Magnetic building platform

A friend at our RC club started using a magnetic building board instead of the traditional pinning method. He shared his insight and I decided to try this out when building the Chicken Hawk. After researching the topic I found several web pages and instruction videos on the topic, and here is what I ended up using for the build:

  • 12"x24" galvanized sheet metal that I purchased at the local hardware store for $12
  • 24x square magnets with metal plates. This type is used for cabinet doors and are sold in bulk on places like Amazon for a 24x (73c a magnet) or 100x count (46c a magnet)
  • All for about $30
I attached the sheet metal to the lower half of my 24"x24" building board and started my build. This picture is of the bottom part of the left wing, sheeting, spar, and ribs held firmly down while glue is drying.


I would recommend getting the magnets with the metal plates on them. The plates are removable and seem to align the magnetic field when a stronger hold is needed. I also use four Neodymium magnets (the odd-shaped ones in the picture above). These came from hard drive motors.
These two web sites are good resources for studying the method "The magnetic building board" and "Make a magnet building system"


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Covering

Image
Fuselage The fuselage received two coats of Sanding Sealer with light sanding using a 400 grit paper before each coat . After the first two coats I applied the orange Silk Span trim patterns. I wet the orange Silk Span with water from a spray bottle, positioned it carefully, and removed any trapped air bubbles. Once satisfied, I applied Sanding Sealer to the orange Silk Span to fix it in place. When dry, I ran another light sanding of the entire fuselage and applied the final coat of Sealer. Battery compartment cover. I added a "CH"emblem on the right side of the fuselage made out of black iron-on covering. I printed a template with the size and font I wanted and cut the lettering with a sharp hobby knife. Wings I followed the test covering process I did on the balsa frame and covered the wings with clear (white) Silk Span. Once the edges where dry, I followed with light sanding and a coat of Sealer. I added the orange color trim following the 1963 patterns. Just like the fus...
Read more

Top wing

Image
I started with building the top wing then the bottom wing, and included some picture and comments as I progressed with this first step. I followed the exact same process when building the bottom wing. For each wing I traced and cut the set of four LE and four TE sheeting according templates. I made the templates out of packaging cardboard. The top-wing templates are visible in top right of this picture. The bottom sheeting (3 pieces) of each wing panel include the LE, TE, and wing root sheet that I glued together to form a single piece.  Closeup of magnets holding 1/16" balsa sheeting. Spar and ribs. Left wing with-top sheeting attached with clothes pins. The top sheeting was glued in three stages: TE then LE, and finally wing tip. I used water to dampen the the top sheet, mainly LE and wing tip, to help form and curve the sheet to the ribs. The plans call for the top sheeting to have the same dimensions as the bottom sheeting. I found that if I extended the overall width by 1/8...
Read more

Electric power and controls

Image
I set my target AUW of 453.6 grams, or 16 ounces, for the Chicken Hawk according to a build article I read on the February issue of Model Aviation. The article was written by Bob Benjamin and described his impressions of the Chicken Hawk kit available from Retro RC. By sticking to the original plans posted on Outerzone I managed to achieve an AUW of 416 grams or 14.7 ounces. This weight gives might give a bit of a margin to use slightly higher capacity LiPo batteries. The power plant I am using includes an E-MAX CF2822 1200Kv motor, with a 30A ESC (slightly over-sized), driving an 8x6 propeller. The measured power draw is just over 9 Amps, which yields about 52 Watts. The overall power to weight ratio is between 57 Watts/Lb, which seems more than sufficient to drive the Chicken Hawk. Wing loading is 8.95 ounces per square foot, and Cubic Wing Load is 7.0. I have a similar weight and wing span foam plane with the same power plant, which also gives me a good idea of the expected fight ch...
Read more