K.I.S.S. Hot Wire Accesory??

[Paul Duffy]

I've used the sharpened tin can for cutting wheel wells also.  Just take
a can of the desired diameter, cut off the turned over lip, and the thin
tin is sharp enough to cut the foam.  Use a twisting motion as you push
the can down into the foam, with the wing sitting in the shuck.  I cut
the wheel wells out before skinning the wing, line the wheel wells with
1/64 ply, but I leave the foam in the wing and remove it after I am done
skinning the wing.  For the servos, I use a dremel tool with the routing
attachment to route a pocket for the plywood "donut" that goes beneath
the wing skin.  After skinning the wing, I cut away the balsa inside the
donut and then use the router to remove the foam from the servo pocket.
Both of these depend on having a template for the wing that marks the
location of the servo and wheel well so that you can find them after
skinning the wing.

 

For cutting cores, I bought a 25 volt/2 amp transformer at Radio Shack,
and used a normal light dimmer in series on the primary side of the
transformer.  My bow uses Sig nichrome wire, which you can buy at a
hobby store for a couple of bucks in 5 foot lengths.  I've read posts to
this list in the past saying the nichrome won't work, it stretches, etc.
etc., but I have had great results with this setup.  I get perfect wing
cores with straight, feathered trailing edges using this setup.

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]
On Behalf Of KEVIN DUNCAN
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 3:48 PM
To: NSRCA
Subject: Re: K.I.S.S. Hot Wire Accesory??

 

I used a R/C Car charger with a variable voltage dial. Just connect the
wires to the output connector and viola! If it has a digital readout,
you can figure what voltage for each application. I too built a setup
like Bob Noll used and the car charger worked just fine.

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Thomas C. Weedon

Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 7:33 AM

To: discussion at nsrca.org

Subject: RE: K.I.S.S. Hot Wire Accesory??

 

Steve,
I wrote a bunch of articles for the K-Factor last year on how to do the
things you want. Look up some of the issues. Also, I use a sharpened 3"
tomato soup can to cut the wheel wells. Used it for years.


Tom Weedon, NSRCA D4 VP
AMA 2537, NSRCA 733
IMAC 1810, WA8WAA


-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org
[mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On Behalf Of mrstev0922 at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2002 7:13 PM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Cc: MrSteve09 at aol.com
Subject: K.I.S.S. Hot Wire Accesory??


Hey guys,...

Currently I am constructing my first foam wing for a competition pattern
plane.  I have been banging my head against the wall for a week now,
trying
to figure out how to hot wire cut the servo pocket and wheel wells, just
the
way Bob Noll does in his video.

I went so far as to purchase Inconel wire from Aircraft Spruce and
Specialty
as well as a Homebuilders Hotwire kit.  The hot wire kit was a "bust"
because
it consisted of only a transformer and a dimmer switch and it was up to
me
to
design and fabricate an electrical circut.  Long story short,...
transformer
got fried and no longer works!!

Plan "B" was to use the Inconel wire with my son's HO Train tranformer.
Well,... that did little good because the wire barely got hot!!  At
least
the
train still works though, ha!!

Then finally a friend loaned me his K.I.S.S. Hot Wire Accesory kit by
Sam
Turner.  What a life saver that has been.  Now I've just gotta get one
for
myself; however I can't find them available anymore!!  I can not access
Sam
Turner's web site and his products are no longer available through
Central
Hobbies.  Please don't tell me a great product like this is out of
production??

Can anyone tell me where to get Turners Hot Wire kit??  Or does anyone
have
suggestion on how to build a foam cutter of my own??

Thank you!!

Sincerely,
Steve Teerlinck
Monson, Massachusetts
=====================================
# To be removed from this list, send a message to
# discussion-request at nsrca.org
# and put leave discussion on the first line of the body.
#

=====================================
# To be removed from this list, send a message to 
# discussion-request at nsrca.org
# and put leave discussion on the first line of the body.
#

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.f3a.us/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20021126/f2f24590/attachment.html