Magnets for wing mounting? New to me.

[rc capo]

I have been away from the hobby bench and the Ezone for awhile and came accross something that is new to me.

Magnets that are used to hold on wings and used for compartment lids?

What is the size of airframe that can take a Rare Earth magnet to hold on a wing? Is a 31 inch balsa frame crate too big?

If you have experience/knowledge or a link I would greatly appreciate the added info.

I have done a search of all topics using magnets and rare earth magnets for my queries, but have yet seen anything that gives out any parameters...if any.

thanks

rc

[Sparky Paul]

Small hatches, yes, wings, NEVER!

[DaveSawers]

Wings sometimes, but I've only seen them on small models and most of those were low wing.

[tim hooper]

rc,

I use the tiny neodym magnets from Maplin here in the UK to secure hatches. Works well. The pic shows two of these, in conjunction with a rear dowel, fitted to the crossmember in my XXL Python to retain a very long hatch.

I think there may be some confusion with the wing thing though; I've not heard of anyone actually securing the wings to the fuselage with the magnets, but I've read of modellers using the magnets, instead of sticky tape, to keep wing panels located over a solid joiner like a cf rod by burying magnets into the root ribs.

tim

[Mike Taylor]

I DO use the magnets to hold the wings on micros, both high and low wings. They do, in fact stay on whenyou want them to, and they do pop-off when I crash. I have saved a lot of damage with this system. I even use the same magnets to make aileron connections so the wiring doesn't tear itself up. Again, these are micro models with WS in the 13" to 17" range. The magnets I use are 1/8" X 1/16" from forcefield. They have larger magnets that would moke it equally easy to design them into larger models.

[omega blood]

Not for wings, don't ask me how I know. Unless you are building some sort of indoor micro.

[Pook]

Haha you know you shouldn't ever say never.... I seem to remember a while ago watching a show that sad the wings on some of the jet fighters were held on with double sided tape.. now im pretty sure thats probly an over simplification but still it seems very wrong... :)

Piers

[escapee]

I had a Firebat with 4 neodym magnets holding the cockpit/battery cover on. Much more than enough force to hold the battery in while inverted. The cover popped off in mid flight @~150' up & drifted down while (probable sequence) battery ejected, then disconnected from ESC after yanking the Mega out.
I was doing a "normal" yank & bank, not exactly providing the force of an outside loop (can't anyways).
The airframe did a somersault during all this egress activity, then nosed-in to a tree.The pieces were about 40' from each other.
Still don't know why the cover popped off. It held during inside looping, rolling, >60mph dives, ...
My latest suspect is the tiny (several sheets of paper) air gap between cockpit & fuse.

[gjs]

Its much easier to slide the rare earth magnets apart than to pull them apart, I think. If so be sure when locating them that they can not slide past each other (use locating pins to stop sliding) etc.

I had never had Rare Earth magnets in my hands to see just how strong till a year ago. It is really hard to imagine how strong till you see for yourself.

A little Magnet Trivia; At very High Temperature, magnets temporarily lose there attraction properties. Chew on that a minute.

[Mike Taylor]

That's true; magnets slide apart much easier than they pull apart. That is what meakes them a good mounting system for a knock-off wing.

When they are subjected to high temps and lose there magnetism, they don't come back - ever. That's why it is not a good idea to solder them up...

[Sparky Paul]

Originally posted by escapee
I had a Firebat with 4 neodym magnets holding the cockpit/battery cover on. Much more than enough force to hold the battery in while inverted. The cover popped off in mid flight @~150' up & drifted down while (probable sequence) battery ejected, then disconnected from ESC after yanking the Mega out.
I was doing a "normal" yank & bank, not exactly providing the force of an outside loop (can't anyways).
The airframe did a somersault during all this egress activity, then nosed-in to a tree.The pieces were about 40' from each other.
Still don't know why the cover popped off. It held during inside looping, rolling, >60mph dives, ...
My latest suspect is the tiny (several sheets of paper) air gap between cockpit & fuse.
.
Battery mounted on an "easily removable" hatch.. "easily removed" itself 1/2 way thru an Immelmann...

[Bruce Abbott]

The wing on my Sport400 is held down with magnets, as are the front and rear hatches. This plane is definitely not a micro, and it enjoys high speed aerobatics. No mishaps so far...

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/bhabbott/s400/s400w.jpg

[Sparky Paul]

Bruce, you're lucky. Up here on the top side, when things fall down, they hit the earth.
Down there, don't they fall up? :)

[CHOMP_ROCK]

using magnets for wing mounting is fine as long as they are fastened well and there is a notch to keep the wing from sliding off (like on bruce's plane). My "Dynamic" uses 4 small (3cm dia) 5 lb pull rare earth magnets and it is by no means a micro.