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I Eat Carbon Rods!

Monday, July 14th, 2008

This little cutter makes quick work of sizing carbon fiber rods.Cutting carbon rods is a pain.

Compression cutters such as side cuts mash the ends of the rods, fanning out the fibers.

I’ve been using a little Dremel-driven abrasive cut-off wheel to do the job, but in the process it spews carbon dust, which is Very Bad For You.

The turtle-faced cutter pictured here nips right through carbon rods up to 1/8 inch in diameter, producing a clean cut with no squished ends. No dust, either, and it doesn’t take much pressure to lop through the carbon.

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Posted in Elsewhere | 3 Comments »

A Versatile Cutting Tool

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Razor Tools

When you need to cut deeper than 1 inch, single-edge razors won’t reach. Nor will a typical hobby knife blade.

You need a box cutter, one with a slender snap-off-blade that extends out to about 3 inches.

(A single-edge razor reaches only half an inch. A #11 hobby blade has a 1-inch cutting depth.)

I noticed that Butch, the Boomer guy, regularly uses a slim utility knife, AKA box cutter, for carving jobs.

So when I decided to carve out a battery bay in the nose of a foam Wild Wing, a box cutter was my tool of choice. It’s long enough to slice out the bottom of the pocket, no problem.

Posted in Elsewhere | 1 Comment »

How to Build a Wild Wing

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Wild Wing on picnic table

We have reached a peak in our pursuit of the perfect combat plane.

The perfect candidate can float slowly in the air, then zip forward, up or down for a lightning strike or getaway. It can loop in a heartbeat and speed straight to a target. It laughs at wind and spins in a tight victory roll after bashing an opponent.

Our quest has taken us through Mini SpeedWings, Boomers and hacked Wild Wings. We’ve looked at other wings, too, including HyperFleas and even Strykers.

The Great Meadow is our laboratory and we’ve had altogether too much fun conducting this research.

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Posted in Baylands | 14 Comments »

Slashed!

Monday, May 26th, 2008

Shredded Wing

When a 6-ounce foam wing runs into a 3 lb. 450-class helicopter, this is what happens.

Fortunately, Danh Le’s T-Rex helicopter survived the encounter and landed successfully, suffering only a nick in one blade.

The Mini SpeedWing lost its right elevon, about a third of its wing tip and some shreds of foam from the wing itself.

This little wing has proved itself in combat. I’d guess that it’s flown 70 or more combat sessions without suffering serious injury. I’ve rehinged the elevons, Gooped up rips in its foam and resoldered the motor leads. Otherwise, it seemed indestructible.

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Posted in Baylands | 2 Comments »

Wild Wing Catch & Release

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Wild Wing Test Flight

Here’s a 30-second video of Dave North testing his 7-ounce Wild Wing.

Posted in Baylands | No Comments »

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