I'm building wings for a spacecraft -- I'm making these out of styrene. I'm dithering on whether to use styrene sanded to shape or A + B Putty to make the leading edges.
Any ideas?
Leading Edges for Wings
Moderators: DasPhule, Moderators
Leading Edges for Wings
“Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?”
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
-
TER-OR
- Site Admin
- Posts: 10531
- Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2002 7:05 pm
- Location: Conjugate imprecision of time negates absolute determination of location.
- Contact:
Generally I find it easier to work the styrene - if your wing is already styrene. It's very uniform, and resiliant to boot. Go slow, wet-sand, and maybe make some contour guides. Or glue sanpaper to the contour guide so you have a perfect shape...
Raised by wolves, tamed by nuns, padded for your protection.
Terry Miesle
Never trust anyone who says they don't have a hobby.
Quando Omni Flunkus Moratati
Terry Miesle
Never trust anyone who says they don't have a hobby.
Quando Omni Flunkus Moratati
One of the ideas I have thought about but haven't tried yet is to use the half-round strips available from Evergreen attached to the wings and then sand off excess. Of course, this would not be practical if the wing is quite thinck as for large projects.
Never try to teach a pig to sing.... it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
i was recently(ok, so it was ...a year ago... wow...) building a sorta plane like model with stubby wings. i basically ended up using thin styrene bent around a frame for the leading edges, while i puttied the ends to give them an apropriate shape.
this pic is far from final, but give a fair approximation of the effect.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/A ... ship09.jpg
this pic is far from final, but give a fair approximation of the effect.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/A ... ship09.jpg
I don't make the rules. I just poke holes in them for my own benefit. - Arklan Uth Oslin
You know it's been a long day when you start singing parodies of Ricard Wagner operas. Kill the Red team, kill the Red Team... - Arklan Uth Oslin
You know it's been a long day when you start singing parodies of Ricard Wagner operas. Kill the Red team, kill the Red Team... - Arklan Uth Oslin
-
Spacephrawg
- Posts: 1020
- Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 9:58 am
- Location: Newton, MA
This, I did just last week. I had the upper part of the wing which was essentially a .08 thick piece of styrene. What I did was roll the leading edge (which at that point was square) over a piece of sandpaper. You basically drag the piece over the paper while rolling it forward at the same time. I got a pretty nice rounding on it.Spacephrawg wrote:ok but what do you do if you're dealiing with really thin wings?
“Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?”
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
-
Slide
- Posts: 4433
- Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2003 10:49 pm
- Location: Lost, in this place you call "Reality"
- Contact:
are you worried about an airfoil shape to the entire wing? or just leading edges?
the half-round idea is a good one, so is the rolling/sanding method.
if you're looking for an airfoil countour, nothing for it but alot of patient sanding.
the half-round idea is a good one, so is the rolling/sanding method.
if you're looking for an airfoil countour, nothing for it but alot of patient sanding.
"When you leave my academy you will be weapons! focused! and full of Purpose! Hot-rod rocket-jocks of prescision and strength, tear-@$$ing across the cosmos hunting for heaven!" -- Sgt. Maj. Frank Bougus [R. Lee Ermey, S:AAB]
jocuri cu nave
jocuri cu nave