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lektric.dan@gmail.com - 22 Apr 2010 23:41 GMT

I'm starting to play with gliders. What's the easiest and/or most
accurate way to sand (or otherwise shape) the airfoil for the wings?
Has anyone tried steam (or other wise) bending the wing over a curved
surface? I was just wondering, if I do this, how do I control
"springback" without adding too much weight?

BTW - since AT&T bailed on usenet a couple of years ago, I've been
following this newsgroup (and other text-based groups) on google
groups. *Almost* as good. When I could connect directly to the news
server, I could filter out all the spam. Big drawback with google
groups is the loss of binaries-based groups. Not that I'm into porn
or pirating movies, but there is truth to the saying about 1 picture =
1 kiloword.

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David Schultz - 23 Apr 2010 02:43 GMT

> I'm starting to play with gliders. What's the easiest and/or most
> accurate way to sand (or otherwise shape) the airfoil for the wings?
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> or pirating movies, but there is truth to the saying about 1 picture =
> 1 kiloword.

I feel your pain. I moved from Earthlink to AT&T partly because the
Earthlink news servers performed poorly. They simply lost huge numbers
of posts. I wasn't expecting anything better from AT&T but I figured
that I could at least get the same level of service for less money.

But AT&T did have news servers even if they didn't carry the binary
groups. I filled this lack by tossing a couple of bucks to Forte. Now
that AT&T has dropped usenet, Forte is my only means of access.

http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php

Bringing this story to a close, after I left Earthlink, they dumped
their usenet servers and contracted out access to someone who cares.

As for sanding airfoils, my method is to hold the wing flat and to use a
sanding block. One end of the sanding block is on the table (with a
sacrificial surface) while the other moves along the wing. I vary the
angle of the taper by placing other pieces of balsa or anything handy
and flat under the wing. This will not produce nice curves but it does
do nice tapers. By changing the taper angle a couple of times you can
get it to resemble a curve.

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JR North - 24 Apr 2010 03:12 GMT

Wet the wood and tape it to a bottle with the desired radius. Let dry.
Q: Lots of action on Ebay Rocketry catagory-howscome no interest here?
JR

>> I'm starting to play with gliders. What's the easiest and/or most
>> accurate way to sand (or otherwise shape) the airfoil for the wings?
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
>do nice tapers. By changing the taper angle a couple of times you can
>get it to resemble a curve.

HOME PAGE:
http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth
--------------------------------------------------

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Joe Pfeiffer - 23 Apr 2010 04:35 GMT

> I'm starting to play with gliders. What's the easiest and/or most
> accurate way to sand (or otherwise shape) the airfoil for the wings?
> Has anyone tried steam (or other wise) bending the wing over a curved
> surface? I was just wondering, if I do this, how do I control
> "springback" without adding too much weight?

My best luck has always been with either sanding solid balsa (for
small/thin wings) or carving styrofoam with a hot knife.

Signature

As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)

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Bob - 23 Apr 2010 12:41 GMT

On Apr 22, 5:41 pm, "lektric....@gmail.com" <lektric....@gmail.com>
wrote:

The answer to your question is to use a razor plane.

This and many other glider related answers are in the RMR FAQ part 8
on gliders. My master copy is at http://eisner.encompasserve.org/~kaplow_r/GLIDER.FAQ
See section 8.2.6. Finish up with a T sanding block that is larger
than the wing span I keep several of these around with different
grits.

> BTW - since AT&T bailed on usenet a couple of years ago, I've been
> following this newsgroup (and other text-based groups) on google
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> or pirating movies, but there is truth to the saying about 1 picture =
> 1 kiloword.

I too switched to google groups a couple years ago when I lost the
news feed I'd used for over a decade. I think google is single
handedly responsible for the decline and fall of usenet newsgroups
with all the spam they generate here.

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lektric.dan@gmail.com - 23 Apr 2010 18:58 GMT

Thanks to the pointer to the FAQ, Bob. It answered a lot of
questions. Now, to get building and launching!

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Model Forum / General / Rockets / April 2010

Question before you all go...