tobydogs

i set the rest of the stringers on the fuse side and closed up the bottom by the landing gear mounting blocks with 1/8th balsa sheeting.and had to build up 2 of the turtle deck stringer because they were warped at the back and wouldn't have looked good if not fixed.

i wasn't planning on cutting the openings on the cowel,but wound up finishing it up. i find it easy to do with the dremal and 1/2 inch sanding drum and do it by eye. i want the openings large for maximum cooling.

next up will be the vertical and rudder,then onto the wing and elevator plans. i also want to p/u a higher watt soldering iron for doing the cabanes and lg wire. just a few pictures.....

tobydogs

my computer been on the Fritz on the Internet for a few days but now we're back up and running. over the weekend i had so many house chores to complete that my Monday Tues off from work was wasted finishing things up.

i spent time after work building the rudder/vert and horizontal/elevator,it is so relaxing to sit there after a hard days work and slowly cut balsa to fit and glue it up. rough sanding to shape them. beveled the elevator and slotted it for hings before gluing the joiner dowel.

now it time to slip the top wing print under the work tables plan protection sheet and build away more wonderful smith mini plane relaxing days.[love to build!]

Dragonflyer

Is your Avatar an English Cream ?
DF aka Bill

tobydogs

Sammy is a rescue great Pyrenees,he's a purebred who belonged to a young couple that had a baby and didn't want to keep him and their other dog,a newfi.

do you mean english cream golden retriever,Sammy's around 95lb's and around 14months old. he's still a puppy at heart. my wife and i used to breed goldens with a woman who had champions she would send all around the country to show. her line was the Okeechobee.showing her dogs cost a fortune and she is a very respectable breeder. it's because we love goldens so much we added sammy to our family of 3 little dogs.

Dragonflyer

Yes we have an English Cream Golden Retriever, almost 9 months old, a BIG puppy for sure. Zander is probably 80 - 85 lbs, and wasn't cheap.
I remember seeing a couple of White's at the pet store once. They had to be 125lbs and beautiful.
Thanks for the reply, DF aka Bill

tobydogs

wow zander and sammy look so much alike i just fooled my wife with his picture. i showed his picture saying how cute sammy is and she said " aaaah,he is so cute....hey,where is he"....

enough dog talk,time to get ready to build the top wing.

tobydogs

only little done today. i put the wing drawing in place and popped all the ribs from the sheets. used the #11 knife to clean out the notch's and only 1 of the sheets needed extra care popping out ribs since it wasn't cut through as well as the others were.builders who have built many different manufacturered kits knows the pain when all the die cut sheets require surgical hands to cut out every piece. i love kits like this one and the hog bipe was also the same way.

the quality of the balsa is very good!! the ribs popped out very easily and required very little sanding to even them up. another comment on this kit is the drawings and instructions are good and easy to follow,this is one of those kits that just seem to be very relaxing to build and even though the overall kit size is small,the balsa is fairly beefy for this size plane.

i hope to get more time Sunday and will start the top wing assembly,i just have to stay awake........,after work Friday ,the workout at the gym to it out of me,so today and i slept the afternoon away.

tobydogs

ahhhh,a days progress to document. top wing assembly is very straight forward and i took several pictures to post. once i get the wing tips finished and the cockpit curve cut into the center trailing edge i can begin the bottom wing.

this wing is so nice and flat,but the gussets that hold the Te on with what little wing rib surface really isn't very strong. i seriously am considering a strip of balsa 1/8"thick by 1/2" wide and the full length of the wing on the under side of the wing gluing the ribs and Te more solidly,and the add the rib caps. i don't want extra weight but the covering shrinking could be to much for this wings design.i'll use a low temp covering.

the instructions warn of warping the wing,thats why Sig say's use dope ect..ect to avoid warping and get that fabric look.


a few pictures......

riverrat

Looking GOOD!

Regards
Jimm6y

gramps2361

stu your moving right out with this! You will be done before I even start covering mine glad you find it to be a nice quality kit to build. That's all ways a plus.

tobydogs

jimmy and john,thanks for the compliments.

i spent a couple of evenings in the workshop tooling around. but only an hr's worth of actual work on the mini. i installed the balsa blocks on the curved part of the trailing edge of the top wing. also the Le strips and shaped thing a bit.

today i shaped the Le and added the wing tip parts. it was very quick work shaping the blocks using my hobby saw,mini plane,and a sanding bar with coarse sand paper. i then went to medium and fine paper. this makes the top wing assembly done for now.

next up...lower wing built to hold 2 servos for the ailerons and i need to drill a hole through the ribs for the wires. once the wing is completed I'll move onto the landing gear and cabane struts which need soldering. a few pictures of the finished top wing.

CHELLIE

Your Build is Looking Great As good as I could have done Myself LOL, Take care and have fun, Chellie

tobydogs

thanks chellie!!your an inspiration to all us here at wattflyer. we love ya girl!!!!! besides being smart and pretty,your a top notch builder to.

gramps2361

Stu your kicking butt on the build. Did you decide on what motor your gong to put in this? I haven't setup my motor yet I will do it soon and post it in my build thread with some reading's. I am itching to see what that Hyperion motor will do with a 4 cell battery and different size props.

tobydogs

hey john,this bird has a 44inch wing span,weighs in around 6lbs auw and calls for a 40size glow. I'm considering taking the eflite power 46 out of the eight+pound GP RV 4-40 which on 5cells doesn't seem to have the power to pull vertical.on the rv-4 a 13inch prop is the largest i can use and will mow the grass on rog.

so i may buy a eflite power 52 for the RV 4[it's x mount will screw right in]and use 6cells,and use the power 46 in the smith mini on 4 or 5 cells.

i have a new eflite power 60 i could put back in the rv4 but the weight issues were high what with using 7 cells. so it stays in the storage drawer. bottom line...i have more testing to do with props on the rv4 and then can decide on the smith mini.

i should be getting started on the bottom wing today and am using 2 servos for aileron control.i order 2 emax mg digitals3154's that requires a little extra planning to lay flat in the ribs so only the servo arm poke's out. I'll post More pictures on it's assembly. stu





Emax 19g ES3154 Digital Metal Gear Micro Servo
Emax 19g ES3154 Digital Metal Gear Micro Servo


/images/G-177-A.jpg

The Emax ES3154 Digital Metal Gear servo is similar in size to the Hitec HS-82MG and iFlight iS170MG, but with the benefit of digital performance! This servo comes with four control arms, and has a 10" wire lead.
Weight = 19.0 grams

tobydogs

WHAT A BUMMER!!!!!!pulled a lower back mussel on Friday at work and have been in pain all weekend. slept most of this day away and finally got down to do some work on the mini. back still hurts but need to sit up and move around.

started the bottom wing and made a simple error when trying to understand the instructions and prints for the center section and the lift of the wing tips....figured it out and spliced in a filler 5/16th sq pc of spar that otherwise wouldn't be there if i was installing the single servo for the ailerons. i also plan on doing web spars for the center section and little epoxying that area for strength.

heres a few pictures,layout for servo bays will be next on the drawing board...lots of fun even though the back is in pain.

tobydogs

I'm hoping i have a few builders following along here to get your feed back on the aileron design what with using 2 servos .one in each wing half instead of the single using torque rods.

the plans call for using torque rods and forming the ailerons as the drawing I'm posting shows.

if i mount the servo center of the ailerons in between the ribs like i did with the hog bipe[pictures posted], the the design on the plans won't work do to the control horn wouldn't be centered properly on the bottom of the ailerons LE. so i plan on making my aileron same as the hog. this means beefing up the trailing edge of the smith mini's wing to support using ca hings,and also beefing up the LE of the ailerons so the ca hings will be set center to the beveled Le. simple to do but changes how the wing will look.

so fellow builders,
what are your thoughts on changing the design for better function of using the 2 servos and being able to program the TX for different control of the ailerons. i plan on going with the changes but am just curious what others think. stu

tobydogs

finally got a chance to get some work in tonight on the bottom wing,sanded the le and installed the wing tips. shaped those close enough to start the aileron layout.
I'm changing the stock design that uses torque rods and going with 2 servos.the design will copy the Sig hog but i will scratch build the ailerons to keep them light. then it's on to planning the servo hatch.

a few pictures.

tobydogs

got a lot done this weekend and would have done more but don't like spending to many hours tinkering around the shop.

the lower wing is mostly done and i finished the ailerons the same way the Sig hog is done. i have to put the servos in and am considering going the easy way where the top of the servo and control arm is outside the wing.

building a hatch is fun but a simple installation saves time and weight.it's next to do. the ailerons are preshaped type that i made larger to fit and i will be cutting in a hardwood block for the control arm to screw to,i really hate using the small plastic mounting plate thats control arms use that goes on the opposite side the arm is on. they just look ugly.

lots of sanding to do to shape things neatly. the wing seated nicely and will seat better with sanding,the Le dowel in place and the tension when bolting down the nylon bolt will close the gap 100%.

gramps,I've had several dumb thumb moves poke hole through the 1/16th thick balsa sheet....it's soft to begin with and sanding require much restraint from over doing it. this is why i mostly wait till ready for covering to shape sand the wing,i had to pull dents up with a bent pin and add ca to make repairs. all in a days work,all good fun...i had to laugh .

gramps2361

Stu I hear you on the thin sheeting and putting a finger through it. I am just about ready to cover mine. I have a few things left to do and then I will do a final sanding. Learned my lesson on sanding on the first couple of planes I built. Always wait till it's time to cover and go easy on the sanding. I kinda over did the sanding a few times.

tobydogs

working on the smith mini on a very windy day. got 2 flight in this morning! first 2 this new year. 15 to20+mph but the superfly can be fun fighting the wind.

i finished the lower wing,built the servo bays and hatch covers. it's now very much the same as the hog bipe bottom wing. i had to replace the wing mounting block on the fuse do to drilling to close to the edge. used a slightly larger block and drilled the holes. the lower wing is set. all main balsa is built so it's on to the soldering of cabanes and landing gear.

i set up the wood base to hold the 2 lg wires for soldering,i fear my 40watt iron won't heat the metal enough,so i may experiment with a small butane lighter torch from sears. it blows a jet blue flame and hopefully will work on an old lg of the same gauge wire. the cabane wire almost didn't go into the tubes,the mounting bolt/hooks must have crushed the tubing ...fortunately the cabane wire went in with some muscling.

i hope to have the metal soldered and the SMP assembled before weekend flying takes over. but she most likely will wait for covering over the summer as flying and repairing takes first place. we shall see.

tobydogs

tobydogs

yikes!! i spent 3 hrs tooling around to fashion the cabane struts today. started around 4:10 and just finished at 7. thats a long time to make 2 struts out of piano wire and soldering the pieces so they match the drawing and each other. i bought a mini pencil torch to do the job and wow!!!!!

the mini torch was the only way i could heat the metal evenly so the solder would flow thru the copper wire quickly. the little butane soldering tool thats yellow broke ,but it lasted long enough to finish the job.i did buy a heavyer gauge copper wire at lowes today as the super fine wire was used to do the landing gerar and i wasn't sure there was enough to do the cabanes. i really will be happy when the plastic bolt are drilled out and the top wing is set then it onto bending piano wire for the outer cabanes. heres a few pictures.....

#1picture is the 2 cabanes laying on top of each other and lining up really nicely ,so the soldering and wire wrapping went well. then i had the brass plate pcs soldered on that hold the plywood. i did this with a scrap piece of plywood cut to match the supplied ply pieces and used it as a spacer so soldering them on wouldn't spoil the real ply mounting strips. it did catch fire a few times what with the mini torch being so hot.

2nd and remaining pictures are the finished pieces ,they were trial fitted on the fuse several times as the soldering was done with them installed in the fuse. time for dinner.

tobydogs

....... gotta wrap up a few loose ends on the mini before flying season starts full blown for me...in fact it has started and i plan most weekends will be at the field weather permitting.also need to find a local field thats not filled with kids and sports for weekday evenings. i just want to bolt the mini together and put it aside.


i decided to hit the workshop just to drill out the cabane strut plywood and set the top wing to the fuse and bottom wing which is already set.

when i had originally placed the wing on the struts,they seated perfectly in the top wing recessed hardwood blocks. instructions say drill out the ply on the cabanes and align the wing.....this is where the issues arose to cause me frustration for hr's. the top wing is out by a full inch from side to side of the leading edge looking down from the top. the cabanes don't budge once soldered and epoxied. i know cause i tried for a long time to tweek the wire with pliers. i gave up and figure i need to redo the right side metal work. re-solder the cross brace re-bend the pc's i tried to adjust with plier's,and get new brass straps to solder on.

basically wish i could call Sig and ask for a new set of metal at this point. now it's 10:30 and I'm to wired to relax...should have walked away when fitting the cabanes for the many attempts and slipped to dumb thumb a hole in the fuse side....lol. gotta laugh. it's fixed and will never show.

this is the reason i waited till now to build the Sig smith...i knew some of this build would be time consuming and require more soldering than any previous build. still a fun build. just need to get the cabanes built right and top wing set. the rest of the build is ground ball building.

may just wait till the weekend to proceed. been hitting the gym with my wife Monday,Wednesday,and Fridays. that leaves thursday.....nah! don't need the stress during the workweek.

Yoyocafe

I've been following your build right along, I'm also building a Sig Smith Miniplane. Your pictures have been invaluable to my build. This is quite a challenging model. You haven't posted for a while, I'm hoping you haven't given up on the miniplane. You can order new cabane struts from Sig if you need them and heat can soften the epoxy.

Joe