hopeless dreamer
Member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2019
- Messages
- 8
Has anyone substituted wooden slats for aircraft plywood for the leading edge of wooden aircraft wings? I was attempting to bend cheap shipping crate plywood around the leading edge of a giant scale Corby starlet for my nephew, and found it quite challenging, I have long considered building a similar aircraft, upon successful completion of the scale model. I am attempting to teach myself excellent construction with this build, but am hesitant to apply RC methods to anything that I would be up several thousand feet in the air
A couple of thoughts:
1) I don't have much experience, nor equipment, for steam bending
2) dilute ammonia on rags seemed to help some, but not enough to get around the sharp bend required
3) I presume that expensive aircraft grade ply to be a bit less ornery to work with.
4) with strips, I can control the quality of the timber, selecting knot free timber with tight growth rings, oriented as quarter sawn.
5) I am NOT an engineer, and dont know how to calculate multi dimensional torsion loads.
6) I would assume that I would attach leading edge strips to ribs with T88 or resorcinol, and small tension pins.
7) With careful selection, I could do the entire length without scarffing and splicing
8) I would think that 4mm of spruce vs 4mm of ply would be stronger, because all of the fibers would be perpendicular to the ribs.
9) I believe that this method might be in use in some of the Fisher designs, but cant positively confirm that.
10) If it is an actual legitimate safe substitution, I wouldn;t know which models it might be fine, and which models it might be dangerous.
11) With the leading edge well away from the ailerons, I would have to guess that there wouldn't be concerns of flutter
A couple of thoughts:
1) I don't have much experience, nor equipment, for steam bending
2) dilute ammonia on rags seemed to help some, but not enough to get around the sharp bend required
3) I presume that expensive aircraft grade ply to be a bit less ornery to work with.
4) with strips, I can control the quality of the timber, selecting knot free timber with tight growth rings, oriented as quarter sawn.
5) I am NOT an engineer, and dont know how to calculate multi dimensional torsion loads.
6) I would assume that I would attach leading edge strips to ribs with T88 or resorcinol, and small tension pins.
7) With careful selection, I could do the entire length without scarffing and splicing
8) I would think that 4mm of spruce vs 4mm of ply would be stronger, because all of the fibers would be perpendicular to the ribs.
9) I believe that this method might be in use in some of the Fisher designs, but cant positively confirm that.
10) If it is an actual legitimate safe substitution, I wouldn;t know which models it might be fine, and which models it might be dangerous.
11) With the leading edge well away from the ailerons, I would have to guess that there wouldn't be concerns of flutter
