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Progress on Phil Lardner's All-carbon CD? (Part 1) 06 Oct 2015 20:43 #931
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Thank you, Phil, very interesting photos. And now it looks like a glider before were simply epoxy, carbon fiber, ribs.
 Do I understand correctly, all the details of a control hardware are made of stainless steel? And why did you choose stainless steel, but did not choose a lighter anodized aluminum? Val. |
Progress on Phil Lardner's All-carbon CD? (Part 1) 06 Oct 2015 21:05 #932
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Hi Val,
The original plans call for the control hardware to be made from 4130 mild steel. My friend, Ken just happened to have lots of stainless steel off-cuts on hand, so that's what he used. The company he works for doesn't use aluminium... and beggars can't be choosers! Actually, all the control hardware put together doesn't weigh very much - it's all very thin walled, small diameter tubing. There's no reason you couldn't use aluminium but you'd want to be sure your welds were perfect and did not cause the tubing to become brittle (my attempts to weld aluminium were... sub-optimal!)Phil. |
Progress on Phil Lardner's All-carbon CD? (Part 1) 09 Nov 2015 02:23 #934
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Flaperons - DONE!
The flaperon ribs are trimmed, fitted and aligned dry before being glued in place with epoxy/cotton-flock mix. I had to re-position the ribs a little to make them align nicely and keep a constant slope due to the extra ribs I made for the split-flaperon design. It took a bit of re-jigging, and the flaperons are slightly deeper in chord than the original plans, but it all worked out nicely in the end! 
Each flaperon is split in two (because I'm doing a three-part wing) - I terminated my 'split-ends' with extra, solid ribs. I have yet to install a couple of spring-loaded pins to secure the trailing edge ends of these extra ribs. The spring-loaded pins will keep the trailing edges aligned and take some of the twisting force off the main hinge joint you see in the next photo. 
Each pair of flaperon sections is joined using a section of stainless steel hinge stock. A removable hinge-pin allows the sections of flaperon to be uncoupled for assembly/disassembly. 
The trailing edge stock gets bonded into place next. 
2" wide gusset strips reinforce the join between the ribs and the spar caps. These are later trimmed down to 1.25" wide between the ribs, but remain 2" wide where the ribs meet the spar. In this photo you can also see that I have also glued on 1" wide strips of carbon to the edges of the ribs. This makes for a neater and wider surface for the Dacron covering to be glued to. The original plans leave a 1/32" dip between the gusset strip and the rib edges, and again between the rib edges and the trailing edge strip, which leads to an irregular surface for the Dacron to be glued to. My addition of these 1" strips does add a little extra weight (in carbon and glue) but gives a much smoother, planar surface. 
The trailing edges are also trimmed from 3" to 1.5" between the ribs, but remain 3" deep where the ribs meet the trailing edge. 
All done and dusted! 
The #1 ribs and flaperon control horns were made in one piece instead of several pieces as in the original plans. Mine are massively strong! ...a bit of time-lapse fun! Next up... assembling the main wings!  |
Progress on Phil Lardner's All-carbon CD? (Part 1) 09 Nov 2015 13:25 #935
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Progress on Phil Lardner's All-carbon CD? (Part 1) 09 Nov 2015 17:19 #936
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Progress on Phil Lardner's All-carbon CD? (Part 1) 02 Jan 2016 22:55 #941
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