FOAMBOARD FUSELAGE TUBES

in this video I will show you how to make the versatile experimental Airlines fuselage tube from foam board or depron and colored packing tape the fuselage tube can be constructed in a variety of different sizes shapes dimensions and cross sections including square which you see here rectangular or even triangular in cross-section these fuselage tubes are very economical very light completely waterproof on sides construction of the fuselage tube requires foam board such as ready board or Dollar Tree foam board commonly available in North America or depron or any other light foam board where the paper facing can be removed this particular example is a clay impregnated paper it's fairly heavy but the paper is peelable and this is ready board with a very thin paper facing it's easily removed foam boards where you cannot easily remove the paper facing are not recommended also required is this inexpensive packing tape colored is nice also referred to as box sealing tape shipping tape and carton sealing tape and one of these four adhesives this is 3m super 77 spray adhesive only this brand can be confirmed to work other forms melt the foam white Gorilla Glue is excellent CA glue is acceptable although expensive and hot glue will also work with certain caveats the trademarks of this construction technique are pre covering the foam board with clear or colored packing tape making the bends at the corners in a controlled a uniform fashion and the joining technique at one of the sides using one of the adhesives i've just shown the first step in constructing the fuselage tube is to pre cover your foam board or depron on one side with the packing tape step 2 is to decide the dimensions of your fuselage tube and then to translate those dimensions onto your foam board or depron in preparation for folding the corners of the tube the first method is a score and peel technique that works well with ready board and other foam boards here we're in this dimension you see here determines the inside diameter of the fuselage tube here at a ratio of one side one side one side with one half and one half at the corners this piece being cut off the second technique which is mandatory for depron and other unpay perd foam boards but is an alternative for ready board and other foam boards too involves compressing and then folding along discrete straight long lines here this provides a perfectly good tube as long as the exterior is taped well at using depron to contrast these two methods when done with ready board foam board you'll see that the peel and fold method on the Left provides a wider fuselage tube apples-to-apples at a two and a half inch interval then the emboss and fold you'll also see that the corners are more rounded on the peeled and a little bit sharper on the embossed type it also depends on whether you are more concerned with the interior dimension of your fuselage tube such as for fpv equipment or with the outside diameter of note the two and a half inch interval used in both of these methods on the left for the appealed version it's actually about 2 and 3/4 inches interior diameter whereas the embossed and folded is actually right about two and a half inches outside diameter which is the fold interval and that's because the way the paper crimps up in the corners like that the rigidity of the embossed is a bit stronger and the peeled version has a little bit of flex to it the peeled version is more forgiving of inexactness and forming the corners whereas the embossed type it requires a more precision to get these sides perfectly straight down also interesting to note that with using the same interval of a peeled version and of the embossed version actually fit inside just like that and this is useful for coupling multiple lengths of the peeled version with the embossed version like that just makes a nice coupler in the score and peel technique you'll note that these lines marked with s are very lightly with a very sharp knife just through the paper not through the substance of the foam the interval between these lines where the paper is left in place which in this case is two and a half inches will determine the rough interior dimension of your fuselage - in this example you see the paper has been removed from the foam board on the inside of the corner inside of the corner here and these two marks correspond to these two marks and these two marks where the paper has been removed along that line and the paper has been left each of these broad surfaces so determine the exterior diameter of your fuselage tube that you desire mark that out in an interval like this taking care to note that the starting and the ending interval here will be half of this interval here so whereas this is three inches you're starting with one and a half inches here and ending with one and a half inches here then centered on that line a quarter inch on either side roughly half an inch complete diameter across score you can trace the lines or just do with a long straight edge score score and score these and then remove this paper here this line is cut completely and an additional piece of foamboard will be used ideally also pre covered to form the jointer which will be glued inside the fuselage tube to join the bottom sections together here is to illustrate the top which is the full dimension the sides which are the full dimension and a square fuselage tube or different if rectangular and here is half of the bottom section the other half of the bottom section and this is the part that will be cut out to join the two bottoms together by applying adhesive on the inside of the fuselage tube for scoring the paper I like to use a sturdy straight edge or yardstick like this with a squeeze clamp applied to the work surface or table at one end off screen here and then carefully hold that down with your fingers out of the way and using a sharp knife preferably extended just enough to score the paper you can go right along the edge and score just the paper and a minimal amount of the depth of the foam score each of the score lines and make the for your jointer this piece will be used to join the inner parts of the lower part of the fuselage tube and then you'll have some scrap generally depending on the size of the fuselage tube you've made it save this for some other use having made all the scores to the paper to simply remove this section of the paper all the way down for each of these sections now it's time to bend your straight foam board into the fuselage tube where these areas the paper has been removed will become the inside of the corners of the fuselage tube this requires the use of a principle called a break where you need a strong flat surface to hold work down while you bend the other part I like to use a piece of plywood or particle board on top of my clean work surface here and place the foam board to be bent beneath it and then bend it up a piece of lumber or a straightedge I can also do but be sure you have something that can squeeze one side while you bend the other I recommend bending the inner corners first towards the center of the work and then bend the outer ones last so I'm going to go one two three four and it's done like this just place it under the break like that with the edge more or less lined up hold that down firmly and bend it up 90 degrees like that hold it for a moment to fatigue the foam then remove it and then it can take an over bend it to about 120 degrees like this to further fatigue the foam so that when it springs back it'll be closer to a 90 degree angle this is not crucial at this point a little tension is okay the second method for forming the corners of your fuselage tube is to emboss the inside of the fold lines of your foam border depron this method is actually mandatory for depron but it's also an option for foam boards such as ready board or Dollar Tree foam board the method essentially entails compressing the paper in the case of foam board or the upper surface of the substance of the depron for using depron with a either a rolling such as this screen spline tool or any sort of blunt implement such as a side of some scissors or an ink pen or anything that will just push in the paper or depron along these lines sufficient that it will fold here's an example of a piece of foamboard but you can see I've just made a slight wrinkle and that will determine where the fold occurs you notice it folds quite easily it's a bit of a sharper fold on the outside and here's an additional one right there so it folds up quite nicely now with depron because the substance of the depron is quite a bit stiffer and firmer it's recommended to make several passes over a width of about a centimeter with a straight edge right along those lines I've made three here one on Center one five millimeters to the right one to the left and the depron has been securely taped on the outside even more securely than with normal foam board because the depron is so much stiffer it exerts a great amount of tension on the outside upon bending I recommend at least overlapping this a centimeter if not overlapping at 50% so you have almost a double layer of tape right over where the fold occurs and with some effort a small piece I can do with my hands large piece do it with a break you can just bend it over like that and you've got your external fold just the same as with foam board so here you'll see the foam board or depron if you're using that on a smooth strong flat surface there's a nice straight edge with a spring clamp at that end and I'll align it up with the desired embossing line and using a blunt instrument like the a pen or side of scissors or I'm going to use my aligning tool is authoritative Lee but not too aggressively roll right over that line a couple of times try not to penetrate the actual paper you just need to wrinkle it in slightly so that you can make the fold I'll repeat that for each of these lines this line actually gets cut and then all folded up now each of these fold lines has been properly embossed and prepared for fold now because I'm using foam board for this example I've also scored the paper here in the corner because in joining the lower surface of the fuselage together and gluing the jointer to this surface and this surface I want to expose bare foam most of the adhesives you can use work better foam to foam if you're using depron obviously the paper is not an issue but I do recommend making the fold with the paper in place as it will provide a better lever against the embossed lines here for my break I'm using a heavy piece of particle board and I'll place that right against the embossed line it can be useful to use a counterpart break to the over bending process such as a straight edge or another piece of wood you can reach behind your foam board like that for a more consistent wrinkle free Bend and then I'll repeat that for each of the additional fold lines now each of the embossed lines have been folded and we're prepared to put the jointer in place if using a foam board again I recommend removing these two pieces of paper if depron you're ready to go after being bit you'll see that it is far from being a square but it's easily bent into a square with just gentle manual pressure which will allow us to tape a piece of foam board and exterior here to maintain that square position while we place the jointer inside now first would recommend removing the paper from the bottom section only if you're obsessive about weight you can remove the paper from the sides in the top as well but the weight savings is pretty small and the strength retained by keeping the paper in place can be of benefit now it's time to apply an exterior member to this a piece of foam board in order to keep the bottom surface flat and flush while the jointer is it applied to the inside of the fuselage - and you can in fact use a piece of foam board identical to the jointer itself or a piece of scrap if you're using Gorilla Glue which can seep out from between the the joint here I can be useful to use some tape pre covered foam board placed face down against the fuselage - this may also help with CA glue not really an issue with hot glue as much or with spray adhesive so here's the jointer that will go inside the fuselage tube to join the lower surface and I will remove the paper to expose the Foam to accept the adhesive on the inside of the fuselage - and here is the external template that I'll use to hold the fuselage tube closed and flat while the joiner is applied this is simply some masking tape which can be released and I'll just place that right against the outer surface of the fuselage tube like that now as you apply the external template for the joiner application notice that the end of your fuselage should line up and be square if you see a notch like this it's a clue that your fuselage tube might be twisted try to make every effort to ensure that this is lines up square and flat and also as you apply the external template sight down the long axis of the fuselage tube on all sides to be sure that it's straight and not twisted once you're secure in that stretch the tape across apply it down and ensure that the joint is held square flat and intimately together and this is where the jointer will be placed inside the tube now the template has been applied exteriorly the ends are square the long axes are all Square and straight and we're ready to put the jointer inside just use masking tape at several intervals along the length of the tube to hold that on your choice is for adhering the jointer inside the fuselage tube and decreasing order of preference our 3m super 77 spray adhesive white gorilla glue hot glue and CA glue the advantage of the spray adhesive is that it's a quick application right adheres almost immediately and it requires minimum set time the disadvantage is it can be pretty messy and you need good ventilation and it's easy to ruin things and your surroundings if you overspray gorilla glue takes about 30 minutes to set it gets plenty of time for setting up your clamps and so forth to get it in place but it can be a little messy if it squirts out - and you do require a very stiff clamping system to hold the joiner inside the fuselage tube I like to use this piece of aluminum a sturdy piece of wood might do well - but since Gorilla Glue expands it can distort the jointer and/or the fuselage - if it's not properly clamped hot glue is inexpensive and accessible and we probably all have some but it requires that you act extremely quickly to apply it to the entire length of your jointer slip it inside the fuselage clamp it down while it sets it's very unforgiving and if you mess up it's difficult to recover from CA glue works fine medium thickness however it becomes very expensive to apply CA glue to a very large surface like this so I almost exclusively use now the spray adhesive or the gorilla glue and the application principle is similar in that you'll want to place the fuselage tube with the joint facing upward with the template that's been applied and then the jointer facing upward that will allow you to apply the glue and either case the spray or the gorilla glue to the jointer and then slide it inside the fuselage like that with minimum mess then you can pick up the fuselage tube with the adhesive and the jointer in place here and turn it right-side up like this if you're using spray adhesive it's as simple as applying the adhesive to the lower surface of the jointer putting it inside the fuselage tube and using your piece of wood or aluminum and placing it inside the fuselage and squeezing it down at both ends like this and like this for 30 seconds or so until the spray adhesive sets then you can remove the wood or metal clamping implement and then remove the external template for using gorilla glue the similar principle applies wherein the template is put place on the outside the glue is applied to the joiner the joiner slipped inside the fuselage but it must be thoroughly clamped firmly with some spring clamps like this or otherwise and a piece of metal or wood against the inside for demonstration purposes only I'm showing this clamp just against itself but ideally this should be clamped against a hard work surface or another external number like this piece of wood piece of metal and at both ends this will permit the gorilla glue to set and if here the jointer inside of the fuselage and then after whit the extruder template can be removed after allowing the adhesive to set whether it's about 60 seconds for hot glue 5 minutes for the spray adhesive 30 minutes for the Gorilla Glue or a couple of minutes for CA glue you can remove your clamping implement and take off the external template here by removing the tape and you'll have a nice sturdy foam board fuselage tube here and here are examples of what can happen with Gorilla Glue where it seeps out of the joint from the inside here and a good reason why you should consider using a tape covered a piece of foam board as your external template this can be easily peeled off of tape covered foam board but is not so easily peeled off of bare foam board

Channel: Experimental Airlines

Views: 121,639

Keywords: foamboard, readiboard, dollar tree, fuselage, scratchbuild, scratchbuilt, rc, radio control, airplane, foamie, foamy

Id: LBFm08WwyTg

Length: 18min 32sec (1112 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2013