Build - Laser Arts 2M RES Jester

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'The telegram says I won a major award!' As said in my best Frank, aka The Old Man from 'A Christmas Story' voice. http://www.greenmanreview.com/film/film_a_christmas_story.html.

edit: Unlike The Old Man, however, I was not to be at all disappointed when I opened my box!
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The other day I was notified that I am the "winner" of a chance to build a Laser Arts Jester 2M RES (http://www.laserartco.com/jester.htm)sailplane in exchange for doing a build thread on RCGroups. I originally noticed the offer on this http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336924 thread. So courtesy of the proprietor Brian Eberwein we will all be together for a ride for the next few weeks. I get to build a new sailplane with all of the RCGroups thermal forum watching. I hope during this build thread to point out any great things about the kit or any gotchas in the hopes of improving the build instructions. Brian has asked us to be honest and he will get that for sure.

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I was notified by Brian on Tuesday that I was the lucky winner. So today, Thursday, when I get home from work there is a package waiting for me. After a hurried dinner I opened the box to find a very well packed bunch of sticks and a rolled tube of paper. After dumping out the peanuts I was left with:

http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterrightoutofthebox.jpg

First impressions always count and the first thing I noticed was how nice the wood was. Sure there are lots of burn marks on the laser cut pieces, but we have all come to expect that from laser cut kits nowadays. But the quality of the wood is really quite good. The sheets were light, some of them in the 6# range according to my scale. Very nice.

According to Brian this is just an average kit pulled off the shelf for an honest review. So if this is average we are off to a good start!

In the next picture you can see that I have rolled the plans out onto my building board and am about to pull some of the fuselage pieces out of the laser cut plywood. At this point I still have not yet read the build instructions so I am just poking around looking at the pieces.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestergettingstarted.jpg

The plans are very nicely drawn and easy to read, with plenty of extra instructions in the whitespace. One of the neat features of laser cutting is that it doesn't cost much to cut extra pieces, unlike die cutting. So included in the kit are dihedral/polyhedral angle guages and my favorite - a leading edge template (apologies for the fuzziness, just getting use to close up shots with this digi camera):
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterletemplate.jpg

So, as we are all supposed to do I am going to take a break for a bit and read the instructions a couple of times over before diving in. Stay tuned for the next installment!

p.s. I will also pose questions here, so if you feel like helping a fella out or have build a Jester before please chime in!

[tw126a]

Hi Stuart,

Its looking good so far, I can only marvel at your building dedication to get right at it. I finally started my first build, a Riser, but thats after its been sitting here for more than a couple of months. What building experience do you have? This should help us gauge your progress. I like the idea of lots of pictures. Good luck with your build and thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.

Tom

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Just an update on what I said earlier about burn marks on the wood. This is just appearance on the plywood only. On the invoice that came in the box they have a description of laser cutting and say right on it that these markings are likely. They are only superficial and come right off with a little bit of sanding for those of us who are a little bit anal about building (at least intentions, if not as skilled). My wife wishes I was so precise about picking up my socks! :)

[fprintf]

Hi Stuart,
What building experience do you have? This should help us gauge your progress. I like the idea of lots of pictures. Good luck with your build and thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.


My building experience is one documented kit build of a 3M Marauder here in these Thermal forums and a whole host of handlaunch/handchuck gliders over the years, my favorite being a 30 second build of a Harley Michaelis design, the Whipper Whiz. Since the Jester is intended to be built by someone with at least a kit or two under their belts I think I fit the bill just fine.

Taking pictures during the build is going to be an adventure in itself. There are lots of intermediate steps and it is tough to know what needs a picture or not. I am going to err on the side of too many pictures.

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So I checked my building board with a 48" straightedge to be sure it was flat, which it was. It is a 2" thick piece of pink foam and works great for sticking pins into. I cut everything on a 24" cutting mat I bought from JoAnn Fabrics on sale.

I rolled out the plans onto my building board, covered them with wax paper, and laid out my tools to get started. It was after I taped the plans down that I remembered it would be nice to have a copy without pinholes but I am too eager to get started to bother going to Kinkos.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestertools.jpg

The first step is to pull the basswood spars out of the box o' sticks and cut them to length. The basswood stands out from the similarly sized balsa because it is heavier and feels sturdier. Be sure to check you are using the basswood! I like to measure the spars directly over the plans using a sheet metal right angle guage and my mechanical pencil.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestermeasurespar.jpg

I then take the marked spar(s) over to my mitre box, which is clamped into a vise, and then cut so the kerf of the blade just cuts through the pencil line. In this case I got an exact length spar. If I was concerned about cutting the piece too short I would have left the pencil line and then sanded the piece to fit. Because of the tilt of the #3 ribs the upper spar will be slightly too long, so it will need to be sanded at a later time.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestercutspars2.jpg

As you can see in the pics above I placed the lower spar on top of the plans and pinned them into place on top of 1/16" balsa. This is to give room for the bottom sheeting when it is eventually put into place. The kit assumes you have built before and have a habit of keeping scrap balsa. Fortunately someone had told me to save all bits of balsa rather than throwing them away and I happened to have quite a few 1/16" pieces I could cut up. If not, I eventually found out that there are three or four extra center section shear webs you could use (or you could cut pieces off the shear web carrier).

One of the beauties of a laser cut kit is the conformity of the ribs once they pop out of the carrier. On my first kit build I was assured that my die cut kit was cut using sharp, new dies. Let me tell ya, there is nothing like building from a laser cut kit. These babies just popped right out and required just a smidge of sanding, whereas my die cut kit required all sorts of cutting and careful manipulation to get them off the carrier. The instructions say some people recommend that you can lightly sand the ribs to remove the charring for better adhesion, but I did not bother.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestercenterribs.jpg

On my last build the instructions specifically said to build the spar and set the ribs one shear web/rib pair at a time. With laser cut shear webs I think this becomes less of an issue, so the instructions said to just ensure that they were right on the plan and are perpendicular. Taking your time here will pay dividends when inserting the shear webs, as I discovered later.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterribsetup2.jpg

So at the end of the first day, only about an hour into the build here is what the center section of the wing looks like. I did not take a picture of adding the trailing edge, but it was done before gluing the ribs to the spar and was as easy as cutting it to length and then pinning it over the plans.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestercentersectionfirstday2.jpg

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One of the things us builders often do is make specific tools for accomplishing repetitive or difficult tasks. On my last build I had a challenge of cutting each shear web and then sanding it down so there were no gaps. I can't tell you how many ribs I knocked the top off of and then had to CA back into place. So in advance of that adventure I took one of the cut offs from the spar, took a couple of swipes on each side with some sandpaper (to make it just slightly smaller than the spar notches in the ribs) and then stuck on some 120 grit paper. Another fuzzy picture, but the idea is to use this little tool to shape the spar notches if necessary or to sand down any protruding shear webs.

http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestersparnotchsandingstick.jpg

After the ribs are added, the instructions call for adding the leading edge. Now there are quite a few square looking balsa sticks so I had to pull all of them out and measure carefully to choose the right one. It may be coincidence or may be by design, but the balsa was a hard balsa stick which is just perfect for a ding-prone leading edge. Here is where I had my first challenge with the build. Getting the stick to sit into the ribs perfectly without any gaps was close to impossible without seriously applying pressure, the kind of pressure that can warp a wing. So I did the best I could to ensure there was a pretty good fit. I looked after the wing had dried and saw just some tiny gaps (thousandths wide), but they will probably need to be filled with balsa dust and CA. I will see how strong this is with one side of the sheeting before deciding whether to fix it or not.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterleadingedge.jpg

Ok, no pictures of the shear webs. When I said earlier that you must position the ribs exactly over the plan, well the shear webs are designed to fit *exactly* in one size space. I would highly recommend building this wing one shear web and rib at a time because I had to make three shear webs out of extra 1/16" stock because I had the ribs just slightly (.021") too far apart. I cannot stand for a flimsy, gappy or weak wood-wood joint in the spar, so I made sure to replace shear webs rather than chance any gaps. This also meant that I had to do a few swipes of sandpaper on a few other ribs since they were then a little oversized, which is not a big deal. In one of the shear webs I made I did end up with a little gap at the top between the shear web and the upper spar. When I added the upper spar I put on a bunch of weights and let it dry and then I took the wing off the building board and clamped that particular section. No more air gaps. :)
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestersparweighting.jpg

So here is the completed spar. When I lifted this off the building board I could not believe how light it was. I think this may be a reaction to the "heft" of my Marauder center section, which is fully covered and assembled. So I think it is all in my mind at this point.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterspardone.jpg

One reminder for anyone building this plane. There are quite a few shear webs left over in the carrier, presumably in case you make a mistake. Do not think you have to glue them next to Rib#3 at the end of the center section. These you leave blank, at least for now. The kit comes with some dacron to wrap this "joiner box", although I think I will use some kevlar thread I have.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterrib3noshearweb.jpg

Finally today I added the built up trailing edge. I took out my hated razor plane (what a waste of $7). I adjusted it as best I could to take off some paper thin curls of balsa, but the thing is such a piece of junk it would only either skip over the wood or dig into it. Must be user error somehow. So I took out my real block plane, an antique from my wife's grandfather, and trimmed the upper trailing edge. After gluing it I discovered that I could have taken some more off since there were some little gaps. This is my first time building up a trailing edge since all the stuff I have build so far had triangular TE pieces. I learned an awful lot in the few minutes it took to put this together and will be sure to plane down the wingtip pieces sufficiently. At least this way I have a slightly thicker TE right at the root for the rubber band hold downs.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestertrailingedgerazorplane.jpg

So far so good. After two days, and probably 4 hours total of work the wing is substantially together. Tomorrow I will have some pics of the spoiler box doublers and the subspar installation.

[tw126a]

Looking good, Stuart. Nice looking kit. Great to see how a craftsman tackles a project and organizes the build. Looking forward to further installments.

Tom

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I wish I could consider myself a "craftsman". Right now I am screwing up the courage to do more sheeting of the center section D-box. I did the lower sheet last night and it came out terribly. I knew from my last build that this is the most challengin part, so I tried a new way... I stuck down the leading edge first to get a really good wood/wood joint and then attempted to add glue to the ribs. Unfortunately the glue dried by the time I got from one end of the wing to the other. So I ended up wicking in quite a bit of CA just to get the sheeting stuck to the ribs since my technique didn't work so well.

So after perusing the web for a few hours I think I have the techniques that might assure a better result: work faster, splooge on the glue and wipe off rather than being judicious with it (so it doesn't dry so fast), use telephone books and weights rather than t-pins to assure contact.

So far building the D-box has been the biggest challenge of the kit. The instructions that come with the kit are rather sparse, nothing at all like that which came in the Marauder kit I built. The instructions assume a lot, including that you already know the techniques for sheeting wings. If anyone reading this has techniques for building a D-box, please do tell! No more action on the wing for tonight as my courage just isn't there. :)

[Robglover]

fprintf -

Another trick for removing the charring left by lasercutting is to soak a little clorox bleach into a paper towel and wipe the charred parts. It will remove some of it if not most of it. Mostly I don't worry about it though.

For the d tubes - I haven't built a Jester wing, but I have built a few that look like it.

I cut the sheeting to whatever size it needs to be to be glued down. It can be oversized in most dimensions, but I try and trim the aft edge straight so it butts up against the ribs or spar and fits well. Most sheet edges aren't straight when you get them.

Next step is to soak a paper towel with some water and wet down one side of the sheeting. This will cause it to warp and curl away from the wet side, and makes it conform to the ribs curvature much more easily.

Next I put down a bead of adhesive on the leading edge, ribs, and spar where the sheet will attach. I have been using one of the polyeurethane adhesives like Pro Bond or Gorilla Grip for the last few years. The key here is SLOW setting adhesive.

Once the glue is down I lay the wing on the bench and lay down the sheeting in the proper spot. I'll put a couple pins in it to keep the sheeting from sliding anywhere, and then pile weights on the sheeting to hold it down to the wing spar, ribs, and LE. I have a bunch of steel machinists gage blocks, and a big box of lead bullets. I put these over the spars, leading edge, ribs, and anywhere I think it will help to insure that the sheeting is held firmly against the underlying structure. I may have a hundred pieces of weight on the wing before I'm happy with it.

Make sure that the wing section is flat. This is the spot where you build in a warp or not. Let the glue dry or cure thoroughly before you mess with it. After the glue is dry you can trim the leading edge and root/tip to final size.

Your plane looks pretty good so far, I bet you'll enjoy flying it.

[bfretless]

Stuart,

I built a Sovereign last year. I think the jester and Sovereign share the same wing. For a description of how I sheeted the wing, take a look at this post (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2348295&postcount=33). Using a system of a combination of glues, the sheeting went on pretty well. Maybe there's something in that description that you can take away and improve on.

Bill

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Thanks Bill, that was very helpful.

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Ok, so as promised here are some pics of how the subspar looks on the wing so far. Adding these was really easy, just cut to size and they plop right into the precut notches.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestercentersectionsubspars.jpg

The next part of the build suggests adding the spoiler box doublers. The directions don't say if they go in one way or another, and I tend to think they do not. All it took was a little glue and some clothes pins to get these into place. I did have to remove the wing from the building board, being careful not to twist it in any way.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterspoilerboxdoublers2.jpg
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterspoilerboxdoublers3.jpg

So then the instructions suggest wrapping the joiner boxes in dacron thread. I have some extra kevlar thread so I decided to use that. Please excuse the somewhat fuzzy picture again. I wanted to practice winding this stuff on... it is not easy to get the spacing even or to ensure that the threads are vertical between the upper and lower spars. I had it unravel quite a few times, but I blame that on me not wanting to use CA since I do not yet have a method for applying it gently (my tips are all clogged up and the stuff tends to come out rather fast)
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterkevlarthread.jpg

Ok, so on to the bottom sheeting. I have always found this part difficult so really took my time getting set up. I measured about 6 times, cut once and then dry fit the piece a couple of times.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterbottomsheetinggettinglinedup.jpg
Well I really messed up on the sheeting. The glue dried too fast, I didn't do it in the right order and I had to wick in a ton of CA to get the sheeting to stick to the ribs.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterbottomsheetingmess.jpg
I asked for a ton of advice on the forums and the Balsasailplanes Yahoo group and got a whole bunch. From the following images it doesn't look too bad. Despite some gaps, when viewed from the bottom you can't even tell there is any extra glue in the wing.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterbottomsheeting.jpg
And for once I got a really nice joint on the leading edge, something I have always found challenging.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterbottomsheetingleadingedge.jpg

So after following some of the advice and spending some time looking at how the allegro-lite is done, I went out this evening and bought 25 pounds of lead shot ($18!) from the local gun store. I double wrapped it in baggies and probably have 8 pounds in the big bags and close to 5 lbs in the small bags. That ought to keep the sheeting in place quite nicely.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestershotbags.jpg

I now have the courage to attempt the top sheeting with a pretty good feeling that it will work for me. I plan to thin down the yellow glue to give myself some extra working time, and then to prebend the balsa sheets ala the allegro-lite. I am not sure if I will end up using CA as that was an alternative suggested several times also, including Bill's.

[jrgospod]

Fprintf

A friend just told me how he does the sheeting. First he gets a good dry fit. Then he puts a bead of Pro Bond on the spar and bead of wood glue on the ribs surface. Now the neat part! He aligns the sheeting against the LE stock and tack glues it with CA in several spots to hold it in place. Then all you do is smooth it down to the spar a use your weights while you wait. Worked great for me on a spirit wing I am building.

John

[jrgospod]

Fprintf

One other thing. If you doing the top and the bottom is already done (no access) then you may want to put a bead of wood glue on the LE and just leave a few open spots to tack with CA. If you still have access you can skip that and just glue latter from the bottom with wood glue.

John

[Al M]

I have been using yellow glue or white glue lately on the ribs. I apply glue to the ribs and position the sheet in place against the spar. Mark this position! Remove the sheet and let the glue dry. When dry, apply glue to the spar and leading edge. mount the sheet and tape in place. Iron down the sheet to the ribs using your covering iron. It will activate the dry glue. In some cases I iron the sheet onto the le and/or the spar also.

[jrgospod]

Bad post, sorry!

[fprintf]

Ok, so as I usually do when I get stuck or need motivation to move past my past errors I procrastinate the next step. So I took a few days off this week but resumed in earnest this weekend. After filling my shot bags I put them to use. I ended up using the technique Bill recommended to sheet the wing - plenty of yellow glue along the ribs and spar and dribble thin CA along the leading edge.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestershotbagsinuse.jpg

So I had rushed a little bit and thought I could squeeze a few very tiny gaps that were on the leading edge once I got to the dribbling CA part. It turned out that the leading edge stick had a bow to it that I had not previously noticed. This is why I had a poor fit on some of the ribs originally. So I had to shave the LE stick some and sand the sheet some more and getting a precise fit was not so easy. It is like fixing a wobbly chair by sawing the long leg... you take off too much and then have to saw all 3 other legs to stop a new wobble. This happened to me. All was not lost, however, as I did have pretty good joints right around the ribs in most cases. I mixed up some balsa dust and yellow glue as a gap filler, ran a finger full of it along the LE, let it dry and then sanded it down. All in all it came out looking quite nice, and I learned a *ton* about dry fitting. Allegro-Lite here we come! :)
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestergapsinleadingedge.jpg

So here is the first 4" piece of sheeting applied to the upper part of the center of the wing. It looks pretty darn good!
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterfirstpartofsheetingfinished.jpg

The instructions are very sparse at this point and there is no direction given where to make the joint for the sheeting that runs from the spar to the subspar. So I asked around, made some assumptions and jumped right in. I made a joint right at the 4" mark, so the actual joint is unsupported except by the ribs every few centimeters. The other option was to cut the 4" sheet right over the spar and make the joint there, but it was already glued down and I did not want to pry it up.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesteruppersheetingleadingedge.jpg
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterlowersheetingleadingedge.jpg

I am quite proud of the radiused corners I made on the center sheeting. It turned out that the radius on the plans is *exactly* the radius of a Titebond bottle. So I used that as a template.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesteruppersheetingdone.jpg
Unfortunately I made an error at the TE, which I think will be very minor. There is no radiused corners here although the plans call for it. I am sure I could retrofit some small pieces if necessary, but I think it is overkill at this point. I am getting much better at sanding and fitting and the last 15mm x 170 mm piece just dropped right in from some earlier 1/16 scrap sheeting that was cut off the lower sheeting with just a little sanding.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesteruppersheetingcenter.jpg
After sanding the upper surfaces look fantastic. From below, however, you can see how ugly things look with a few glue drips. Not a big deal, but not perfection either.

[fprintf]

http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesteruppersheetingfromunderside.jpg
So I cannot finish up the center wing section until I buy some servo extensions. So I put it aside and decided to put the fuse together. The pieces come out of the lite-ply carriers very nicely. But the fuse parts that need to come out of the heavier ply take a wicked beating if you try and flex them out. So I did my best to cut the ply, but this is tough and *heavy* stuff and each piece needed to be sanded because there were lots of little nubs once the piece popped out. I got a little over eager with the sanding and forgot that even pieces being made out of ply can be fragile. Here is a busted tail joiner pice. The piece is very thin, so I needed to be more careful. A little CA will fix this right up.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterbecarefulsanding.jpg
So doing a dry fit is very important with this planes fuse. Yes, the pieces are laser cut but because of the ply they do not go together quite perfectly right off of the carrier. I read on the Scepter thread that Christian had the same problem, so fortunately I was prepared to do the sanding. I needed to sand each plywood tab so that it would fit inside whatever keyhole it mated with. Not a big deal, although it is an extra step and is sometimes difficult to hold these smaller pieces against the sandpaper without also taking off some skin. Fortunately my skin is pretty covered with CA, so really all I am doing is sanding CA. :)
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterlayoutfuse.jpg
The first step is to join the two fuselage front and rear ends together. They are keyed and labeled left and right. This was a no brainer step. I did choose to use yellow glue even though the instructions call for epoxy. I just do not see that the fuse needs any extra weight or the marginal strength of epoxy for most of these well supported joints. Heaven knows that this fuse is very sturdy with all the plywood, and my research on various woodworking sites suggests that a good yellow glue joint is equally as strong as a good epoxy joint, especially when there is no gap filling required. All the joints on the fuse are extremely tight and I'd bet the ply would break before the joints do.

The fuse doublers are another easy install. You just spread some glue on one side of the doubler, double and triple checking *beforehand* that you are clamping the correct side of the fuse. It is easy to get messed up here and glue the piece to the same side of both sides. The trick I used was to ensure that the lettering denoting right and left, found at the back of the fuse, is face down. Each fuse side should be the opposite of the other. I used clothes pins to keep the doublers in place. I missed the part in the instructions where it said to use former 5 as a guide when putting the doublers in place, but just by lining them up with the upper fuse edge I got it right on anyway. I checked the spacing/alignment afterward and I was fine.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterclampingfusedoublers2.jpg
So I put the servo tray together. This required a bit of sanding to make sure my HS-81 servos will fit in snugly into the holes, and again I had to do quite a bit of sanding to get the pieces to fit together. Once together, though, this thing is strong! (edit: I did discover later that I made an error here and did not attach the servo blocks underneath the tray. Be sure to add the crosswise blocks to the tray before gluing the tray in.)
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterservotray.jpg

So all in all I believe I have made some tremendous personal progress here. If you have not noticed, I tend to be very self critical especially when my modelmaking skills do not approach the level of perfection I think a thread like this deserves. But as with anything practice makes perfect. As for the plane itself, I think it is a very nice kit. I am surprised at the heftiness of the fuselage, with all the plywood but I suspect that it has much to do with the sturdiness desired in an RES plane designed for dorking in at contests versus a lightweight floater like the gentle lady. This thing is going to be strong and I have a new winch and this baby is going to fly on it. I can't wait!

[tw126a]

It's looking good, Stuart. Been enjoying your build progress and also your problem solving methods. I'm taking lots of notes! I also noted with interest your decision to use carpenters glue, I decided after lots of reading to make this my primary glue and its working out just fine on my first build. Wish I could say my progress is as good as yours but I'll get there..

Tom

[fprintf]

Thanks Tom for the encouragement! I always wonder if I am giving enough detail, too much, the wrong types of photos etc.

If anyone reading this has any questions or wants more detailed pictures please ask! This is one way to give Brian the input he needs to make this plane even better than it already is.

[JimHSoars]

Stuart;

I'm a new model builder/flyer and was advised to avoid planes with wing sheeting over a wooden wing frame. Your thread has taught me a bunch about the difficulties of attaching the balsa sheeting to the wing frame work and dealing with laser cut wood/plywood.

Keep it up and continue discussing your building problems. That's what helps the rest of us newbies.

Jim :)

[fprintf]

Hi Jim, glad to hear this thread is of use to you! Once you get that first build under your belt you will definitely want to think about the advantages of building a plane with a sheeted wing. They are stronger and maintain a much closer resemblence to an actual airfoil than unsheeted open bay leading edge wings. My first build *ever* was with a sheeted wing and you'd think I'd have learned by now! :) Whoever gave you the advice, however, was right on.

As for the difficulties with laser cut wood, really it is only the very thick plywood which is a small component of the kit. Otherwise, as I mentioned previously, building from a laser cut kit is *so* nice compared to a die cut kit. It's like gluing together a jigsaw puzzle.

[fly1milehi]

Why would anyone advise to avoid planes built with wood sheeting over wood structure?? I would venture a guess that 75 percent of all of this hobbies planes have been built with this type fo contstruction. Obviously recent advances in materials have given us wood over foam, glass fibers and epoxys over foam, and hollow molded models but that doesnt make wood over wood a choice to be avoided in my opinion.

Maybe the person or people you spoke to felt that its to much work to build or think that its not strong enough??? Or was it in reference to being a beginner that should avoid it? Don't tell Dr. Drela that his composite graphite,carbon,wood spars with wood sheeting should be avoided!

Keep up the good build and photos fprint!!!
Greg

[fprintf]

Why would anyone advise to avoid planes built with wood sheeting over wood structure?? ... snip... Or was it in reference to being a beginner that should avoid it?

Keep up the good build and photos fprint!!!


Hi Greg, I read from the statement and believe myself that a first kit build without sheeting over wood structures is recommended for a beginner. Sheeted wings, of course, are much higher performance but require some wood handling skills and materials that a brand new builder might not have. For example, my method required making shot bags for weights. Perhaps not something that a new builder has on hand not wants to spend almost $20 on.

Developing those skills on a first build could be a hobby breaker, or it could be the kind of challenge that a newbie (assuming without an experienced modeler to help) really takes to. I liked the challenge the first time around and it contributed to my desire to build all my planes from this point forward. But not everyone does and for some, especially the ARF crowd, it could turn them off gliders instantly where a stick built wing would ease them into it gently.

Glad to hear you are also liking the thread. I plan on working on the fuse some more tonight. Each time I touch a piece of wood I am getting that much closer to my goal of building an Allegro-Lite from scratch.

[johnsocj]

I am so jealous that you get the servo tray! I hate putting in servo rails. It's easy, yeah, but when it gets to that point in a build, I just want to throw them in and go.

You had the same problems with the plywood thickness that I did. I would hate to see the issue fall the other way though, and have the ply too thin, leading to a sloppy fit. I'm happy to see your craft fall together as precisely as mine is.

Great build!

Christian.

[Canada Goose]

I really like the looks of the Jester and have been following this thread with interest. I am playing with the idea of converting one into electric. I was hoping to get in on the freebie deal with a build as an electric version but guess that will not happen. Anyway, can you give me the measurements from the nose back to the front of the canopy, length, width (at its widest) and height (at its highest)?
Cheers

[hangerdude1]

For example, my method required making shot bags for weights. Perhaps not something that a new builder has on hand not wants to spend almost $20 on.

Just as a suggestion, I use old phone books and magazines which will conform to the airfoil shape and hold the sheeting against the surface of the ribs while the glue dries - and the bonus - they are free!

Ken

[fprintf]

I really like the looks of the Jester and have been following this thread with interest. I am playing with the idea of converting one into electric. I was hoping to get in on the freebie deal with a build as an electric version but guess that will not happen. Anyway, can you give me the measurements from the nose back to the front of the canopy, length, width (at its widest) and height (at its highest)?
Cheers

Well, not being an electric guy I can't tell you about the suitability of this plane. It seems to me it has a rather narrow nose, and the canopy overhangs the balsa noseblock by a little ways - about 1/2" or so. I'd bet, however, by not pulling and clamping the nose in that there'd be enough room.

So I measured a few things that I hope will be helpful:

Where the front fuse formers end inside the noseblock:
1 3/8" H x 3/4" W - it is 2 1/4 from the very front of the nose to this point. The distance from the front of the fuse formers to the servo tray is 3 3/4"

Where the canopy ends on the noseblock:
1 3/4" H x 1"W x 2" deep to the servo tray

[fprintf]

I am so jealous that you get the servo tray! I hate putting in servo rails. It's easy, yeah, but when it gets to that point in a build, I just want to throw them in and go.

You had the same problems with the plywood thickness that I did. I would hate to see the issue fall the other way though, and have the ply too thin, leading to a sloppy fit. I'm happy to see your craft fall together as precisely as mine is.

Great build!

Christian.

This is my first time with a servo tray and I really like it! I had a single Hitec HS-81 left over from another plane so I used that to measure the size of the opening. I'll probably use those servos from my flying wing anyway. It is very nice, I must admit.

No pictures tonight, but the fuse sides are being clamped right now to the formers. Tomorrow night I will clamp the front end and rear end making sure it is all in a nice line.

[fprintf]

I will post some more pictures tonight. Just a note, as it says on the website that pushrods are not included. I have the fuse pretty much ready to sheet the back end, however I need to go to the LHS to buy some pushrods so I can proceed here! So instead I will likely wait out the snowstorm by building the tail feathers. They look nice 'n easy!

[fprintf]

Back from the hobby shop with my pushrods. This place is a HobbyTown USA and I am much less impressed with their selection than the hobby shop the next town in the other direction. I ended up with some Gold 'n rod pushrods, which I am less impressed with than simple music wire rods. Nevertheless they are reasonably light and I am not so concerned with thermal expansion on a 2M RES plane than I might be on a 3M full house.

So after waiting for the servo tray to dry I dry fit everything on the fuse and then clamped it together. The instructions warn about making sure the fuse goes together square, but I couldn't figure out how to get the pieces to squeeze together and remain square at the same time. So I relied upon the tabbed plywood to keep everything mostly aligned and took my chances. The plywood is relatively stiff but the shape of the fuse tapers toward the front and rear from the sides and on the bottom from the midpoint of the fuse to the nose. It was not easy getting everything squeezed in all together. Near a few of the tabs I did not get the best joints due to the fuse trying to spread itself apart. Oh well, nothing a little fillet of glue can't fix! ;)
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterfuseclamped2.jpg

So after taking the clamps off things looked pretty well aligned. I added in the pushrods making sure they cross over per the plans. I did have to do some filing of the holes to get the outer pushrod casings through but otherwise that part was easy.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterfusereadyforsheeting.jpg

I did depart from the plans in one area. The plans called for simple cross grain sheeting. I decided to do opposing 45 degree grain on the fuselage. According to what I have read, and build work I have done previously this adds some rigidity and breaking strength to the rear of the fuse. It doesn't add too much time and reduces the number (if not the length of) of wood joints. In the picture below you can see that I very roughly fit the sheeting. It is very easy with a razor plane or coarse sandpaper to get off whatever sheeting overhangs the fuse. Unfortunately I did not take heed of the advice in the instructions and everything I know about building and I initially built a twist into the fuselage after weighting it overnight. Fortunately I was able to build the twist out when sheeting the bottom of the fuse. All is straight now! Another lesson learned - be patient, check the squareness of the fuse many times before leaving the weights on.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestercrossgraintopsheeting.jpg
Once the fuse was straightened I did end up sanding the corners of the fuse a little. Hopefully this will not reduce the strength too much. It just didn't look quite aerodynamic enough the 90 degree draggy looking edges. I think this is why so many people build the rear of the fuse with balsa and square or triangular longerons instead of ply. It is lighter in the tail and lets you round the rear of the fuse pretty significantly while still retaining a lot of strength. (edit: On second thought, it is much more difficult to build a built up balsa fuse. The fuse on the Jester has been a real treat to build and eliminates so many of the checking and rechecking details necessary on other kits.)

Once place I did have some difficulty came in opening up the holes for the rubber band dowel. The plywood holes (3mm birch ply x 2 formers) were too tight for the dowel even though I had carefully aligned the pieces during the glue up. So I had to spend some time sanding the dowel, test fitting, and filing the holes. You can see it here installed in the picture below. I didn't want to be hassling with the towhook assembly under the dowel later on so I installed it at this point. It adds some difficulty because the fuse no longer sits flat. I can deal. (edit: there is little reason to sit the fuse flat at this point. If there was, I'd skip the install of the towhook until after the fuse work is done.)

So at this point I am fitting the canopy. It is white out of the box. I think I will paint it black or some color. Probably just plain paint rather than tinting it. It depends how motivated I get when I get around to covering the plane. The instructions say to test fit the canopy without really explaining how it should fit. I probably cut a little too much off despite the warnings to take it slow. It still looks pretty good:
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterfittingcanopy.jpg

The noseblock is 6 laser cut balsa pieces laminated onto a ply former. It was easy to do this. Shaping the noseblock comes after finalizing installation of the canopy. Here I am also clamping the canopy tray system - simply a small piece of ply that hooks under the noseblock. Quite honestly I am really impressed with the canopy arrangement here!
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesternoseblock.jpg

So that's it for now. Now that the fuse is sheeted all that remains is to shape the noseblock and final fit the canopy. So while I get motivated to do that I am going to build the tail surfaces. That looks pretty darn straight forward. Something I am sure a quicker builder could do in an hour. It is late tonight so I'll likely do it after American Idol tomorrow. ;)

[bfretless]

Stuart,

Watching you build your Jester reminds me of a couple of things I learned on my Sovereign. The first is that I cut both ends of the wing dowel off and just glued the stubs into the holes in the formers. I really didn't want that dowel in the way under the wing. Once the Titebond dries, it's plenty strong enough to hold rubber bands.

The other thing I learned (the hard way) was to be careful when fitting the canopy front tab under the nose block. I had to do some serious trimming (thinning down) of the front tab, but before I got it right I caused a small crack in the nose block joint. That long canopy makes a good lever, and I accidently popped the nose block loose from the fuse sides when I pressed the back of the canopy fully down.

Bill

[fprintf]

Thanks Bill. I ended up wicking CA into the rubber band dowel. I think this will be strong enough, so I just might take your advice and dremel the rest of the dowel out. The ply formers are stiff enough and this will never be a weak point as I suspect the rubber bands will break before the dowel ends do.

As for the canopy, I will be careful here. Thanks! I better re-read your Sovereign thread to see if there is anything else I may need!

[JimHSoars]

fprintf;
Please explain how the fuselage ended up twisted and how new builders like myself can avoid this.
Thanks
Jim

[fprintf]

fprintf;
Please explain how the fuselage ended up twisted and how new builders like myself can avoid this.
Thanks
Jim

Ok, when you build over plans you need to be sure you are building on a flat surface. On this plane I put the sheeting on the upper surface and put my weight bags on top of the fuse. This meant that there was a lot of weight pushing the sheeting down (good). But it also meant that the weight was all concentrated on the fuselage edges. I think this introduced the twist - it didn't help that I did not check my angles against the flat building board.

Since this fuse has some concavity to it, it is very difficult to position the fuse where the sheeting is resting against the building board and the weight is on the fuse sides.

Picture:

-----
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versus

| |
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I am not sure how I would have built it differently except to take it slowly. Use T-pins to position the fuse directly over the plans. Use tape from the fuse sides to the wax paper if necessary. Then sheet one piece at a time making sure the fuse sides are perpendicular to the building board and directly over the plan lines. I was in a hurry and sheeted the entire fuse at once. I would not have built a twist had I glued one piece, checked for straightness, let the glue dry, sheeted the next piece. Getting a straight fuse is second only to building straight wings for good glider performance. If you do not have a straight fuse your tail feathers will not be aligned correctly. While you can trim out the plane to fly straight, this trim only works at one airspeed. That is why it is important to build straight and triple check the plane is building correctly over the plans. I got lazy and too trusting of the interlocking pieces.

[JimHSoars]

fprintf;

You might want to slap some reinforcement on the rear most dowel former if you decide to cut off the rest of the dowel. While I’m not any sort of builder at all, I did learn some structural stuff with my civil engineering degree. ;)

The forces on a cantilevered dowel will put a bending force on the former twisting it into the shape of an S. (That is a long part T-boned into a former with a load perpendicular to its length and parallel to the former such as a rubber band pulling up on the dowel.) That’s probably why the designer put the dowel across 3 formers – to avoid this. The forward former looks like the servo tray is laminated to it so it is probably reinforced fine.

For the rearward former you might want to glue a couple of strips of the former plywood onto the same side from which the dowel extends out. Place them as an inverted V with their ends above the dowel and V them out to the lower outer corners of the fuse. Try to use pieces that have the outer grain running their length to take advantage of woods strength with the length of the grain. This will strengthen the tension side of the former (area below the dowel.) If there is not room because something passes through the former where these two pieces would fit, like the control rods, you could put them vertically from the top of the former to its bottom just beside any opening.

Being a beginning builder I would obviously over weight the thing and put the strips described above on both sides of the rear former and add 2 strips to the rearward side of the forward former that I noted looks to be reinforced by the servo tray. (Actually, I would just leave the dowel as designed. It makes a nice handle!)

Jim

P.S. Try as I might I still can't write worth a C*#@!

[JimHSoars]

You can never have enough clamps!

In woodworking such a problem would be handled by jigs and/or clamps, lots of 'em. Frankly this sounds like a real tough problem that takes experience to deal with.

Jim

[fprintf]

Let me tell you about clamps. I just spent *another* $25 at Home Depot on some of those sliding clamps made my Irwin. This is in addition to a whole bunch of clothespins, c-clamps, pinching clamps etc. Not to scare a new builder off, because you can get buy with two or three, but it sure makes life easier when you have lots of different ones to choose from.

As for the problem with twisting, no I do not think it takes experience per se. I think it takes patience and attention to detail. When I built my first plane, my Marauder, (I hijacked http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158826&page=1&pp=50 for my build thread) I had no problems at all with fuselage twisting. I used lots of clamps and checked things a million times. Again, this one is purely my fault not something that an inexperienced builder would really have to worry about.

[fprintf]

There is a clear advantage to working with a company, Laser Arts in this case, whose owner (Brian) is email savvy. I came up with an issue with a piece in the tail that I couldn't figure out where it fit last night or if there was an error in the piece. I emailed Brian with a picture of the part over the plans showing the center piece was almost 1" too short. He was able to tell me that I had the piece in the right location and agreed with my suggestion that I could add a bit of scrap to make the part fit best. He is going to change the files. I'll be back on track building the rest of the tail group tonight.

[johnsocj]

Fprint,

I see the canopy fits in much the same way on the Jester as it does on the Scepter. I think, OK, I know I miffed mine up a bit. It's perfectly serviceable, but not perfect. I'm curious to see how yours ends up. Me and polystyrene have just never gotten along. The mechanism is really cool though.

A freeflighter once wrote, (paraphrasing) "Remember, you don't glue the wing to the fuse, you glue the fuse to the wing. The wing flys the plane and determines the direction, not the other way around." or maybe it was more like "you never have a crooked wing, you have a crooked fuse" Whatever, you get the point.

I just noticed yesterday, I accidentally built a twist into my fuse. At the tail, one fuse side is just slightly higher than the other. The fuse itself is linearly straight. It'll be easy to remedy when I mount the stabs.

Your build looks great. Keep it up.

Christian

[fprintf]

It is very easy to let the knife slide too far on that styrene canopy. When they say to go slow they really mean it. On the left side of mine is a very small cut that goes into the canopy area. It'll be fine once the plywood is glued to it but is makes me mad to no end that it is there. Worse comes to worse you can always fashion a balsa canopy since there is so much room in the fuse anyway.

Sorry to hear about the twist in your fuse as well. I agree about an easy fix when mounting the stabs... a little shim'll do ya (apologies to Grecian Formula)

[Eberwein]

Hey Stuart,

Where are you on the build? Haven't seen anything for a while?

[fprintf]

Hi Brian, well I goofed. I accidentally cut one of the tip spar pieces for the basswood insert on the tail group. I did not discover my error until I went to pull the pieces for both tips and discovered one of the spars was rather short.

The tail group went together nicely and was quite an easy build. I will post pictures tonight when I get home. Hopefully the LHS has this dimension of basswood otherwise I am going to be cobbling together a spar with a few scarf joints! Doh! :(

[Eberwein]

I think I'll have to call out in the new instructions about what material to use where so this doesn't happen to others.

Brian

[fprintf]

So as I mentioned, one of the pieces for the tail was too short.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jestertailpieces.jpg
I did some gluing, perhaps making an error here and crossing the grain on my makeshift center piece. But I figure the tail is pretty well supported along both glue joints by the fuse and I should be OK.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterstabelevator.jpg
Putting the fin and rudder together were very easy. It look me a couple of hours, with a few hours in between to let the glue dry and take my son to basketball practice.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterfinrudder.jpg
So here is the left tip construction well underway. I tried the "assemble all at once" method of shear web attachment and it seemed to work fine. Except now I have a lot of sanding to do in the upper spar slots. I need to be careful to be sure I do not oversand the shear webs and sand into the slots in the ribs. I am going to go back to the recommended way on the right wingtip - glue all the ribs in and then sand each shear web to fit.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterlefttip1.jpg
Well, here we are about to put the upper spar into the wing and the wood doesn't fit. Only after I compared my two strips of basswood did I discover that they were different thicknesses. After searching for a few minutes I figured out where the strip went... into the fin/rudder as the support for the rudder post. Dangit! The LHS didn't have the basswood, so I will have to try the other shop down the road. If worse comes to worst I will monkey something together with the wood I have/can get, after all it is in the wingtip and is a relatively low stress area.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesteruhoh.jpg

[fprintf]

I worked on the left hand tip this weekend. I seem to be dragging the build out, but as Spring arrives the honey-do list sometimes interferes with my own priorities. :)

The shear webs were all standing proud over where they should be. So I marked a line from one rib to the next and using a sharp exacto cut just above the line on both sides of the web. I did get a tiny bit of crumbling along the top of the shear, so I will not use this method on the right hand tip. I made another sanding block out of scrap 1/4" balsa and sanded the webs down to the right height. Wow, it was quick! 5 minutes later and the top spar was glued into place. The leading edge was applied rapidly a few minutes later without the troubles I had with the center section. This time I took the advice given previously and rotated the stick until it fit the ribs the best before gluing it in. Those shot bags I made helped tremendously! While the top spar was gluing up I had the shot bags on top of the wing. I was then able to make some wedges out of balsa scrap to hold the LE in place. It worked extremely well!

At the same time I am also sanding the tail group and getting ready to apply the strips to the ribs.

Pictures next time!

[fprintf]

Sanded the tail pieces down last night. I had bought a finger plane (made by Stanley) and it is so way superior to my razor plane that I bought at the hobby shop. I intend to make a balsa template that I can affix to the blade so I can sharpen it properly. I ended up taking all the wood I needed off with the plane and only had to use the sandpaper a little bit. Sweet!

Good thing I got my practice sheeting on the center section of the wing cause now I have to do it on the left hand tip. The instructions do not say whether the tip gets sheeting top and bottom, but I am going to presume so.

[Kestrel]

I have the same Stanley plane. It works very well. A bit touchy to adjust though. I touch it up using a fine sharpening stone with honing oil. Awesome how that sharp edge peels off the balsa! Be careful!!!!

[fprintf]

So it has been awhile since I have posted some pictures. After my error in cutting the spar material it has taken me a while to get back to the LHS, and I still have not. We were supposed to receive 3 - 4 inches of rain this weekend in Connecticut so I decided this was a good weekend for building. I finally finished up the left tip.

On Friday night I added the sheeting and did a much better job this time around. On Saturday morning I decided to use CA to affix the rib cap strips and I am glad I did. It made the work go so much more quickly. I made sure a fan was blowing and the basement doors were open since I usually get naseau whenever I get a snootful. As I was moving the piece around I noticed how much the ribs were flexing. I figured it out - I had not glued the tip blocks into place. That and the cap strips increase the parallelogram ridigity of the wing tremendously.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterlefttipdone.jpg
I am always so pleased when my tip blocks come out nicely. It is so satisfying to take a razor plane and remove a few hundred paper thin curls of balsa wood. I almost feel like a sculptor, or perhaps even a real woodworker like some of our great-grandfathers might have been. I managed to keep a nice airfoil shape and yet took off enough wood that there was no excess (keep the tips as light as possible).
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterlefttipend.jpg
One of the toughest jobs of building a new plane is always the covering. I am finding that practice makes perfect and that there are *no* books on the subject that can teach you the little hints that are necessary for a good job. For example, I have never read approximately what angle you should hold a razor blade in order to closely trim overhanging covering. And yet this is the first time that I have discovered just the right way to cut the covering while leaving a virtually seamless look (in places, don't get me wrong I am still not even close to perfect). And yet like so many other authors I do not think there is a way to put into words how to position the razor blade, where to hold your fingers and also how to hold the piece to ensure just enough 64th's get cut off. The three things I do know... covering cuts best with a brand new single sided razor blade, covering dulls razor blades after only a few cuts (save them for cutting balsa, however!), and Fiskar's scissors run up the trailing edge of a wing make nice straight seams (that is a Faye Stilley technique).
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesterruddercovered.jpg
So I had been reading all about Blenderm from 3M. I could not find any in any of the local pharmacies, so I ended up trying a brand from Walmart called something like NextTape. The stuff I used is very flexible and stretchy, and also very stickly. I applied it to the front and back side of the hinge just as if I was doing a standard covering hinge. It worked extremely well and moves back and forth very smoothly.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesternextapehinge.jpg
So in the middle of the day I decided to paint my fuse with spraypaint. This is a first for me as usually I just use covering. So I took a can of paint off the shelf and started spraying. Well I ran out 1/2 way through. I grabbed another can, this time black and said "what the heck". I really should have waited until I got to go to the store as now I am going to have to spend some quality time with my power sander getting the black off. Talk about an ugly fuse! At the point I did the spraying I had not shaped the nose or added the canopy. Now those pieces are done and I must say, like the tips that I was very satisfied with the shape of the nose. Way more satisified with this shape than what I created on my Marauder last year. It looks really sleek and aerodynamic.
http://fprintf.rchomepage.com/jester/jesteruglyfuse.jpg
Next up, possibly tomorrow, covering the rest of the tail and sanding the fuse. I have not decided whether to hook up the spoilers as I do not currently have the servos to get it done nor the servo extensions. It'd be foolish, I know, to finish the wing without the spoilers installed but right now I am feeling under some pressure to get this thing finished in time for the beginning of flying season (and to keep my part of the bargain with Brian of Laser Arts).

[WimH]

So it has been awhile since I have posted some pictures...

All your pics seem to have disappeared?problem with your website?

[fprintf]

All your pics seem to have disappeared?problem with your website?

Thanks WimH. I checked my website and the rest of the thread and it all seems to be working. My rchomepage webpages have been known to be down at inconvenient times when the forums are still up (different server).

[erich]

fprintf

Your photos don't load on my page either. Am using Firefox, and Safari and neither one will load your pictures. Been checking out Johnsocj build also, his pictures download just fine. Been meaning to say something but I figured it was just my browser. Maybe not.

erich

[GoFaster]

All the pictures are loading for me, FWIW. Looking forward to see the new bird fly.

- Felix

[WimH]

All the pictures are loading for me, FWIW. Looking forward to see the new bird fly.

- Felix

I can see them now...

[johnsocj]

The build looks great, and the wing looks really cool. I can't wait to see it fly!

The Scepter was the first fuse I've ever painted, I have a couple of reccomedations, if you like.

I found that using a few light coats of "lightweight spackling compound" really got rid of the grain in the wood, and allowed a fairly smooth paint job on the fuse. Look for the small container that feels like it's empty. Over that, a light primer coat will help the paint adhese smoothly, and show you were you've missed on the fill. The additional weight is really negligible with this stuff. You'll use more weight in epoxy getting the tail feathers on, than you will filling the grain in the balsa.

I'd also reccomend a bit of fibreglass on the nose. You'll be adding nose weight there anyway, so might as well make it structural. I'm not sure it actually needs it, but I felt more confident with it there.

C

[fprintf]

All this procrastination in the last week because I didn't want to go buy a new piece of basswood for the right hand tip spar. Well $0.49 later I came home from the store last night with a piece that looks *exactly* the same as the one I inadvertently cut in the kit. D'oh! At least I got a bunch of sanding done in the meantime so things are going to go relatively (note: relatively at my pace) quickly from this point.

I have the right tip ribs assembled to the lower spar, and the shear webs in place ready for sanding. Given how straight forward the left tip was I imagine I will be sanding the wing in a day or so and covering it by next weekend.

One thing that would be nice would be instructions that tell you *how* to get the 1/8" washout installed beyond "use a 1/8" shim". I found that it was easiest to do this by installing the lower sheeting without any twist *or* the tip block in place and then pin the root of the wingtip section back to the board with a 1/8" basswood scrap at the trailing edge of the tip. On the left hand tip section I applied too much weight to the TE (trying to hold the wind in place I guess) and ended up with a curve in it. Nothing that a little water and weight applied overnight couldn't straighten out. The wing is stiffer with just the lower sheeting installed but allows just enough twist to apply the washout. Once you install the upper sheeting the wing, cap strips and tip blocks the wing allows very little twist so you need to get it right the first time as unlike my other planes you cannot use the covering to twist/untwist the structure.

On the other hand the tail pieces are very lightweight and it is not easy to shrink without introducing some twist. I am using Ultracote/Oracover and it shrinks at relatively lower temperatures, so I applied a heat gun from a few feet away then held the tail flat on the board as the covering shrank. Unfortunately I have never experienced the air inside the structure heating up with nowhere to go and then expanding (or puffing out), which is what happened to me. I ended up flipping the rudder/fin over a few times to get all the wrinkles out *and* remove any twist. It looks great now!

Christian, thanks for the hints on covering the fuse. I was still in the air whether I will use balsarite and regular covering over the fiberglass or the recommended spraypaint. I have the filler you mention so I think I will try it according to the plans (it'd be helpful to have directions on this in the kit also).

[johnsocj]

I think on this kit, and like many others, the manufacurer expects that the builder already has experience in building models, and these processes have already been explained or developed via trial and error in the past.

Brian's instructions are thin, but they are not negligent. Adding a few details, or descriptions of processes would not be difficult, on the same note, figuring these things out yourself is not so tough either. (aimed at all builders, not you personally, fprint)

Unfortunately, this is no longer appropriate. A modeler may be building their first model, but flying their third or fourth. Many modelers are starting and continuing with ARF's, Moldies, etc, that a built up ship may be the only one, and at an advanced place in their flying history.

(with sadness) Ergo, simpler instructions are no longer appropriate on more advanced flying models. (If I remember right, the Jester is not intended for the beginning flyer) Flying ability is no longer a good indicator of building prowress, and detailed instructions are appropriate on all built up models.

C.

[fprintf]

Having never built a kit in the good ole days I cannot measure for myself how the instructions for this kit stack up. I think when building from scratch was more common and building skills were necessary to even undertake a build then simply providing plans and letting the builder figure it out were more the rule. When you compare the instructions for the Jester to a kit designed for a beginner, like the Gentle Lady or Spirit, then you see the issue in very black and white as both those planes are designed for beginners and have instructions laid out step by step. These instructions are meant for someone who either already knows what they are doing, can figure it out for themselves, or has someone to tell them how to do it. The instructions are clearly not designed for a beginner and so the warning on the Laser Arts Jester webpage is appropriate.

As I re-read my posts it seems as though I continue to be surprised or even upset about the level of detail in the instructions. While this was initially true for me, comparing to those that came with the another kit, I no longer am surprised and certainly have never been upset about it. I do think, however, that it is worth noting in my build where the instructions can be improved for someone coming along after me, either reading this thread as a guide to their own build or for Brian noting where there a potential improvements.

[tw126a]

It's looking great so far, Stuart. I really like the work you did with the nose and wing tips. Do you have a picture of that plane you used? Also, where can you find that "light spackling"? My Riser build got stalled a bit last month but I started again today. This thread has been very encouraging. Thanks.

Tom

[johnsocj]

I've found the lightweight spackling paste at Do-It center and Lowes recently, there's no reason Home Depot shouldn't have it. It's relatively common stuff. The slope people use it to fill their EPP foam for slick finishes all the time. As before, just look for the container that feels empty.

[fprintf]

Tom, the spackle is called "Fast 'n Final" by DAP. It is a non-structural spackling, meaning your glue joints have to be quite solid as this really only fills slight gaps or voids in the wood. I use it often on the leading edges where the sheeting is glued but my sanding has created slight looking gaps.

The plane is available at Home Depot and is called a Stanley Trim Plane 12-101. You can also buy it from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002X1ZC/103-2809744-9092603?v=glance.
Here is a picture of the plane: (borrowed from Amazon). I will say that if you already have a razor plane then this plane is not necessarily any better. Most planes are rather fiddly and take some adjusting to get right. I happend to get this one aligned right 5 minutes after I got it out of the packaging and have been loving it ever since! Never have I been able to produce curls of balsa with the thickness varying by how much pressure I put on the plane. I can do paper thin curls or really thick slices, though I like lots of paper thin curls. I am told by many free flighters, who quite honestly know better than any of us, that the blue razor planes sold by Hobby Lobby (Graupner?) are the best you can buy right now if you do not have one of the old time double edged safety razor planes. Either way they take some adjusting as well to get just right.

[JimHSoars]

I am told by many free flighters, who quite honestly know better than any of us, that the blue razor planes sold by Hobby Lobby (Graupner?) are the best you can buy right now if you do not have one of the old time double edged safety razor planes. Either way they take some adjusting as well to get just right.
Try this Hobby-Lobby page (http://www.hobby-lobby.com/planer.htm)

Odd thing to post? Yah, but I've got more $'s into hand planes for woodworking than into R/C. :eek:
i've got 5 block planes so I may as well have more than one Razor Plane.

Jim

[fprintf]

That is the one! Sollingen. It is also highly rated on the RCSE list.

[fprintf]

So this weekend was spent sanding and more sanding. I used my power sander to get most of the black paint off the fuse and in the process nicely rounded the plywood. It is starting to look quite like a sailplane now. I have not covered any other pieces but I suspect in another week or so that the plane will be taking flight. Pictures probably later this week once I have something to show for it (sanding doesn't show up too well!). I am going to 400 grit as the last sailplane I made showed all the little bumps, so I want to do a nice job this time around and not hurry the last part of the process.

[fprintf]

So I spent this weekend flying. On my downtime I spent some time sanding the wing joiners. Why is that necessary given the laser cutting? I am not sure, but the spar gaps at either end of the center section are .356 inches according to my digital caliper. The joiners are .395 inches. So each of them has to be sanded to fit tightly. Not a big deal at all, but you need to be accurate so that they fit tightly.

Covering the tail pieces is done. I am going to use covering on the fuse, and have laid out the white covering I plan to use. Overall the color scheme is going to be exactly like my other plane, transparent blue bottom of the wing and transparent red top of the wing.

[bwanajim]

Any more progress on the Jester? I'm thinking of building just the wing and stab for a 2m electric project.

[fprintf]

Funny you should ask. I sent Brian a PM the other day apologizing, of course, for not working on the plane the past two months due to training and other work responsibilities. I finally have two weeks vacation starting next week and I hope to get some quiet time in the nice cool basement to have a go at completing then flying the plane.

So far the fuse is complete and covered, awaiting final hookup of radio gear. The fin and stab need to be attached. Then I need to epoxy the wings together, cover them and I am done. This is something I should be able to do during the two weeks.

[fprintf]

Ok, so I made an error on the wingtips. I forgot to wrap the spars with floss/kevlar at the polyhedral joint, which kind of demotivated me these few months ago also. Now that I have thought about it for a while I am considering making a front and rear mounted shearweb, perhaps out of lite-ply to stop the spars from separating under load. Thoughts on whether this will work?

[dephela]

Why lite-ply?

[bwanajim]

I know how you feel. Whenever I find I've made a major mistake on a build, it demotivates me. Can you get anything around the joint at all, or is all the wing sheeting in place? I think the wrapping might be important enough that it would be worthwhile to cut back the sheeting (neatly) do the wrapping and replace the sheeting. I have done this on my ARF BOT and it's not as nasty a job as you might think.

BTW, do you find that the wing came out pretty lightweight?

--Jim

[fprintf]

Why lite-ply?

I was thinking for the strength and resistance to buckling. Would there be another material that would help from having to rip off the sheeting?

[fprintf]

BTW, do you find that the wing came out pretty lightweight?
--Jim

It is hard to say since I have never built up another 2M wing before. I will say it seems light enough especially if you do not use the supplied plywood spoiler panels (I am not). I can weight it after I fix it and cover it. It'll be nothing like the strength/weight of an allegro-lite, that's for sure. The spars seem just right for an electric though, not too heavy.

[dephela]

I think that lite-ply is a terrible material.
Pick workable thickness's of regular plywood for the job.
More strength for the weight, I think.

[jrgospod]

I think the wrapping might be important enough that it would be worthwhile to cut back the sheeting (neatly) do the wrapping and replace the sheeting. --Jim


I can't think of anything better than Kevlar tow wrapping the spar for strength. Spars buckle on top from compression and the Kevlar wrap will prevent that the best.

John

[soarrich]

fprintf

Did you finish the plane?

If you're still stuck on not rapping the joiner boxes, why not wrap them now? Years and years ago I built a Paragon that fully D tubed and forgot to rap the blade boxes. I took a long needle and just pushed it through the D tube spar joint and sewed the wrap on. I used #30 fishing line in those days and I just had two tiny bumps on each side of the tips, now with Kevlar thread pulled tight you wouldn't have a bump at all, at least when I use it I pull it so tight it makes it's way down into the wood some. I'm talking about the Kevlar thread that's about .001, not the braded stuff you see some guys wrap the spars with.

Rich

[fprintf]

Hey Rich, thanks for resurrecting this thread. Actually I was stuck all year thinking about what to do and getting motivated to do it. Last year I got some kevlar thread (not tow) so a few weeks ago I cut away a small piece of sheeting from the upper and lower sides of the wing and wrapped the spar. I figure the removed sheeting will not be a big deal, and I can always glue it back into place.

I joined the wings a few days ago which required a lot of work on the joiners since they were oversized (which I think I mentioned before) at the wing-center end. Lots of sanding, fitting etc.

Now that the wing is done all that remains is to cover the wing and then attached the tail feathers to the fuse. I am waiting for a new battery since my 600mah flat pack that came with my radio does not fit in the fuse. I do not feel comfortable enough reconfiguring it with my soldering iron so I'll just get a new one. It will have SwitchJacks installed to eliminate the errors I have so often encountered with planes flying out of my hand in the off position!

Once I get the wing covered I'll take some more pics and get this thread going again. Spring is only a few months away here in CT so I hope to have the plane flying once the puddles are gone from our flying field (usually April/May).

Stuart

[Guz]

I'm in the process of building the Jester.

One thing I would like to highly recommend, go to your local hobby shop and pick up some extra Bass and Balsa sticks!

Just some 2 foot lengths of...
Bass
1/4" x 1/4" x 2'
1/8" x 1/4" x 2'

Balsa
1/4" x 1/4" x 2'
1/4" x 1/8" x 2'

There is enough wood sticks in the kit, if you cut just right. That is sit down and plan things out. But just make your life easier and get the extra 4 sticks of wood. For the times just didn't plan properly and you're going... "Hmmmm... this piece is just to short. Dang it!"

Another suggestion is when you open the box, and are going through all the wood, seperate all the Bass from the Balsa. Put them in 2 distinct piles! It is really easy to confuse them and end up glueing the wrong type in the wrong place.

Other than that. This kit has been a complete breeze to put together! One big 3-D jigsaw puzzle! So much better than the "old days" of the die cut parts. If this were a die cut kit, I would still be sanding the ribs.

[just_steve51]

Great build Stuart........Going to have to order 1 for myself..........

Has any thought of ELECTRIFYING this?

A brushless with a folding prop......?

Appears to be stong - atleast much stronger the the Gentle Lady?

At 35 to 40 oz....empty wt - should be strong.....?

[Guz]

Well, I just finished my Jester. But haven't flown her because of windy conditions. But this feels like one tough bird.

[Guz]

Just want to add one thing. Painting the fusalge.

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!

Don't buy the quick drying Krylon rattle cans! Go for a paint that says something like 20 min (or more) drying time. Why?!?!? Well with the quick drying you get really rough overspray on at least one side, if not 2 sides. About the roughness of 200 grit sand paper.

I wet sanded down more white paint than I have sanded in all my life. Went through 1 can of primer and 2 cans of the quick dry before I went with a different brand. Then it only took one can, and a nice smooth surface.

[dephela]

Beautiful job Guz

[fprintf]

I tried painting the fuse myself with the krylon brand of paints. It came out terrible! So I sanded most of the paint off and covered it with ultracote white covering.

Guz, I really like your plane, it looks great!

[dephela]

The Krylon is terrible to sand.
I understand a Lacquer product from them is better.
I use auto touchup paints in the spray cans, nice thin spray and easy to sand/buff out.

[Guz]

Thanks fprintf, so... when are you going to finish yours?!?!?! :p

I even tried good ol Tester gloss white, but ran out of the paint in the process. Had to sand that off also.

The Krylon primer can was fine. Although it wasn't "sandable" but it still covered and was able to wet sand it fine.

I ended up using Ace Hardware house brand of rattle can. Worked great! Just hung the fuse from the tail and sprayed tons of light coats. Started on one side, then the next, and the next, and next. Kept going around and around till it was smooth.

I used to have access to automotive paint laquer/acrilic/etc , but that was long ago. Had to stoop down to the local hardware store for this one.

Oh, there are flaws on the bird. But I won't show them, unless you handle the plane personally :D Still need to wash off my greasy fingerprints on the wing and such.

I'm going to try to get it out this weekend to trim it out, but not sure of the wind forcast, and work schedule.

[bobby legue]

Hey guys,
Save yourself a lot of trouble. Heres how. prime with "filling type" automotive paint, let dry for at least 4 hours. Wet sand till very smooth as this is what the finished product will look like. Repeat if necessary. If you paint any of it ,paint all of it again as you will get dry overspray that will show on finished product. Rewetsand and let dry overnite as paint and water will not mix.
Paint with rustoleum enamel paint. First coat of paint spray enough to cover about 40 or 50 percent of the surface, let dry for 5 minutes. This is a tack coat only it is not supposed to cover anything, just a base for a final coat to stick to. Spray a coat over that first coat to cover most of the underlying surface. Spray till there is an even wetness over surface. Not running but not rough and dry either. Just look for an even gloss. Let dry till surface can be dented with a finger nail but doesnt take a finger print. Add a final coat again with an even wet gloss but not running and your done!
Ill take questions,
Bob

[Guz]

Bingo!

Couldn't have explained it any better. That is basicly how I painted the fuse.

[soarrich]

I love Rustoleum paint, and it holds up to model fuel well also.

[Guz]

Well, I finally got to take the bird out for it's maiden flight. Went to the electric field where the regulars tolerate me (to show it off) around 8 AM. It's a tough field to fly at because with the runway I don't have very many options for setting up the High-start.

Did the usual hand tosses to trim it out, then up on the high-start. It was really a pain because I could only launch with a tail wind. Had a good launch or two in the end. The plane flies very well. Noticed that the recommended CG is way to far forward for me. Tends to pull out of dive on it's own. Overall it was good morning. Didn't really play with the spoilers at all.

Went home, had lunch, watched some TV. Decided that I should go to my normal feild (school yard right behind my house). This time I could set up the high-start properly, into the wind. Wonderful launches!! Kited up just fine, nice 5 -10 minute flights, no big deal. But the wind started to shift 180 degrees around. Decided to do one last flight, waiting for the wind to die down so I could do a dead air launch. Up she went, half way it really popped up, really stretching the high-start on it's own.

Came off, and started some nice wide turns. After a bit it started doing it's turns. Decided to let the plane do it's own thing and took hands off sticks. The darn thing started a nice semi-tight clockwise turn and going up, and up, and up, and UP!!! STRAIGHT UP! It didn't drift a bit, but it just kept going up. SWEEEEET!! Took it out of the turn and it still kept going up, no matter where I took the plane, the entire field was nothing but lift (I love this school yard, one just waits and huge lift just comes).

Started some loops and fun, the plane just took it, no issues. The wing was looking like about a half inch wide at arms length (one of this days I will do the math and figure out it's altitude), not quite a speck. Time to finally mess with the spoilers.

Well, I mentioned that the piano wire for the spoilers might be a bit short... they ARE! With the lift the only thing the spoilers did was stop it from going up. They didn't bring it down at all, just leveled it out. I ended fighting to bring the plane down. As for trying to use the spoilers as arelons, nope didn't do squat. I guess the dihedral of the wing is just to good.

Overall it was about an hour flight. Could have been longer if I didn't choose to bring it down. I think this one is a keeper! :D

Brought it home and decided to work on the piano wire. Finally mesured the angle the existing setup. Only 40 degrees. I really should have checked it before (just lazy). Repent some new wire, now the max angle is 75 degrees. Fine tuned the angle with the endpoints in the Tx, back to the recommended 65 degrees. Should do better next time.

One thing I noticed is the nose of the fuselage is rather dinged up with the landings. Really dinged up, nice chunks out of the bottom right at the tip. I guess I have to sand it down and apply some glass cloth. I know I had some left over glass cloth from the dihedral joints, but can't find it now (must have accidently throw it away).

SO... for those who build this plane, next suggestion is to use the provided glass cloth sparingly on the dihedral (only use what you need) and you will have some extra. Use that extra to glass the bottom nose of the fuselage!!! If you don't have extra cloth, go get some.

I like this plane :)

[kwmtrubrit]

Hey Guz,

A friend of mine put me on to a pretty good idea for the bottom of the plane. Go to an auto parts store and get some door trim (half round shape). I have black on the bottom of mine. It acts like a skid and keeps the bottom of the plane off of the ground. Depending on the length you may add about an ounce. Maybe I should say that this stuff is what goes on the outside of a car door to protct it from dings. Mine has a sticky tape already on it.

Keith

[soarrich]

I think this one is a keeper! :D

I like this plane :)

:) :) :) :) I guess so!

[rud-elev]

I have used a strip of 1/32 plywood about 1/2" x 6" glued onto the underside of the nose. It doesn't raise the fuse much, but it does take most of the abuse of the landing. I guess one could laminate 3-4 pieces for additional thickness.

I like 1/32" ply because you can cut it scissors and it is very bendable to fit the curve of the fuse bottom and glues solidly with epoxy glue.

R/E

[Johnnie Paul]

Long pause here, has this Jester made air time yet?

Great thread, it just needs a bang-up finish...how bout it fprintf?

Johnnie