Try using a rotary cutter after laying down the masking tape line. I find that I get cleaner cuts than a pair of scissors, even the ones made for carbon fiber and kevlar.
Phil Barnes made a great DVD on building foam core composite wings called "Vacuum Bagging Made Easy"
There is also a video of some guys in Europe somewhere building molded composite wings. These vids should show you pretty much everything you might need to know about wings.
I don't have Phil's videos but I do have the other vid. You might be able to find it on the Web. It's named "rw1build.mpg" It's 240Mb so emailing it would be a problem. It's free to distribute, so if there is somewhere I can post it I will.
This was first built with pink insulation foam from home depot and sanded down to the airfoil shape with 600 grit sandpaper. I used the lightest material I could find to use as a support material and then cover it in carbon fiber. I had alot of trouble cutting the carbon fiber without it fraying so I used masking tape where I cut the profile and that held it together nicely. I used a paintbrush to lightly cover the composite with as little resin/weight as possible. I have planned on making a mold and using that to replicate a design but wanted to get a working model before I go to that point.
Let me know if you have any more questions and i can post more pictures
Ever since joining DIY drones I have wanted to be a DIYer. Fuselages are easy enough for me to navigate design and building wise as it just holds stuff but the wings are make or break time (seeing as they make it fly and all :D). I have always said I'd just use foam wings so I didn't have to mess about and risk that splat moment but yours look good. Tips would be lovely.
I had planned to create a foam base then refine with filler then produce a master mould with that and make my fuselage from that. Is this how you have started?
Comments
Hawoo, great video !
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3120350638175476262#
Try using a rotary cutter after laying down the masking tape line. I find that I get cleaner cuts than a pair of scissors, even the ones made for carbon fiber and kevlar.
Phil Barnes made a great DVD on building foam core composite wings called "Vacuum Bagging Made Easy"
There is also a video of some guys in Europe somewhere building molded composite wings. These vids should show you pretty much everything you might need to know about wings.
I don't have Phil's videos but I do have the other vid. You might be able to find it on the Web. It's named "rw1build.mpg" It's 240Mb so emailing it would be a problem. It's free to distribute, so if there is somewhere I can post it I will.
-Dart
This was first built with pink insulation foam from home depot and sanded down to the airfoil shape with 600 grit sandpaper. I used the lightest material I could find to use as a support material and then cover it in carbon fiber. I had alot of trouble cutting the carbon fiber without it fraying so I used masking tape where I cut the profile and that held it together nicely. I used a paintbrush to lightly cover the composite with as little resin/weight as possible. I have planned on making a mold and using that to replicate a design but wanted to get a working model before I go to that point.
Let me know if you have any more questions and i can post more pictures
Ever since joining DIY drones I have wanted to be a DIYer. Fuselages are easy enough for me to navigate design and building wise as it just holds stuff but the wings are make or break time (seeing as they make it fly and all :D). I have always said I'd just use foam wings so I didn't have to mess about and risk that splat moment but yours look good. Tips would be lovely.
I had planned to create a foam base then refine with filler then produce a master mould with that and make my fuselage from that. Is this how you have started?