Hi.
I just got an older all foam plane called The Super Chipmunk, by Midwest. The syrofoam wing and fuselage are molded and made of dense foam. The fuselage is easy to make lighter, but how can I lose some weight from the wing?
The fuselage is 3.8 oz after I trimmed 1.2 oz.
The wing is 46" span and 325 sq.in. area, and the thing weighs 8.1 oz. I want to make it 2.0 oz lighter.
Rob.

Got any Fan fold? Make a new built up wing from F3 and you will probably have your 2 oz even with a carbon spar. Other than that, maybe cover the wing in glass and use paint thinner to melt the faom . Maybe sand the wings thinner and cut them shorter.

I have heard of people taking a large soup can or something along those lines, cutting the lip off to make it sharp, then heat it up on the burner on your stove and melt lightening holes into your wing. You would nee to coer the wing with a lightweight covering that will work with foam but I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to do it. You could even bend the can into an oval and make some nice looking bays in your wing. It would look really cool if you had transparent covering. The only thing that might pose a problem for you is that the bays might slightly change the airfoil, But if it isn't a really high performance ship I wouldn't worry too much.

Just a thought

Boz

I have an age old Cessna L-19 plan with 36"ws. I'm taking a set of taper foam wings from Ace and cutting bays out of it with a soldering iron. The hot can deal sounds interesting too. Anyway, after the bays are cut out, I then cover with wet silkspan and WBPC being careful to not get any WBPC on the open bays. Lets the silkspan shrink over the bays. Then I'll dope the open bays only. Foam fuse, foam tail feathers, presto-8.5 oz, 36" ws, with DX-A it should fly as good as a TM.

Thanks for your idea guys.
I guess I didn't discribe things well. It's the wing that weighs 8 oz. The whole plane with an Astro 05G and batteries stands at about 40 oz. I would love to get it to 34 or 35 oz.
I think removing foam from the wing is the only bet (Not with paint thinner Jason LOL). I think maybe if I cut the foam out with a hot wire but only from the bottom is would be better for the airfoil. Sort of cut out bays as if there was a spar and ribs. What do you think?
Rob.

Sheet the leading, trailing edge areas and cap the (fake) rib locations. Now cut out everything that is not covered with wood.

Strength to weight, the next decision is yours.

Use 1/16 balsa for strength or 1/32 balsa for light weight. Add your choice of covering.

What? Just the 46 inch foam wing is 8 oz?
I built a 47 inch wing (Depron sheeted balsa skeleton) and it came at 12 oz together with the two geared 280’s and props on it and I was embarrassed. I thought it is because of my lack of skills, but it looks like it was not that bad.

S55