very well as a spray on cleaner for taking oil off airplanes.
{I use this myself it's cheep at 99 cents a gallon and if you put a
small drop of dish soap in the spray bottle it will work even better.}
Flight boxes can be customized in lots of different ways. If you drill small holes around the fuel bottle hold down bracket you can store long screwdrivers and hex wrenches. Two eye bolts can be used to hold your 4 way wrench. Velcro can be used to hold any number of things to and in the box
{If you use a piece of Velcro on the back of the drawer and on the back
wall of the hole the drawer fits into it will keep your drawer from sliding out. A bolt
and wing nut can hold spare props on the side of your box. If your box keeps getting
heavier and heavier, try to find a smaller fuel bottle. It is unlikely that you will ever
use a gallon of fuel on one trip to the field, a quart is plenty. Fuel is light and air
sensitive also so the less you carry around with you the better.}
Tip20
This tip is from the York County Flyers (Rock Hill SC) Newsletter
Cleaning fuel soaked balsa.Jim says that K-2R will remove fuel from balsa wood very nicely . Just spray the K-2R directly onto area that you want to clean and the power will extract any fuel and oil from the wood. The power is then easily cleaned up with a damp rag. The K-2R will however leave the wood with a white finish. - Jim Dooley
{I think K-2R is used to take stains out of clothing and should be
available where ever laundry cleaning supplies are sold. Have not tried this one, but will
have to keep it in mind.}
Tip 21
This tip is from Bill in Tucson (ludwig@azstarnet.com)
Tired of CA tips always plugging up? Just pick up a few extra extension tips and when they get plugged up, just drop them in a jar with some acetone. Pull another one out of the acetone and keep working. Tips will last forever this way and you never have to mess with a plugged tip again.
{This is a great idea, acetone can be some nasty stuff however, read the
directions on the can it comes in and keep it away from fire and painted surfaces. Acetone
can also be used to removed CA from Monokote with out damaging the Monokote .}
Tip 22
If you saw one of your fellow flyers dumping a half gallon of fuel on the ground in the pits you might think it was environmentally unsound and just plain stupid with the cost of fuel nowadays. The truth is you have probably done this yourself over the last year. Every time you fuel your plane you loose about 1/2 ounce of fuel on the ground, maybe more if you are slow at the pump switch.
One half ounce does not seem like very much, but if you fly 3 times a week for six months you could easily dump over a half gallon on the ground. This could cost you up to six dollars and that is just you. With twenty members doing the same thing that's comes to 10 gallons. That is a lot of fuel, no wonder the grass in the pits is dead.
There is an easy way to save yourself some money and maybe help keep the pollution down a little. Best of all it will only cost about a dollar or maybe nothing at all.
All you need is an empty 10oz plastic bottle that is clear and a pressure fitting from a muffler.
Simply drill a hole for the fitting near one edge of the cap and another 1/16 inch hole on the other side of the cap for a vent.
Screw the fitting into the cap and use a small nut to hold it on. Clean the bottle well and make sure none of the plastic shavings from the drill is in the bottle.
To use the bottle remove the pressure hose from your muffler as usual. Then attach it to the fitting on the bottle. Fill you tank until you see fuel entering the bottle. Stop the pump and replace the hose on your muffler.
The bottle will hold more then enough to last all day without out emptying. When you are done flying remove the fuel from your plane as usual and then simply attach the pump hose to the bottle, tip the top of the bottle down with the vent hole up and pump the recovered fuel back into your fuel bottle as if you were draining the fuel tank in your plane.
Most any clear fuel proof plastic or glass bottle with a tight cap will work fine, however a plastic one will not break and is light enough that if it falls over during fueling it will not pull the hose off.
If your pressure hose to the muffler is too short to reach the bottle you can use a short piece of hose and a length of brass tubing left over from the last fuel tank you put together to make an extension.
The only down side is that it is one more thing to drag to the field,
but the bottle weighs next to nothing so it is not a big problem. You might want to attach
a clip or loop of string to the bottle so it can hang off your flight box.
For safety mark the bottle with a poison and flammable label. A child
might mistake it for a soft drink so keep it out of a child's reach.
Tip 23
How to remove broken off plastic bolts.
I use plastic bolts to hold my landing gear on. Although extremely unlikely, if I should land a little hard, the bolts will break off and keep the gear from ripping the bottom out of the airplane. The hard part comes when you try to take the broken off bolts out the airplane. What I do is take a Xacto knife and cut a slit across the end of the bolt then I take a very small flat screwdriver no wider then the bolt and remove the screw. If the bolt is too tight you may only be able to remove the bolt a short way before your slot strips out. You can then try to cut another slot or try to remove it with a pair of needle nose plies. If you rub a little wax or soap on the new screws they will be a lot easier to remove should this unlikely event ever happen again.
Another method I have tried with little success, but might work in some cases is to heat an old screw driver and then stick it into the plastic screw end until it melts into the screw. Let it cool until the plastic hardens then remove the screw. Sounds good, but most of the time it will not work right.
To keep the screws from breaking on marginal landings try putting a thin
(1/16") piece of rubber between the gear and the airplane. This will take up some of
the shock and if the bolts break they tend to stick out a little from the hole.
Tip 24
How to make a transmitter stand.
You can make an excellent transmitter stand to hold your transmitter in an upright position when it is on the ground.The stand will work like a tripod. All you need is some 5/8"OD plastic water pipe, a 5/8" pipe cap and a few tools. A ten foot piece of pipe should be enough to make stands for everyone you know. The stands work very well on my Vanguard and a friends Quasar Airtronics transmitters and should work with any transmitter providing that the handle is round and sticks out from the back of the transmitter case. If the handle is even with the back of the case the stand will not fold up flush with the back .
Measure from the transmitter handle to the bottom of the transmitter then cut a length of pipe one half inch longer then this measurement. Cut one end of the pipe square and the other end at a 45 degree angle to make a point that will keep the transmitter from slipping on smooth surfaces.
Measure the diameter of the metal handle that is attached to the top of the transmitter. Find a drill that is only a little smaller then the diameter of the handle. One half inch from the square cut end of the pipe drill a hole through the center of the pipe. Looking through the hole the point at the bottom of the pipe should be to the right or left of the hole. Now take a small toothed saw and making two cuts, cut a slot from the end of the pipe to the hole. This slot should be a little wider then the hole at the top and a little smaller then the hole at the bottom (hole end). When done it should look like a key hole.
Holding the pipe with the point side of the pipe next to the transmitter snap it onto the handle. It should fit tight enough so it will not turn by itself on the handle. It will still work if loose, but is annoying when holding the transmitter.
To finish the job buy a plastic pipe cap and slip it over the handle end of the pipe. It should fit tight enough that there should be no need to use glue. If you did not leave enough room between the end of the pipe and the handle you might need to file small rounded cuts in the end of the cap so it fits down all the way.The cap will also tighten the fit of the stand.
It is very hard to explain something like this without using pictures if
you have any questions EMAIL me and I will try to help.
Tip 25
Engine Overhauls
Roger Jacobson us-ranger@msn.com
Sent this Tip in:
Hi,
I have a tip or two for engine overhauls.
1. When you take the engine apart and you want to get those nasty varnished in place cylinders and bearings out to clean or replace just put the crankcase (with the stuck parts) in the oven on the bottom with the oven set to a high "baking"setting. Must be baking so the lower heat element is hot.
Do not put parts that have rubber or silicone parts; i.e. carb, O-rings, gaskets in the oven.
Bake for 3 to 6 minutes. Pull the crankcase out with vise grips or burn
your hands, your choice. Watch that the bearings or cylinder do not fall out when removing
the engine. If they do not come out easily bang the back of the case on a block of wood
and they should fall right out. If not try heating longer.
2. Nasty, dirty and varnished engines tend to run hot. High temperatures will reduce engine power and life. To clean the crankcase and cylinder head of vanish first remove all parts, i.e. crank, piston, liner, bearings and anything else that is loose. Take the crankcase and cylinder head and wash oil and lose dirt off with hot water and soap, "This will not hurt the cast aluminum parts".Then dry with a rag and soak in a jar of good old paint stripper from a hardware or paint store. Use a fine stiff acid brush or an old tooth brush to remove stubborn varnish.
CAUTION! DO NOT GET THE STRIPER ON SKIN, IT'S PRETTY CAUSTIC! USE RUBBER KITCHEN GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION. (This is a serious warning I used some of the commercial cleaner sold for cleaning engines. It did not seem all that bad, did not burn my hands or anything, so I did not use gloves two days later my hands looked like they had been sun burned and most of the first layer of skin pealed off. Editor)
Also in time the tooth brush will melt if you don't wash the stripper
out frequently. After you have got all the varnish off the engine rinse all the stripper
away with water and dry the part with a rag then coat with a good after run oil. I use air
tool oil and it works fine. ( NOTE: the reason you want to use air tool oil is that it
will not attack the o rings and other silicone parts in the engine like normal oil will.
Don't forget most of our engines are designed to burn alcohol not oil based gasoline.:
Editor )
3. To install a new rear main bearing, drill a hole in a hard wood block large enough to put the threaded end of crank in. While inserting the crank through the case (with rear bearing in place on the crankshaft)
then use a long punch or dowel through the back of the crank and tap
with a hammer until the bearing is seated.
Roger Jacobson , Indy R/C Modelers South
Indianapolis, Ind
Have a TIP, share it with everyone,
EMAIL me and I will put it on this page…
wenzej@bellsouth.net <Click here to send me mail.
Last changed 06/18/2002