Originally Posted by fredmdbud

Curious to see that you made your own carbon-rod installation. There's already hollow carbon rod installed in the wings, along with a molded channel in the fuselage. All I had to do was find the right diameter carbon rod, install it in the channel, then slide the wings on lined up with the installed rods.

I just bought one of these RTF Exceed F18's. You are saying that there is a hollow carbon rod in the wings and a molded channel in the fuselage? I see nothing like this. Are they hidden in some way. Mine is the normal landing gear, red plane. I was thinking about installing wing spars. But if something is there already - well that changes things.

I know nothing about this stuff - I am a novice. Could I use 3/32" aluminum rod for the wing spars? I only say this because the local Hobby Lobby has this rod.

Do I even need to add wing spars? I am re-doing the landing gear. Very bad design. Easy to fix though. Might post some pics and details on what I did. The front gear is the worst.

WTN

Originally Posted by WTN

I just bought one of these RTF Exceed F18's. You are saying that there is a hollow carbon rod in the wings and a molded channel in the fuselage? I see nothing like this. Are they hidden in some way. Mine is the normal landing gear, red plane. I was thinking about installing wing spars. But if something is there already - well that changes things.

I know nothing about this stuff - I am a novice. Could I use 3/32" aluminum rod for the wing spars? I only say this because the local Hobby Lobby has this rod.

Do I even need to add wing spars? I am re-doing the landing gear. Very bad design. Easy to fix though. Might post some pics and details on what I did. The front gear is the worst.

WTN

Carve a channel in the wings for a carbon finger spar. .....you'll need it

Originally Posted by WTN

You are saying that there is a hollow carbon rod in the wings and a molded channel in the fuselage? I see nothing like this. Are they hidden in some way.

Here are the locations

Originally Posted by fredmdbud

Here are the locations

Fred,

Thanks. I see them now. There are some small slots where one can peek in and see them. Do you know how far you have to drill before you locate the tube?.

I am reading through this entire thread. I think back around page 30 someone said the hollow tube will take a 2.8mm rod. Someone else used a 3.2 mm rod and sanded down (mounted in a drill) the ends to slide in the tubes.

How far should the rod go into the wing tubes? I think the 3.2 mm rod guy said 4".

Thanks again,

WTN

The more overlap, the better. I used a 24" long rod in mine.

If you are interested in adding a carbon spar to the wings, checkout the very first page of this thread and you will see all of my build videos on this plane and they include where and how I installed a carbon rod in the wings.

Originally Posted by j3tman

If you are interested in adding a carbon spar to the wings, checkout the very first page of this thread and you will see all of my build videos on this plane and they include where and how I installed a carbon rod in the wings.

I have viewed all of your build videos. Nice work. Is there some reason why you did not use the hollow tubes that are already in the wings and then run a solid rod. Your video shows you dremeling a slot towards the front of the wings and installing the rod at that location. Or did you do both? Just curious. Seems like using the existing tubes would be easier plus nothing would show.

WTN

Originally Posted by Ispintechno

So fixing the slop out of the mains was easy, unscrew add generous amount of 5 minute epoxy and reattach. I put a little weight on the wheels so they would dry at an outward angle giving the best possible ground handling since they are pretty close together.
The front gear being the worst of the bunch, being sloppy in all directions, I cut a new support out of scrap birch plywood and epoxied it to the foam behind and to the clear plastic plate it sits on after scratching it up a bit with sandpaper.

Feels good now! Have to see how it holds up on maiden. I'm planning that to be off a short grass soccer field so without help, this would have been hand launch only for sure.

I like your idea for the front gear fix. Like you said, the rears are easy - just epoxy the heck out of the gear as it sits in the wooden slots.

My fix for the front gear was as follows:

There are two main problems. The gear shaft does not go down far enough into the aluminum tube, and of course the slop in the tube the way it is joined to the plastic mounting plate. I used a dremel to cut another set screw flat spot on the shaft so the shaft goes into the tube exactly half way. I had to use some heat (candle) to remove the control rod attachment - it is also a set screw for the extremely small diameter shaft that goes through the plastic mount. I bought a 4-40 threaded rod along with two nuts and one lock washer. Also one plastic washer. You can use a 4-40 tap and thread through one half of the tube. You do not have to drill it out - it will tap with no effort. Drill out the hole in the plastic mount so the 4-40 rod will go through. Screw your 4-40 rod into the bottom of the tube. Insert through hole in plastic mount. Slide on the plastic washer, then one of the nuts, then the lock washer, then the other nut. You tighten the first nut to take out all the slop - but not too tight to prevent rotation. Then you use the second nut/lock washer to "lock" the first nut. I also used blue loctite on the 4-40 rod and the set screws (which includes the control rod set screw) I did not dremel a slot for the CR set screw, since the rod is threaded in. There is no slop at all. Hope it works OK.

WTN

At that time when I was installing the carbon I am not sure if I was aware of doing what you were talking about. But even with me just adding the one carbon the wings are not going anywhere!

Originally Posted by fredmdbud

The more overlap, the better. I used a 24" long rod in mine.

Just got back from the LHS with a pair of 2.8mm (.11") CF solid rods 24" long.

They come in a pack of two - drive out was $9.50. They slide right into the hollow CF tubes built into the wings. I used an icepick to probe through the foam to locate the tubes. They are recessed about 1/2" into the foam. One thing I noticed is that they are not at the same depth on the wings. There are two small slots on the bottom of the wing where you can insert something to gauge the depth. Use the slot closest to the glue joint. Then you can figure out where to probe with your icepick. Then slide in your CF rod. And yes it looks like one can use the entire 24" length.

WTN

Question for you guys adding the carbon to the wings...Are you able to maintain the anhedral that is built into the jet, or are you ending up with "flat" wings?

FWIW...I have about 50 flights on my f18 now. I built my jet entirely with foamtac. I do mostly scale/sport style of flying, but I dont hesitate to come out of dive WOT. At the right angle, you can see the wings flexing like crazy, but "knock on wood lol", no problems so far. That being said, I am using no LG, "belly lander", running a HET/CS10 set up at about 1000W, Nanotech 3300, and have a RTF weight of 1260 grams.

Of course, YMMV!

Originally Posted by WTN

Just got back from the LHS with a pair of 2.8mm (.11") CF solid rods 24" long.

They come in a pack of two - drive out was $9.50. They slide right into the hollow CF tubes built into the wings. I used an icepick to probe through the foam to locate the tubes. They are recessed about 1/2" into the foam. One thing I noticed is that they are not at the same depth on the wings. There are two small slots on the bottom of the wing where you can insert something to gauge the depth. Use the slot closest to the glue joint. Then you can figure out where to probe with your icepick. Then slide in your CF rod. And yes it looks like one can use the entire 24" length.

WTN

Just tried a test fit. This works great. With a 24" rod, the rod will extend into the wing tube 8 3/8" on each side measured from the wing/fuse joint. With just this test fit, the wings joined perfectly and did not move position at all - up/down front/back. Once they are epoxyed on, there is no way they are coming off. I will try to post a picture tomorrow.

WTN

Can someone tell me which way to hook up the wing servo wires? The servo has a brown/orange/yellow connector and the wire from the receiver is white/red/black. How should they match up? Or maybe the connector only connects one way?

Thanks,

WTN

Oh don't worry about the wire colors, just match black with black and you should be good

Originally Posted by WTN

Can someone tell me which way to hook up the wing servo wires? The servo has a brown/orange/yellow connector and the wire from the receiver is white/red/black. How should they match up? Or maybe the connector only connects one way?

Thanks,

WTN

brown - black (-)
orange - red (+)
yellow - white (signal)