Foamboard 5mm
Kizzy Burnworth
As we all know, foamboard is the soul of FliteTest. Therefore, without foamboard there are no FT planes. Maybe you might be thinking: Why make my own foamboard when I can buy it? And that's OK, but what if you just don't have access to an foamboard source? or it's just too expensive? This tutorial is aimed at those who like me do not have access to this important material and even so, we want to see our FT style plans fly. And to all those who are curious soul.
Foamboard usually consists of three layers, an inner layer of polystyrene or polyurethane foam that is clad with an outer facing on each side of either a white clay coated paper, cotton archival paper or common brown Kraft paper. So, the core of our own foamboard must be some kind of foam and we'll need some paper to cover both sides. And of course, we'll need glue to put it all together.
The first thing to do is to get a foam sheet of the desired size. The advantage of this method is that we can define the thickness of our foamboard as we want. Foam is usually available in blocks much thicker than 5mm, so we will need to make thin sheets for our foamboard. For this I use my hot wire cutter, so I get sheets of the desired thickness. With a little practice and patience you get almost perfect results. As I have been able to appreciate, to obtain a 5mm thickness foamboard, it is necessary a core of foam of 4mm. The two layers of paper and glue add up to approximately 1mm. After passing the hot wire, it is advisable to sand with fine sandpaper to achieve a smoother surface. This step is optional but greatly improves the final result.
Once the foam core is ready, we mark it on the paper we will use to cover it, letting at least 1cm extra. In my case I used for tests, sheets of office paper, so I have a size limitation. But you can make pieces as big as the paper you can get. We will remember to make 2 layers of paper one for each side.
Making homemade foamboard is not difficult, from this point one could think of using aerosol glue to attach the paper to the foam core. Excellent, if you thought about it, you have discovered one of the ways to do it. But what if where you live you don't have access to aerosol glue as hard as it may seem? There are other solutions for this.
One solution is to use white glue mixed with water 50-50%. But we can also use much cheaper and more affordable materials to make homemade glue. The glue I used in my experiments is made with water and wheat flour. Yes, wheatpaste is cheap, simple and super strong. I could do a whole wheatpaste tutorial, but I have found this excellent instructable that perfectly describes the process. Just to make it clear that in my experiments i didn't use any additive and instead of cooking the mixture directly in a pan I preferred to do it in a bain-marie mixing constantly until obtaining a watery consistency.
We take one of the layers of paper, sprinkle it with water and put it on the foam sheet. With care to not tear the paper, we will remove all bubbles and wrinkles using the credit card once more time. If necessary, pin the bubbles to let the air out more easily.
When we have finished, will hang it and let it dry in a ventilated place but avoiding the direct sun light. The direct sun would produce a differentiated drying of the layers and could produce some deformations.
Sometimes it is necessary to remove the inner layers of the foamboard, so why not make your own foamboard with a single layer of paper? The answer is NO! While the glue dries, the fibers of the paper tend to shrink, which causes twists in the foam sheet. The result is a twisted and unusable foamboard.
This method is an easy option for those who, like me, can't get foamboard easily. I hope it can help something. There is still a lot to try but I think it may be a good option.
Thank you for reading.
In January of 2017, Alex Greves announced the open-source plans of the FPVWRA (rc groups post) Spec Wing. Along with the plans, a specific set of hardware was announced to create a spec class for wing racing and make a level playing field with a low cost of entry.
However, I'm a cheapskate! I had only been flying RC for about 9 months and fixed-wings for only about 6 months. So when I found a local group that was going to be racing spec wings, I was excited but hesitant to buy an $60 wing plus $100 in electronics as a new pilot who was unsure if I would even enjoy racing. Therefore, I set out to build a wing that met the specs using simple foamboard construction and budget parts. In the end, I ended up with with a total price tag of less than $90! You can find a complete list of the parts I used at the end of the article, but I wanted to share the plans and build process for the foamboard spec wing.
Next, prepare the wings by using standard FliteTest methods:
- Cut a single bevel cut on each elevon
- Cut a double bevel cut along each leading edge
- Score cut along the three lines on each wing and lightly open them with a skewer or other object.
After all the pieces are cut out, beveled, and scored, we will build the spars and nose reinforcements. This is a simple matter of gluing the spars, one on top of the other with 4 spars to a stack. You will end up with 2 spars that are 4 layers of foam thick. Once the spares are glued, move on to the nose reinforcements. These also get glued into a simple stack, becoming 3 layers of foam thick. Finally, we are going to prepare the wing by gluing the two halves together. Just as with many FliteTest designs, first place a piece of packing tape along the bottom side of the wing, in the center. Then, fold open the hinge you created with the tape, squeeze a bead of hot glue along the edge of the foam, and hold it flat on the table to bond the bottom edge of the wing.
Before proceeding to folding and gluing the wing you will need to decide how you wish to run your electronics. While you could run all your servo, power, and video leads on the top surface of the wing, I chose to hide all of my wiring inside the wing. If you choose to do this, you will need to determine where you wish to mount you servos, receiver, video transmitter, and camera. Keep in mind we will be cutting a recess for the battery at the end, so be careful to keep any wiring away from the center of the wing where our battery will sit.you servos, receiver, video transmitter, and camera. Keep in mind we will be cutting a recess for the battery at the end, so be careful to keep any wiring away from the center of the wing where our battery will sit.
With any internal wiring complete, we are now ready to fold the wing. This is the most challenging step due to the symmetrical airfoil of the FPVWRA Spec Wing. In order to get a proper airfoil, first test fold the wings to give a nice, even curve to both the top and bottom of the wing. Next, align your spars just behind the score cut closest to the leading edge. The spares will stand on edge, with the paper sides of the foamboard facing forward and backward. Place glue on the bottom side of the first spar and hold it firmly against the wing. Now, trim the end of the spar straight across the line between the two wing halves. Do the same for the second spar and test its fit before gluing it in place the same way. The nose reinforcement should be glued to the bottom of the wing now. It fits back against the spars, leaving plenty of room along the front edge for the wing to fold on the double bevel.
Now, the wings are ready to be folded. Test fit each wing, aligning the back edges and maintaining a uniform and symmetrical airfoil on the top and bottom. Once you are comfortable with the fit, place glue in the leading edge, along the top of the spar, on top of the nose reinforcement, and along the trailing edge of one wing half. Fold the wing and hold everything tight and straight until dry. Repeat with the other wing half, making sure to also glue along the join between the two wing halves. Now you just need to square up the wing tips. Note that the plans make the wing quite a bit wider than the specified 36" wingspan of the Spec Wing, so you will need to cut them down to meet the spec.
You now have a wing! The final steps are fairly straightforward.
- Cut out an opening in the nose to fit your FPV camera
- Cut out a recess in the center to fit your battery. A normal 2200 3s will sink 90% in and still leave plenty of foam to maintain strength
- Mount motor using mini power pod and mini firewall.
- Install servos, camera, vtx, rx, control horns, and control rods.
- Cut out two winglets to your liking and add them to the ends of each wing.
And there you have it! a foamboard spec wing! In developing these plans, I went through several revisions trying to for a symmetrical wing that fits the specified standard. In the end, the simple method of scoring the wing, just like on the flite test planes, worked the best. Finally, here are a few tips from my several attempts at this build:
- The water-resistant foamboard is far superior and much more durable!
- Using the water-resistant foamboard, you can peel the paper off and laminate it over various pieces. Specifically, I lined the battery cutout with it to add reinforcement, make it easier to put the battery in and out, and adds water-resistance to these exposed layers of foam
Hey! you can refer Foamboardsource online foamboard store. They offers huge variety and sizes of foamboards at affordable prices. You will definitely get a good deal there. You can learn from this blog
The third video I have of the plane flying was a very old video I took with my really bad camera. As soon as my new camera comes in the mail I will make a better video of the plane fly. Also the complete video instructions will be out in within another month or so! So stay subscribed!
"When I began to get land sick and wanted to get up in the air I was all pumped and excited about RC flying! So I saved up about 100 bucks and I went to my local hobby store but was sadly disappointed when I noticed that all the decent sized planes were $200+. So I spent some time researching RC planes, and decided to make one myself. But what material should I use? I need something easily available and pretty cheap. After seeing guys like Experiment Airlines and Flight Test I decided upon using foamboard. It cost a dollar a sheet and was at my local Dollar Tree. I had my material, and they suggested using HobbyKing.com to purchase products from. Although HK is cheaper quality stuff I knew that spending 10$ on a battery was definitely better then spending 60$ for a name brand battery at a hobby store. So far all my of my HK parts have been working fine, especially the motors! I've had this same motor for a year now, and I've crashed it so many times and that thing just keeps on working!"
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