Stay Quiet

I'm preparing my building board for the Avenger project. 90% of the component parts have been ordered (the rest of them being on backorder) and I'm hoping to be able to have a laser cut short kit produced from my CAD files before the end of the year.

I have a friend who has gotten into the hobby, and loves the building aspect. I told him I would document my build with step by step instructions and pictures, much like an instruction manual on a good kit, so that he can have his own short kit cut and build one for himself.

I'm including a poll to determine if I should consider doing a build log, and if so, what format people would prefer it in.

gramps2361

Paul I miss all the build logs that we used to have going on here. No you won't get the input or questions on a build log like you might on other sites, but the number of views show that people are interested. Yes it is time consuming keeping one up to date with progress reports. I always admired the time and effort a builder puts into a build thread.
Past neighbor from the north. P.S. miss the opportunity to buy a nice build from you later.

quorneng

My own view is it is important that the build log should be more or less current with actual progress.
This means the builder is likely to remember exactly why something was done the way it was in answer to a question and can take extra specific pictures to explain if required.
Sometimes what might be an obvious step to the builder so hardly worthy of mention but can be a complete mystery to others.
This sort of two way 'dialog' is much harder when the build blog is completely historical.

Wildflyer

I agree that the log should be as close to the progress as possible.
That way if someone has a question about why you did something a certain way, they can ask before it becomes irrelevant.
I know I do things a certain way in model building and in carpentry without even thinking about it until someone asks why I did it that way. I used to train apprentices in union carpentry, so I got lots of questions.

Stay Quiet

Well, the lack of build logs may be directly related to the fact that very few people are still building in balsa anymore.

If I ever figure out how to properly box up a plane in a manner that it won't get destroyed in shipping, I'll let you know! Right now all I have is my Snafuey II, the Tigercub, and the RCM Advanced Trainer. When I finish the Avenger, I'll be just about out of room to store them.

You could always come down to e-Week at Triple Tree. We're about 30 minutes away and could put you up. I cook up a mean BBQ on my smoker, and after a few shots of the local moonshine you just *may* talk me into selling something!

Stevephoon

Please do a build log! I'd also like to know how you created your CAD files. That's a step I like to be able to do as well. I've done a number of build logs here over the years. I've always received some great input. Now if I could just find the time to build myself....

Steve

Turbojoe

Cool plane. Subscribed. I voted for build log.

Joe

Stay Quiet

Steve, CAD is something that I had always wanted to learn. I had tried several times, but, to be honest, the learning curve is pretty steep, and I got frustrated, so I just went back to the familiar pencil and paper.

I finally decided to just plug away at it (I use DesignCAD 2D) and designed the Snafuey II. Once I learned a few tricks (Layers was a big one!) it started to get easier. Now I'm trying to teach myself 3D CAD.

Once I get a drawing done, I make up "cut files" by material and thickness to send to the laser service. After that, it's like assembling any laser cut kit.

Being retired now, time I've got! Money? Not so much. I'd be starting the Avenger sooner, but the car needs new tires.

Stay Quiet

As of now, there have been 240 views of this thread, and 7 poll votes (one was mine, just checking to see if the poll worked!) I have to assume that the other 233 just didn't bother clicking the "I'm not interested in balsa build threads" option.

However, since I'm going to be documenting this anyway for my buddy, I may as well go ahead with a build thread here. I won't be starting for a while yet (stupid tires!) but I'll include step by step instructions, pictures, CAD cut files (if they are too big to upload, you can ask me and I'll email them to you) and a list of everything I used in the build, right down to the small hardware bits.

riverrat

YES!

Jimmy

Turbojoe

I'm sure once you're off and running with the build readership will pick up.

There have been very few build logs I've looked at that I didn't pick up at least a few useful tidbits of information from even if the logs were sometimes for planes I'd never consider building. Like war birds or 3D.

Joe

Wildflyer

The plane reminds me of the old Strikemaster design that came out in an old RCM, I built it before the kits were available. I need to repair it and get it back in the air, it flew great just not so well below ground level.

gramps2361

Paul some day I am going to get to Triple Tree it looks like a blast. Love some good BBQ and Apple pie shine! Well I will be looking forward to your build have to make something myself this year. Funny I never got a email with the updates the posts.

Stay Quiet

Just an update: there were over 1300 views of this poll. Eleven people voted for a build thread, which means that the remaining 1289 didn't bother to check "I'm not interested in balsa builds" on the poll.
There were 61 total posts in the actual Avenger build thread. Of those, 3 were actual questions regarding the build.
Not one request for plans or cut files.