Moulded Balsa Fuselage Skins

I am looking ahead at what my fall and winter building projects might be and I am considering the idea of using molded skins on the fuselage instead of hollowed blocks. Not knowing how to do this, I pull out my trusty PAMPA magazine article bibliography to look for help. I found 8 articles that seem to address the how to. The 6 most promising articles, based on the titles, are:

Mold a Fuselage by Dale Root,
Molded Balsa Fuselage(Sea Fury) by Al Rabe,
Molded Balsa Fuselage(Spitfire) by Mark Freeman,
Molded Fuselages - Al Rabe by Glen Alison,
Molded Balse Fuselage(FW-190D-9) by David McClellan, and
Wet Molding Balsa, ...... by Henk de Jong.

Is anyone out there familiar with any of these articles? Which one/ones are the best? Are there other sources you would recommend?

There all good, just pick a couple

Hunt and Windy have very good videos!
Richard Oliver

Not a direct answer, but there's been a lot of discussion about moulding balsa in previous threads, including a lot of illustrated stuff by Al Rabe--whom should know.

One quick search turned up the following:

Al Rabe on Molding Balsa Parts

Al Rabe on Leading Edge Molds

Al Rabe on Fuselage Construction

Trimming

Drying time

Videos

Strength vs Weight

Laminated vs Single

Leading Edge

Water vs Ammonia

Water vs Ammonia Round 2

And, finally, a quote from the master, Al Rabe:

"Why is it necessary to discuss all of the exotic possibilities for changing the shape of wood? What is needed to know is simple. Pick decent wood, wet it with water, strap it down, let it dry."

Hope this helps...

Cy

P.S. These links were not working (in some browsers) as initially posted, due to the fact that (a) I got lazy and did not read the HTML reference pop-up when composing the text. I put "//" between the link: and the start of the URL, resulting in four slashes in the code sent to the browsers and (b) that works just find in my Safari, so I did not see an error.

Checking the page on a bunch of different browsers revealed the fact the Explorer was unable to deal with the extra slashes and there were indeterminate results in AOL and Mozilla. Opera also had a problem, although of a different nature.

When it became apparent there were extra slashes, I went in and took them out.

Sadly, I've been using this syntax for a while now, probably in several cases in the VSC threads where I tried to link up a lot of related info. I say sadly, because there's a time limit that precludes me from going in and fixing these links. The time limit was imposed because in a couple of instances jerks would go in and unpost their material and Len saw fit to attempt to preclude that, although it still goes on within the time limit. So now, thanks to the fix in place to keep a few people from doing childish things, I can't go back and fix the links I put in place to make the board a better place. Broken links that are not broken on the technology I use to see the board.

Sigh....

I am not very skilled at using all the features of this forum. I have tried to access the links you listed, but I get errors on all of them saying something to the effect that the page can't be displayed. How can I access the information?

J Hildreth

I have tried to access the links you listed, but I
>get errors on all of them saying something to the effect
>that the page can't be displayed. How can I access the
>information?
>
>J Hildreth

Same for me too. I've even tried turning my Norton firewall off which I have to do to be able to post pics, but the links still don't work.
John Goodwin

I used to be able to just click on your links with no problems, lately it is not working.

Reply to the "Cat"

Thanks very much for fixing the links to the archive material. The information in those threads was great. It seems that molding balsa parts is not extraordinarily difficult. I will certainly be attempting it on my next project. Thanks again.

Joe

> I am looking ahead at what my fall and winter
>building projects might be and I am considering the idea of
>using molded skins on the fuselage instead of hollowed
>blocks. Not knowing how to do this, I pull out my trusty
>PAMPA magazine article bibliography to look for help. I
>found 8 articles that seem to address the how to. The 6
>most promising articles, based on the titles, are:
>
> Mold a Fuselage by Dale Root,
> Molded Balsa Fuselage(Sea Fury) by Al Rabe,
> Molded Balsa Fuselage(Spitfire) by Mark Freeman,
> Molded Fuselages - Al Rabe by Glen
>Alison,
> Molded Balse Fuselage(FW-190D-9) by David
>McClellan, and
> Wet Molding Balsa, ...... by Henk de Jong.
>
> Is anyone out there familiar with any of these
>articles? Which one/ones are the best? Are there other
>sources you would recommend?

The Freeman Spitfire is on my "To Build" list and I've studied the first three articles in great detail. Dale Root's article is excellent and it covers the moulding of one piece fuseslage shells for an R/C glider. It is well worth reading for anyone contemplating building a stunter using this method. Al's Sea Fury article has a nice picture of a fuselage shell being fitted to his Sea Furys fuselage framework.

The cost of buying a soft wood plank from which to carve the fuselage plug is cost prohibitive where I live. I'd welcome any suggestions as to alternative materials that may be used for this purpose. Is blue foam sturdy enough to use as a plug for moulding a one piece fuselage side?

Eggy,

>>The cost of buying a soft wood plank from which to carve the fuselage plug is cost prohibitive where I live. I'd welcome any suggestions as to alternative materials that may be used for this purpose. Is blue foam sturdy enough to use as a plug for moulding a one piece fuselage side?<<

On my current project (a USA-1), I used molded top and bottom blocks. I used a chunk of way too heavy 1/2" sheet as a base (that piece of wood was never going to see a plane). I used the plan outlines to cut out plywood formers at the positions of the fuse formers noted on the plans and mounted them to the base piece. Then I used some gray foam (much like blue foam. It's a closed cell, tight, structural foam) to fill in between the plywood formers. I used a hot wire to plane off the foam down to the neighborhood of the formers then used sanding blocks to bring it to shape. Filled holes, cracks and mistakes with some spackle and sanded the whole thing to shape, then just followed the methods discussed here and in Stunt News for wetting the wood and strapping it to the mold. ( I like using ACE bandages, myself) Worked really well.

So much so that I think on the next plane I'm going to try this method for an entire fuse, much as Al Rabe has described in some of his work. Looks to be a cheap and easy method to make molds.

>> I am looking ahead at what my fall and winter
>>building projects might be and I am considering the idea of
>>using molded skins on the fuselage instead of hollowed
>>blocks. Not knowing how to do this, I pull out my trusty
>>PAMPA magazine article bibliography to look for help. I
>>found 8 articles that seem to address the how to. The 6
>>most promising articles, based on the titles, are:
>>
>> Mold a Fuselage by Dale Root,
>> Molded Balsa Fuselage(Sea Fury) by Al Rabe,
>> Molded Balsa Fuselage(Spitfire) by Mark Freeman,
>> Molded Fuselages - Al Rabe by Glen
>>Alison,
>> Molded Balse Fuselage(FW-190D-9) by David
>>McClellan, and
>> Wet Molding Balsa, ...... by Henk de Jong.
>>
>> Is anyone out there familiar with any of these
>>articles? Which one/ones are the best? Are there other
>>sources you would recommend?
>
>The Freeman Spitfire is on my "To Build" list and I've
>studied the first three articles in great detail. Dale
>Root's article is excellent and it covers the moulding of
>one piece fuseslage shells for an R/C glider. It is well
>worth reading for anyone contemplating building a stunter
>using this method. Al's Sea Fury article has a nice picture
>of a fuselage shell being fitted to his Sea Furys fuselage
>framework.
>
>The cost of buying a soft wood plank from which to carve the
>fuselage plug is cost prohibitive where I live. I'd welcome
>any suggestions as to alternative materials that may be used
>for this purpose. Is blue foam sturdy enough to use as a
>plug for moulding a one piece fuselage side?

Ron B.
F4Fguy

I've been using blue And /or pink foam for years.Just be sure it's at least two pounds per cubic foot or denser,and extruded not expanded bead foam.It's easily worked with an old (but sharp)butcher's knife,or any other relatively thin,long knife.final shaping is easiest with a "Surform" type tool.In my experience,the finish isn't at all critical,as long as the shape is accurate.The Macchi 202 is made with a single piece shell formed over the buck shown.The buck is removed from the wing saddle after pulling the 1"x 2" key through the nose ring.

F4F,

I used a hard, balsa base to keep the thing stable but the use of the "key" would take care of that, I suspect. I like the idea of using multiple pieces. Great for making formers. sort of a lost foam wing setup for fuselages.

Very cool.

>F4F,
>Very cool.
>
>The Other Randy

Ditto Randy & F4F. Wonderful information guys that will make life easier & more affordable 4 me. F4F, a question.....How do you wrap a one peice sheet around the form and remove the excess balsa as you wrap the sheet around the form? I can understand how it's done with a half shell but not with a full shell.

Ron B.
F4Fguy

Eggy:

These shells are a little different than Al's.They are laminated with two layers of 1/32",4-6# wrapped spirally around the buck at a low angle.The two plies are at opposite angles to each other.It's a little labor intensive,but it gives a shell that's very stiff in both bending and torsion.It requires no internal structure except to feed engine and flight loads into the shell.The first shells I did this way were done with 3M 77 and were molded and laminated together.The latest ones are wetted and wrapped without adhesive.This allows wrapping with a little overlap on the edges,which are trimmed to fit at final assembly.When dry they're assembled back on the buck with thinned aliphatic,then ironed with a covering iron to "kick" the glue.I know this sounds like a lot of work,but you can do a shell in two evenings.The hardest part is making the buck and getting it right in three dimensions.

>The cost of buying a soft wood plank from which to carve the
>fuselage plug is cost prohibitive where I live.

Ron B.
F4Fguy

Eggy: The cost of pine or fir is too high?In Manitoba?You dont need a piece big enough for the whole thing,you can laminate to get whatever thickness and width you need.Also,it can be any kind of wood or foam or in fact anything that can be easily shaped and which is strong enough to wrap the balsa around with out collapsing.

>Eggy: The cost of pine or fir is too high?In Manitoba?You
>dont need a piece big enough for the whole thing,you can
>laminate to get whatever thickness and width you
>need.Also,it can be any kind of wood or foam or in fact
>anything that can be easily shaped and which is strong
>enough to wrap the balsa around with out collapsing.
>
>Ron B.

Yep, the cheapest plank I could find to do the job at local lumber yards was around $45.00 and that had to be laminated to get the necessary thickness. If I wanted clear pine or basswood to make carving easier, the cost was pretty scary especially for a one time usage. I was fortunate to pick up a 10 ft fir plank from a local carpenter who cut his own wood when he was working in the bush years ago, However, I'm going to try Randy's idea with foam sandwiched between formers first. That sounds like a great solution to get perfect contours rather easily. Again guys, thanks for the great ideas.