Balsa Tank

My Balsa tank worked today. Made it from 1/8" balsa, fuel-proofed inside and out with thinned out epoxy. Brass tubing epoxyed in place. Has anyone tried this (probably)?

It is about a 4 oz. tank, semi-wedge shape (box type wedge). The plane it was on however was a dog and is now gone.

Sorry to hear that TCM. Was the airplane made from sheet metal by any chance? If so, you might have gotten your wires crossed (pun intended).

Amongst others Al Rabe did this, check topic 1709 for a brief discussion of what happened.

There is a guy in england who uses balsa wood tanks that are lined with aluminum inside for diesel engines. He apparently has good success but that is an entirely different fuel from glow.

The article about the aluminum lined balsa tanks is what got me interested. The aluminum lining is much harder to seal than what I did.

Also, no the dog plane wasn't made from sheet metal. The wing was 1/4" coroplast and turned out too heavy. It was formed into an airfoil.

I seem to remember a guy who made mufflers from sheet ply.( 1/16.. ? )
I think he lined them with aluminium cooking foil plus Epoxy inside and out.
This would have been from Aeromodeller about 25 to 30 years ago.
Any-one else remember ?

Good on-line instructions here:
http://home.wxs.nl/~wakke007/
I didn't think it would hold up to glow fuel.
Pat MacKenzie

A guy I know in England who sent me some Combat model plans used a plywood tank (fiberglassed, no liner- just the wood), on his Ironmonger running a PAW diesel. Says it works well.

Jake

>The wing was 1/4" coroplast and turned out too heavy. It was
>formed into an airfoil.

What were the specs on the plane with the corroplast wing and did it have a name? I've been looking at plans for one and wondering how it would fly. I'm also hoping they are fairly indestructbable!!!

No specs. Had a 36" wingspan (flutes parallel with span) with about a 9" chord. I formed the coroplast into an airfoil (kind of hard to do) and epoxyed it on a made up balsa profile. Bellcrank was exposed and screwed through the coroplast wing into a hardwood piece inside. Had coroplast tail feathers. The coroplast I have is 4mm (1/8") thick. Too heavy, I think. I had an Enya .19 on it. Maybe it needed more power. It would not even do a decent wingover, just kind of stall out, hanging on the prop. Glide ratio when the engine quit was almost as good as a concrete block.

I too, became interested in the SPAD planes. The coroplast is fuel proof and almost crash proof. If I can get 2mm for the wing, I think it would work. I will try a flat wing next.

For more ideas to: http://www.spadtothebone.com

I would be interested in hearing of your results too.

Keep those lines tight, and let me know of your experiments.

Sincerely,

Don Berry

any decent epoxy will hold up forever to glow fuel, I think. Use several thin coats to make sure you have a solid film. Turns out to be more work than soldering a tin tank though and not as reliable. You can easily fix a pinhole in a tin tank!!!

Wood tanks go back to the 50s at least in jet speed models and probably is still true today. The fuselage formed the tank with balsa sides and epoxy inside. I don't remember ever having one leak even after going to nitro propane for fuel unless the model had taken a good hit on the pavement.

Charles V (Sonny) Williams

I made a fuel tank out of 1/8" pine and a 1/8" plywood top for a Dyna Jet engine. I coated the inside with clear coat and exopy. I put gasoline in the fuel tank it works fine.

Sorry, but my experience is that none of our hobby epoxies will stand up to prolonged exposure to high nitro glow fuel. OK for finishes, but not the soaking a tank would get.

I would LOVE to be wrong on this, but you better experiment a lot! And, if you do have success, tell us what brand of Epoxy you are using.

Like Larry, I am surprised by the claims that an epoxy-lined tank works for any significant period of time.

Tell ya what, you guys come up with an epoxy which will survive in a fuel tank over the course of a flying season, y'all need to be making an entry to the "Product Review" forum, as I think it will be a unique epoxy indeed.