Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Bonasera on June 18, 2014 at 4:28pm

I think I spent about $50.00 on molly to build mine

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Permalink Reply by Joe Harrington on June 18, 2014 at 5:31pm

Hi Jesse,

Our group decided to buy all the 4130 parts from ZAC. We made that decision primarily because our projects were running long and we decided that would help speed up the project. This was coupled with that none of us were competent welders at the time. One of our guys has since bought a Tig welder and has gotten up to speed. You being a welder, I would think the cage would not be too big of a job. The most intimidating pieces, IMO, would be the lower wing strut/landing gear fittings.

BTW, if you decide to trade money for time, the ZAC steel parts are expertly Tig welded and are VERY nice.

Good luck,

Joe

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Permalink Reply by Robert Stacey on June 18, 2014 at 7:08pm

You will spend a lot of time getting everything lined up. It's pretty tight welding the plate where the down tubes meet in the middle. I did mine just for the experience. I could have bought 10 frames for the time it took. Same goes for the fuel tanks. I wound up making a second pair out of thicker material instead of fixing all the pinholes in my first set. 

Experience priceless!

Bob

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Hartman on June 18, 2014 at 9:37pm

What the hell, I've made 4 of every other part.  I'll give it a shot.  Thanks for the reply's

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Permalink Reply by Robert Stacey on June 19, 2014 at 4:38pm

Jesse:

If I had the tanks to build over I would consider installing baffles inside to keep the outlet under liquid as the tanks get low.  As they are now with low fuel when descending the fuel can pile up towards the front and uncover the outlet. A simple baffle could help prevent this by keeping the fuel towards the rear and inboard. 

The other item I would change is to have the fuel sender rotated so it would be towards the rear of the tank when empty. I set mine up to be vertical when the tanks are level but once I started flying the tanks are almost always tipped up which can give me an almost empty reading on the gauges when the tanks are 1/3 rd full. 

Food 4 thought. 

Enjoy the build... its the best part(almost)

Bob

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Permalink Reply by Raymond Paul on June 20, 2014 at 7:20am

Jesse build the frame yourself,you have built the rest of the plane so the extra time wont change much in the grand picture of things. One word of caution as I am building my frame right now. Make yourself a wooden jig base to work from otherwise you could have a problem, especially getting the 2 end wing mount lugs to line up perfectly so you can then off set the 3 degrees and have 3 degs at each end before welding the other parts to the main tube.

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Hartman on June 20, 2014 at 11:34am

Hey do you think you could post some pictures of the jig that you have set up?  I have one in mind, but it's always good to see what others have done also.  I'm not sure that I get what your talking about when you say "3 degrees.  Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Aanerud on June 20, 2014 at 4:46pm

The U fitting where the wing attaches to the fuselage is offset by 3 degrees. It's marked 87 degrees in the plans.

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Hartman on June 20, 2014 at 5:17pm

OOOO yea I seen that.   NO problem, got that figured out.

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Permalink Reply by James Cameron on July 15, 2014 at 7:07pm

Jesse, want me to bring my Edition 1 frame with me to OSH?

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Permalink Reply by Jesse Hartman on July 15, 2014 at 9:24pm

No thanks.  Im going to build edition 3 frame. 

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