Another help needed

I already wrote my son is in Oregon and building ... but ...

Actually he has a problem where to get wire for cutting styrofoam. He need wire for cutting less that 2ft (half of the span) and his power supply does only 15V and 1.5 A, it must be thin (0.012") wire with relative high resistance (nichrome???). The piano wire for lines is not usefull because he do not have power supply. I sent him my wire but he !!!lost!!! it ... so my question is, if there is a quick source of such wire, otherwise I must send him another piece over half of the globe

SIG sells a package of nichrome wire but not sure what size it is. Saw it at a local hobby shop, pretty sure it was SIG.

Just went to the SIG web site and tried a search but the site is so slow I gave up...

Thax Bob, I found it. But it is little thicker (0.016"), but could be it will work also. I will tell him to look ih hobby shop. Unfortunately closest shop is in Bend and it is 100 miles from Burns where he is now, but I think he plan to go there on weekend.

Email me his postal address. We'll fix him up.

Howard, it will be very helpfull. It is his home project in school, and he is actually little bit slow, because he takes it too seriously

his address is:

Michal Burger ([email protected])
at family Clements
620 N Diamond
Burns, Oregon, 977 20

I already wrote my son is in Oregon and building ... but ...

Actually he has a problem where to get wire for cutting styrofoam.

<<sinp>>

Igor, you...

Slick, Stinky, Sicophant, Sibarite, Slick, Slimy, SLOVAK!

You seem to be popular here at SSF!

If I was still livin' in the US I'd be happy to get himthe wie, but it looks like he's already taken care of...

How old is your kid? Is he studying?

Oh, Dr. Noi Zinum sends his greetings. He gave up the project of padling up the Niagara Falls, and he's thinking about building a flapless stunter. He asked if Professor Rugreb would have any advide on the subject.

Ion (good to hear from ya!) Muniz

Hi

Any electronics store should carry nicrome resistance wire.
Don't know sizes though.

He is exchange student for one (the last) year in high school in Burns. That was his and his friends decision to do one year somewhere else. They wanted go to GB but our limited income was not enough. Afterwards he got chance in Burns in Oregon. Now he thinks of some US university, but it is everything about money, while study in Slovakia is almost for free. ... we will see ...

>He is exchange student for one (the last) year in high
>school in Burns. That was his and his friends decision to do
>one year somewhere else. They wanted go to GB but our
>limited income was not enough. Afterwards he got chance in
>Burns in Oregon. Now he thinks of some US university, but it
>is everything about money, while study in Slovakia is almost
>for free. ... we will see ...

Igor, we are off the subject (but, what else is new).

If your son wants to go to a US college, have him apply for a scholarship. If he is a chip off of the old block, he may qualify for an acacdemic scholarship. If he does good in his college entrance exams, that will help. (If he does good enough, they will come knocking on his door.) There are also colleges looking for bright, qualified, foreign exchange students. In fact, there are even some who don't care if they are bright, but don't tell your son that. I don't know what field he is planning to enter, but there are some companies that hire people on where you work for a semester, go to college for a semester, and so on. It is an election year. Have him contact the guy running for office in the state where he wants to go to college. There are ways if that is what he wants to do.

Thanx for info Len. I do not afraid of entrance examinations. If he was able in one year successfully make differential courses/examinations to formally finish the US high school and in summer to win silver medal on international programming olympiad in US and bronze on mathmat olympiad in Japan then he will probably not have any problems on entrance examinations. But such a boy is typically not practical in real life. It means that not only scholarship is the problem. If he must live (room, clothes, food, traveling) in US, if I see how he can list piece of wire and then order it by 1$ and pay shipping 5$ and if I compare our currency to your, then it is clear that the only chance is to work there. If I compare it to situation here –> 4 universities in town, 2 of them I see from my windows and they are ~1mile far (and one where I, my wife, father, mother, brother and whole his family studied and where my father and brother were teachers and lot of my friends still teach)….

I want to say that there are two choices – one easy, obvious and one difficult, but promising. I afraid that such and young person cannot do proper choice. … well if I remember that age, I even did not think about such problems … I do not want force him some way, because I thing choices are comparable and I do not want to dedicate his next life by my decision. …. It could be very subjective …. as I see my old father, I would certainly like to have my sons close … or shall I move to US also?

Keep him here. We shall corrupt him and get him flying F2D.

:) nice try but he is not such an animal. He has been told that the home project is something what he never did and never even tried. So he wanted fullfill the specification and choosed C/L model. C/L models are such a big things hanging on walls everywhere belonging to father ... and father is that guy driving the car where he must seat and read books while the big guys are flying and speaking where are those equal figures differing ... but who knows ... I must show him some combat contest once

Try using pieces of stainless steel flying lines. I've used .015 left overs and works well...

Also a standard light dimmer works for a power supply but BE CAREFUL. you can get killed using 110v. (I built a gravity actuated one so I didn't need to touch the bow with the power on... but I suppose if you were very careful and insulated well)

>>>BE CAREFUL<<<

Exactly, this I can try myself, but not reccomend it to a boy to try it alone

LAST EDITED ON Mar-19-04 AT 01:46 AM (CDT)
 
I don't know if this helps, but I built a "temporary" foam cutter about 20 years ago using light sockets and bulbs of various wattages to step down the power, and then used leftover .018" braided flying wire for my cutter. I never got around to making a permanent setup, but did cut a couple of hundred combat wings and a couple of stunt wings out using the temporary one! Once you get the wattage of the bulbs and tension on the wire figured out, it's easy.
I did not use a bow for foam cutting; I mounted the wire on posts pegged into a board, with the wire tension adjusted with springs. That way you do not move the wire, you move the foam blank.
It was crude but effective.
I'm in Oregon, too and would be glad to help, but alas, on the far side of the state from Burns.
--jt

I've seen this done, but it's dangerous, because when the circuit is open, it's the full 115V. It also causes voltage across the wire to wander with wire temperature, like using a dropping resistor from a 12V battery to operate a glow plug.

Speaking of 12V batteries, a car battery is one solution, but it could also be dangerous if he shorts the connection.

I'll mail him something tomorrow.

I'm sure what Howard says is correct. He will give you the true path o success!
--jt

He has safe power supply for 1.5 A. I did it with same equipment at home with success. The only problem is that wire which he lost.

I already sent him another, but it typically takes two weeks airmail and sometimes comes opened ... could be slovakia is considered danger??? I do not know what happens if some security guy see a wire in mail

I measured the current through my cutting wire. It's 3 amps at 15 volts. 1.5 sounds puny.

I sent him a note suggesting a guitar string.

I know, that is why we used such a thin wire.

John, I also tested very primitive cutting with my another son. I used wire fixed only on ends kept in hands (one preson). I found that it is easy to coordinate "one head two hands" so it is usefull for quick work also on relatively complex cutting (but must be short span up to two ft)

Well, John, you got me thinking. Suppose you connect four 1500W hair dryers in series. That would give about 30V across each hair dryer. If you put the foam-cutting wire in parallel with one hair dryer, you'd get maybe 10V across the foam-cutting wire. I just tried hooking my wife's hair dryer to my garage-sale Variac to see what it would do at 30V, but I blew the 6-amp fuse.

This might be worth a try, because it would be a way to meet girls, from which the dryers could be borrowed. If he does try it, he should put the foam-cutting-wire leads across the dryer that's connected to the prong on the outlet to which the white wire goes. That's the low-voltage one.

On third thought, this sounds imprudent. Just tell him to wait for my package.

I made a styrofoam cutter a few years ago. This is how I did it. I screwed 2 pieces of 2x4 about 8" tall to the work bench about 36" apart so they were sticking straight up. I bought some of those steel wires from the hobby store that are nice and straight used for lead out wires. I made loops in each end like lead outs. I screwed one lead out to the top of one of those 2x4 boards that are screwed the work bench. I attached a spring to the other lead out and hooked the spring over a screw on the top of the other board. The 2x4 boards hold the wire parallel to the work bench and the spring keeps the wire tight. I attached a piece of #12 copper wire next to each lead out and attached the other end of the #12 wire to my soldering gun. When I pull the trigger on the soldering gun the tiny wire gets hot. I found out if the wire is too small it gets too hot. If the wire is too large it won't get hot enough. I had to experement with different size wires to get the heat I wanted. The thing that worked best for me was a wire that seemed to be too large at first because it took a long time for it to get hot enough to cut foam. After about 2 minutes it was the perfect temperature. I put a rubber band around the soldering gun trigger. I think about 600 degrees F is all it takes to cut foam so any type wire will work.

Cool. I gotta try that.

So the cutting was successful yesterday. Son started also building, but stopped not knowing how to install the bellcrank … I am telling him to install it outside of wing; it will be easier I think.

Anyway, I am surprised. It is relatively clean building for totally first model … at least what I see on picture. I do not know how much mentor helped him.

He also wrote me he has first "experience" with CA glue ... yes fingers glued together

You might suggest he use some lightweight spackling compound on the foam anomalies. It is common stuff and cheap.

Is he going to the NW Regionals at the end of May?

He must finish it till may 11, then they have to bring it to school and I think till may 26 it must be there.

However he has also another model and I will reccomend him to go there, but the problem is, he is not mobile and everything depends if the family where he lives will help him. I beleive it is not so easy for them with another 3 childres. Anyway, if not, it will be pity to have 2 models and not to fly. He goes back home in middle of june and as you know it is difficult to travel with models , so I hope that at least one of those model will fly - he has mentor there but it is R/C flyer, I do not know how cuccesfull they (2 total beginners) will be trying to fly it

If not, I promise! ... I will take him to some combat contest in summer, so he will see what he missed there

TAMMIES HOBBIES in BEVERTON OREGON CARRIES THE WIRE.

Scott(Portland)Riese