Originally Posted by Cloudriderurt

If I read you correctly Robert, I'd suggest hollow molded wings can be up to 40% lighter....................you Vac to the molds in your case now you have new polished gems, not vac to the foam cores obviously.

Paul.

40% Lighter? Well, I just assumed they were heavier. That is a huge percentage. So, the molds I have are perfectly fine for doing this? What type of foam and what thickness is used on the skins? My trailing edge comes down to .25mm thick. Would I vacuum bag the skins with 1 layer of CW20 to the mold, then another layer of CW20 over the foam skin? I would be interesting to try. It looks like a lot more work but might have it's advantages. If it was possible to make the wings 20% lighter, that would be a huge deal, although, these gliders have been coming out just at the right weight. I'm bad at searching things these day's. Post some links on hollow core wings and maybe I'll give it a try. It would have the advantage of not having to CNC mill the foam core. If someone wanted to barrow my molds to make glider's they would be able to make them without needing a CNC router. I am looking for a potential builder that is interested in making these gliders and selling them using my molds. All profits to such an individual would go straight to them.

I’m not sure on a glider this size if a hollow wing would be any lighter by the time you have a spar in there and joined the two half’s the weight of even the bonding paste will add up but seeing as you have the molds it would defiantly be worth trying and would be very nice and possibly stronger. It’s something I have wanted to try but just never had the time to machine the molds. My thought was to integrate the fuz pod with the wing so it was only two mold sides that needed laying up which should cut the manufacture costs down due to a lot of time being saved. I tried to modify one of your earlier designs on cad but my skills were not there to get it right. The ideal way would be to do it hollow all in pre preg carbon and then put it in a auto clave which I have a friend that could do it but I’m not sure getting super light pre preg carbon is posable, it would be worth trying to calculate the weight of say using something widely avalable like 200g pre preg.

Having laid up a Carboline hollow wing, I can state it is definitely lighter. Remember the spar is just keeping the skins apart basically on such a small span. Laying into Foam/Rohacell of any type is going to waste epoxy and add undesirable weight., even ignoring the foam itself. Plus why would Robert really want to Mill Foam if he/A N Other could avoid it. Every gram counts with this size and design target DLG.

Carboline is 39 g/mē , it wouldn't make sense to use pre preg. Unless you're called Valdimir ( It's his team who lay them up obviously ), or you have a specific production process to pre preg it yourself. This isn't a full strength launch competition Snipe.

The combined root fuzz junction idea is a good one, something I've toyed with myself. But as with so many things, simples usually best. Especially where spare Parts are concerned etc. The likes of the Light Hawk and Strike 2/3 do this pretty well weight wise. Now Robert has the accuracy required in such molds, it's almost a crime not to.

Paul :-)

Originally Posted by Cloudriderurt

Look gorgeous Robert, what grade Aluminium did they use?

Must be a great feeling having pro milled molds..............drool!!!!!!!

Paul UK

I believe it's 6061 Aluminum.

Don't know if I posted them, but this is the glider that is going to slowly come into existence. This is the what the CNC milled Aluminum wing molds were made for. Looking for a potential builder. I will do my best to try to build a few until I can find someone else to take over.

Happy New Year Robert!

Hope your feeling well and your health is improving. I'm finally getting around to giving an update on the Aries Feather.
I wanted to put a smooth finish on the wood parts of the airplane and seal it to provide some protection form moisture.
I weighed the airplane and it came out to 52.3 grams so my goal was to not exceed this number.
Judicious sanding (just like building a free flight hlg) removed the machine marks from the wing and tail surfaces. I thinned down the
trailing edges to 1/32 inch and I added a small filler piece between the trailing edge of the wing and tail boom.
Also removed the balance weights (5 steel nuts held with epoxy) from the pod hatch. I replaced these nuts with a
single 1/16 oz. lead fishing weight in the very tip of the nose. The color accents were applied with a highler marker.
I then sealed the wings and tail surfaces with two light coats of Minwax Polycrylic sprayed from a rattle can, sanding between coats with
800 grit wet or dry paper used dry. I was pleased with the results. Now came the moment of truth. I put the finished airplane on the scale
and was astonished to see 44.0 grams. I would have been happy to see the same weight as before putting on a finish but far exceeded by expectations.
This airplane flew very well at 52.3 grams. I'm sure it will be even better at 44 grams. I have not had the chance to fly since completing the finish
on the airplane but I will post some video when I do. Thanks Robert for an excellent design! I'm sure your newest design will be excellent too.

Don Link (and son)

If you were are to remove an entire 8.3 grams, that is amazing. I think you will be much happier with the performance. If you post a video that would be great. Glad to hear you were able to do this. The problem with making gliders out of balsa is it's very hard to give a consistent predictable weight. But, removing any entire 8 grams will make it a completely different sailplane in the air. Be sure to let us know how it fly's.

Taking a break from design work and have been designing music with my computer... Creative breaks always make me end up doing better engineering work..

Music by Robert T Haas - Freazer (6 min 31 sec)

Music by Robert T Haas - Two (3 min 31 sec)

I suggested to Haas that they start developing a desktop mill. I emailed Gene Haas the concept and I believe my father suggested it. I have no idea if they got my email. Is it a coincidence or did I get the ball rolling? I'll find out soon.. This is everything I suggested but I suggested much larger travel. Pretty cool. Save your money. Let's hope it's affordable..

Get a Sneak Peek! The Haas Desktop Mill is Coming Soon! - Haas Automation, Inc. (1 min 48 sec)

Unfortunately this video shows what looks like a 3040 CNC Router from Ebay for about $800 connected to a $5000 HAAS controller. I'm surprised they would upload a video showing a machine that was not made by HAAS. None the less, I'm sure the finished product will be impressive and good for schools. Otherwise if they don't offer a size with 600mm X 400mm Y 150mm Z with a 24,000 RPM spindle, then it's useless to me. I believe they were considering the desktop market long before I suggested it. I'll try to convince them to make something most of us would want. List everything you want in a high quality CNC router for me to pass on since they are considering the hobby market.

Well, the Desktop Mill is for sale. They must of taken pictures of different prototypes mixed with CAD renderings. The most expensive part of this machine is the controller. I'm trying to get them to look into building a larger desktop with a very basic controller that will run G-Code from a micro SD card. Something like the 6040 CNC but with much better accuracy. The should sell a version without the HAAS controller. That would drastically reduce the price.

https://www.haascnc.com/machines/ver...ktop-mill.html

Basically the CAD rendering I attached is what I believe the "hobby" market wants. Something simple, cost efficient, precision, with proximity sensors on every axis on both sides. A basic controller with homing and offsets.

From what I can gather, the HAAS Desktop is pretty much useless to hobbyist like us. It's pretty much like a simulator for schools to teach how the HAAS controller works. It looks like they had custom ordered a lot of 3040 CNC routers from China and probably beefed them up, otherwise your buying a 3040 CNC router worth about $800 from China. I'm personally shocked that HAAS would not build the CNC router themselves. I'm very disappointed. I personally think this will ruin their attempt to get into the desktop market. Most hobbyest like us have no need for the $5000 HAAS control. Oh, well. I tried to offer some good input. Anyway, back to DLG design..

Looking for someone to CNC router accurate foam cores for the Aires Ultra V7. Please PM or email me if your interested with a rough estimate of the cost for each pair of wing foam cores. I'd prefer if your machine is setup to run in metric. Vacuum table will be necessary. Foam cores will be made with .5 inch pink foam from Lowes or Home Depot.

Robert

echotwinsystems@gmail.com

Decided to try designing a decent 3D printed mask with N95 or above filter and 4 one way air valves used in fish tanks and vacuum bagging machines..

The extended piece over the nose bridge and between the eyes will interfere with spectacles!