| Most formers that come with kits are not ready-to-use.
Various holes may need to be drilled and if the formers were die-cut
they may need to be replaced entirely if the edges have been crunched.
It is important that the formers are built as accurately as possibly.
A good set of formers will make construction much simpler and
will also help ensure that the fuselage remains straight. Most
kits have rectangular formers for box fuselages. In this case
all you need to do is take a height and width measurement and
then use a good square to mark the cut lines.
- Interior cut outs in your formers should always have rounded
corners. Not only bo they look better, but they are also stronger
than sharp corners.
- Drill the front face of the firewall for the engine mount,
fuel lines and throttle linkage. This aircraft will have a tail
wheel so there is no nose gear mount.You may want to countersink
fuel line holes to prevent the edges from cutting the fuel lines.
Also note that the holes for the engine mount screws have been
enlarged slightly on the rear face to receive the blind nuts
- It is quite easy to make a perfect nose ring. Simply select
a piece of plywood witht the appropriate thickness, draw the
centerlines and the outer diameter of the spinner.
The diameter of the nose ring should be slightly larger than
that of the spinner assuming the fuselage tapers normally. The
inner circle only needs to be large enough to pass the thrust
washer with a little margin for error
- Drill a 1/8" hole in the center of the former
- You can then trim off most of the excess using whatever method
you are comfortable using, but do leave enough material so the
former can be sanded to final shape
- You can also sand a slight taper into the former by tilting
the block so that the former matches the taper of the fuselage.
- I leave the former slightly over-size so I can finish sand
it after it is glued on the fuselage. Here you can see that
the former is a hair larger than the spinner backplate
- Cut out the inside of the nose ring when you are satisfied
that the outside edge is correct
- The complete set of formers from the nose rearward shown in
order from left to right, top to bottom.
The center former in the bottom row goes in the center of the
radio compartment. The cut-out at the bottom is to pass wires
from the servo compartment to the receiver/battery compartment.
- Note the former at the bottom left. This former is located
at the leading edge of the wing. The holes for the wing dowels
are already drilled to simplify mounting the wing.
- Note that the dowel holes are as far apart as possible. The
farther apart these holes are, the more stable the wing mount
will be
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Model Airplane Articles
» Introduction
to Building
» Laying out the Fuselage
» Building inner fuselage
» Preparing the formers
» Jigging and Dry Fitting
» Building it Straight
» Front End
» Installing onboard gear
» Learning to Fly
|
