it took a bit of fiddling and more than one gauge of wire to get this right so maybe if you just want something that works and don’t want to play around you can use these dimensions. the brass sleeve method of attachment is what i learned from attaching control wires to the aircraft.
my first hotwire project was the flying wing top left. it took a couple of goes to get the cutting succesful
although there are many plans for home made thermal generators on the web, I followed the one which said if you don’t know enough about electricity, don’t make it yourself and bought a unit. it attaches to the bow with crocodile clips
i have no sander or polisher, just a dremel tool, its not particularly good at taking down a find box or leash plug but it can do a thousand and one things. My coolest piece of technology is however my vacuum pump. Tube on the left feeds epoxy fumes out the window. Tube on the right draws air from the bag. The big cyclinder is a vacuum chamber which helps to stop the pump from cycling on and off too much. it comes with an automatic cutoff switch so does not run continuously.
despite what some literature says, i found the vacuum bag - actually a nylon tube - is reusable, provided that the vac bag sealing tape is avoided. This chewing gum like substance is impossible to remove - instead use quick lock seals - much easier.
the sealing putty is just what i needed to fill up the fin boxes prior to the final vac lam though. On that subject lokboxes are a very good system for experimenting with different fin positions and go in almost as easily as futures.
although i was of course quietly hoping for a rideable board, i believed that the chances of me getting one first time weren’t all that high, however doing some dry runs with the whole lot under vacuum but missing the epoxy resin avoided some of the awaiting disasters. What i found when i peeled off the ply was a better quality glass job than what i can do in the open - i’ve never been a great glasser
Mr.J,Not only was your post incredibley informative, but the sequence shots, which included your thoughts on the board’s performance for each part of the wave, was the best thing I’ve seen yet!
Thanks
Damon
thanks Damon, although i haven’t responded to many posts here, i do read almost everyones posts, i spend a lot of time on swaylocks reading the information and opinions
Mr J…
What a valuable series of posts and photos! Again, the processes you’ve been able to deal with blow me away.
I tried a simple vacuum bag attempt and couldn’t get a decent seal. Of course, I didn’t have sense to do a test run without resin! Fortunately, it wasn’t a board and the project I was working on was salvaged by tearing off the bag and breaking out the squeegee.
Not sure that I deserve credit (or blame) on rail theory. It’s just that many boards I’ve ridden seem to drag tail due to rails being too thin. Examples of meaty rails behind center can be found on boards by Mike Eaton, Micky Munoz, Dave Parmenter, and notably (on his Boardworks stinger model) Ben Aipa. He (Aipa) puts maximum bulk almost all the way back to the stinger (wings) where the rail was very beefy on the board I was looking at. He is a big guy though and can handle that kind of thickness. Many of us that aren’t as light as we used to be find thinner (aka “sensitive”) rails to be easily overpowered resulting in too much board being buried.
My personal experience is that thicker tail rails have more squirt out of bottom turns. Also, as you noticed, more carry on the shoulder for setting up cutbacks. The down side is that in juicy conditions, they are harder to control. Much of my surfing is done where daily conditions are pretty sloppy and weak.
I read of your issues with the tail on your board. Without knowing more, can’t make any logical suggestions. So much tuning can be done with fin size and placement that I wonder if you might find a solution by tweaking fins?
Hey - hate to get off the topic too much (its an interesting one) but if you want some pointers on your C/L plane, let me know. I’d suggest a pressurized fuel system, which is really easy to do… don’t want to annoy the shaping world here with discussions of nitromethane, flap systems & prop pitch, though, so we can do it w/ PMs if you’re interested…
Keith
hey mate thankyou for trying what i said about the hard edge on your rails, its nice to see your efforts have paid off with some fun surfing too!
Very enigmatic Mr J,
I wonder if you have Obtained some plans lately.......wide in the tail narrow in the nose, weird looking intergrated tripple rockers....bow wave return priciples.... shockwave dispersal........lifting bodie type of board?........very tricky to shape.......
Have you tried RC Jets ?
Very enigmatic Mr J,I wonder if you have Obtained some plans lately.......wide in the tail narrow in the nose, weird looking intergrated tripple rockers....bow wave return priciples.... shockwave dispersal........lifting bodie type of board?........very tricky to shape.......Have you tried RC Jets ?
[wink]
hey mate thankyou for trying what i said about the hard edge on your rails, its nice to see your efforts have paid off with some fun surfing too!
the end of a wave is a good time to relax and examine the seaweed. a sheet of water can be seen escaping from one of the concaves. Unharnessed energy? or is the hard edge helping its release and the slippery path over the surface?
i have found no disadvantages with this rail at all
Mr J...…
I read of your issues with the tail on your board. Without knowing more, can’t make any logical suggestions. So much tuning can be done with fin size and placement that I wonder if you might find a solution by tweaking fins?
i believe you are right that the fins are largely behind the stickiness i’ve been feeling when coming off the lip.
I’ve followed J. Troy’s advice and made an adjustment to the OUTSIDE off the lip fin.
as Keith Melville knows control line engines are offset to keep the lines on the aircraft tight. I made a trip to the hobby shop and got some angled engine offsets, they come in convenient 1, 2 and 3 degrees. the tapered lokbox made it a bit tricky to find the right wedge shape but i achieved what i wanted.
the board is getting odder in appearance, although the small futre F4 is a very close match in shape for rainbow fin. The old F4 is on the toeside (outside fin for off the lips) it points straight at the nose. The rainbow fin continues to point 1ft in front of nose.
board has had one test with this setup in head high plus waves. Definately an improvement. No loss of drive and still haven’t lost the good cutback qualities. More testing needed with this setup and then make an adjustment to the heelside fin to see what happens.
how much did your vacuum pump cost you? I just bought the same one except it has dual heads (4 holes to connect hose to). I got it new on ebay for about $45. I have yet to set it up to a cylinder or gauge. Im still trying to figure out how it works that the cylinder allows it to shut off.
You need a vacuum pressure switch to get it to shut off automatically (and start back up again). Its a little pressure-sensing electronic deal that you tap into the cylinder and then wire into your power supply…its the thing top left. Not expensive.
