Originally Posted by K466

First impressions were, this is a FastStick, not a SlowStick- but then I have a brushless motor and a big battery... also, I hate the landing gear, i

Check the X-Gear offered by Millennum RC. Much better than the stock wire things.

My favorite is this from Hobby King. If you have not bought from them be aware that the main warehouse is in Hong Kong so it takes about 3 weeks for shipping.

ing.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idproduct=6206

You can find similar legs in the replacement parts section at 3dhobbies.com.

I mount the CF legs on laser-cut plywood gear mounts from Radical RC.

Listen you will think I'm crazy but I have been modifying slow sticks for years now. I take the wing joiner metal tube and put it into a vice and squeeze it to take out the bend. I then take the carbon rod and cross the bridge between the trailing edge. I then cut huge 2.5" ailerons on each side and attach 9g servos using hot glue. Now build the rest as stock but use a 480 motor. I know this is way overkill but it will houver with a 3s 1300 may lipo. My sons and friends do the same and we combat them. They will fly inverted just as slow as right side up. Just a ton of fun. Just use throttle control. Oh yeah use a 10*3.8 prop.
Thanks and enjoy. Mdtang

Originally Posted by Raften

Well the triple beam has a lot of history with me, it weighed a lot of gold. But yea, I need a new scale.

Oh I'm not saying at all to toss it, only that digital is faster easier and more accurate. Make a small plaque for it, put it on a shelf, and in 30 years American Pickers will want it. Yes it was a heartbreak to toss my first XT 'turbo' after 18 years, but that wasn't even worth dragging around any more when I moved (and yes I did call them but American Pickers was *not* interested in it.) LOL!!

Originally Posted by mdtang

wing joiner metal tube and put it into a vice and squeeze it to take out the bend. I then take the carbon rod and cross the bridge between the trailing edge. I then cut huge 2.5" ailerons on each side and attach 9g servos using hot glue. Now build the rest as stock but use a 480 motor.

Nope no one thinks you're crazy at all - that's a pretty standard issue 'hot rod SS' setup. About the only thing to add to that is brushless to avoid the motor wearing out.

And hot glue is not so swift because it shifts in not weather and at least in my experience doesn't stick very well to foam. Hot glue is also very heavy. Lately I cut a line in the foam, two on each side, and lay in CF rod, that's to create a firm base. Then I stick servo down with fabric tape, and tie two loops around the whole thing with artificial sinew to prevent shifting.

What width aileron do you use? I've had 3.5"x12" ailerons, but I think it's too big gonna cut it back to the 2.5" you mentioned. Beyond a point, 'too much' aileron doesn't really help much.

Originally Posted by jbarchuk

Nope no one thinks you're crazy at all - that's a pretty standard issue 'hot rod SS' setup. About the only thing to add to that is brushless to avoid the motor wearing out.

And hot glue is not so swift because it shifts in not weather and at least in my experience doesn't stick very well to foam. Hot glue is also very heavy. Lately I cut a line in the foam, two on each side, and lay in CF rod, that's to create a firm base. Then I stick servo down with fabric tape, and tie two loops around the whole thing with artificial sinew to prevent shifting.

What width aileron do you use? I've had 3.5"x12" ailerons, but I think it's too big gonna cut it back to the 2.5" you mentioned. Beyond a point, 'too much' aileron doesn't really help much.

I think I understand how you do servos but a picture would nail it.

Originally Posted by Raften

I think I understand how you do servos but a picture would nail it.

I don't have one now but here's a close example. On the opposite side of this servo is another. (One servo is elevator and other is rudder.) In this case the two servos are tied to each other with the depron in between, rather than a CF rod on the other side.

The two vertical lines (the white one for contrast) represent where a CF rod would be on the opposite side of the foam.

The thread would go from this side, through the foam, around the CF rod, back through the foam, across the servo, down through the foam again, around the other CF rod, back up through the foam, and fially tied off.

I've generally used artificial sinew because it does not stretch and is nearly impossible to break, with a drop of CA, but Kevlar/Spider Wire would work equally well.

The purpose of the CF rods are to spread the load across the foam, and are placed perpendicular to the like the string tracks. (Without the CF rod obviously the foam would simply rip through.)

Cut a shallow slit in the foam, press the CF rod into it, and glue down. I guess neither the slit nor the flue are totally necessary but pressing it into the slit helps spread the load and the glue prevents it from ever moving.

CA should work fine but it's very brittle. I think canopy glue would be better in case there's some flex that might break the CF-foam bond rather than fracture the connection. (It would take a rather violent hit for that to happen but even if the wing fails/explodes it's nice to know that the assembly held together. LOL!)

Thanks jabarchuk, that helps. I will give it a try as I am not happy with hot glue. Where does one get the sinew?

Originally Posted by Raften

Thanks jabarchuk, that helps. I will give it a try as I am not happy with hot glue. Where does one get the sinew?

I've never had a hot glue - foam attachment that didn't fail eventually, but that may be a personal problem. I found it difficult to glue to 'cold' foam, and getting it even remotely warm enough usually melted it, so I stopped trying..

Locally, craft stores have artificial sinew, JoAnn, Michaels, AC Moore, in the leathercrafting area. (I learned about it hanging around Native American folks.) I like it because it's waxed and 'holds a knot' till I'm finished tying it, then CA to freeze it. and as I said it does not stretch and is spectacularly strong.

It's actually a 'flat' thread, made up of many fine almost-parallel fibers. The wax keeps all the threads together. It's about 1/8" wide but the parallel fibers can be 'split out' to make narrowed cords.

I know that stuff, I have a big spool of it that I first got 30 years ago. We used it to make wire bundles.

Cant Dental floss or spider wire do the same thing?

Originally Posted by SpaKack

Cant Dental floss or spider wire do the same thing?

The key is the wax, it holds the knot as you tie it and does not loosen in the process. I don't know about others but I have always had trouble tying a knot in Spider Wire.

Originally Posted by jbarchuk

I assure you it's a slow stick. The heavy undercamber and all the drag created by the 'not-a-fuselage' guarantee it. I has a speed limit which, without proper reinforcement, if you exceed you *will* break something in flight. Rather spectacularly too.

(Only the cell count, not the mA, make a battery 'big.' Cells are speed, mA are duration.)

RadicalRC.com make an extensive line of laser-plywood hop-ups and add-ons for SS. But their website 'find a part' and search are *horrible*. This page, scroll down a bit to 'slow stick main gear mount kit.' http://www.radicalrc.com/search/slow...Cat/249/rec/48

Beyond that you can put 'slow stick' in the search box and get all the hits, but how you get to those parts via the menus I can never remember from one time to the next that I look at the site.

That LG good up to about 1.5#. Beyond that I used the same design but upped the ante on plywood thickness and piano wire size

Dubro wheels, add bushing inside that to prevent metal from wearing out the plastic, and it's good forever.

The speed/power thing, see http://www.ecalc.ch/motorcalc_e.htm and plug in your battery, weight, motor, and prop info. Then look at the calculated thrust/weight and prop speed.

You -can- overpower any airplane. SS is so light that's very easy to do. It's not hard to gain enough speed to flutter the wings and explode them, or with added weight a simple loop folding the wing. Power is good, for easy climbing and getting out of trouble when you find yourself in a tight spot, just be careful with it.

Thanks for all that info! That's a complex calcuator will have to come back to it later. btw, my battery is 3 cell...

I'm glad my plane has more than enough power, I plan on weighing it down with beefier landing gear, a camera, and probably other things But first I'm off to a big park this weekend to get some real flying in

Originally Posted by kaptondave

Check the X-Gear offered by Millennum RC. Much better than the stock wire things.

My favorite is this from Hobby King. If you have not bought from them be aware that the main warehouse is in Hong Kong so it takes about 3 weeks for shipping.

ing.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idproduct=6206

You can find similar legs in the replacement parts section at 3dhobbies.com.

I mount the CF legs on laser-cut plywood gear mounts from Radical RC.

Unfortunately I know a lot about HK's HK warehouse. It took them a month to deliver my plane btw that link didn't work, I'll look up the part though.

For servos to wing, I epoxied small square of thin hobby plywood to the wing, then hot glued the servos to the plywood. I've had some last at least 2 years so far.

If you start weighing it down with gear, might want to beef up the wings. I have fpv gear on mine, and glassed the bottom side of the wings. Works great.

Originally Posted by K466

Unfortunately I know a lot about HK's HK warehouse. It took them a month to deliver my plane btw that link didn't work, I'll look up the part though.

Sorry about the bad link to the cf landing gear:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idproduct=6206

BTW Hobby King is also a good source for square cf tubes. The shipping is expensive because it takes an oversize box but the bottom line is still a bargain. They sell it in 750 mm length only so if you want the stock 800 mm length you will need to add an extension using a square sleeve. If you buy three tubes you will have enough for two 800 mm or longer booms. Unfortunately it is BK at this time.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idproduct=9012

Yes shipping from China is slow but worth the wait for the cost savings. They are increasing stock in their US store all the time and ordering from therre takes only three or four days. They now carry my favorite motor as well as 1300 mah and 1800 mah batteries.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dproduct=28115