[NSRCA-discussion] Incedence meters alternative

[Rcmaster199 at aol.com]

Lance is right on the money. Height gages are inexpensive and simple to use, 
and accuracy is extreme. In fact, the line marks one uses on wing/stab 
surfaces or fuselages, is the limiting factor. What I do is essentially split the 
line with the carbide scribe with mine. Have used mine for more than 15 years and 
have touted its virtues about that long. Even wrote a piece for KFactro 
several years back.

Good ideas in this hobby are always worth repeating

MattK

In a message dated 12/16/2006 7:05:35 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
patterndude at tx.rr.com writes:
I got out of this game a few years ago.  Fact is, a height gage, if 
measuring off a flat surface used at the LE and TE is way more accurate than 
the meters. It is quite easy to accurately measure the height off a table to 
less than 1/32".  On a 18" chord that's 0.1 degrees worst case.  I think I 
can do better than 1/32".  The key is having a flat table (not necessarily 
level).  You may not realize this, but what they call "silestone" is a 
manufactured granite that is pressed in molds.  It's something like 99% 
quartz and some epoxy binder.  It's redeeming feature is that its flatness 
is part of its specification and is molded in.  Unlike real granite that 
must be polished with large wheels and they never give an optically flat 
surface.  Silestone has actual specifications.  I have a table top that is 
accurate to 10 mils anywhere.  Way good enough for our hobby.  By purchasing 
from a stone cutter a piece that has a chip in it, I was able to cover my 
work table for $80.

Another nice thing about this investment is that this artificial stone is 
nonporous, which means that CA and epoxy don't really stick.  They can 
easily be scraped off with a razor.  I've even spray painted without a 
dropcloth and just scraped off the overspray from the table.

I realize this is probably a whole new alternative but I thought some might 
be interested.

--Lance
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.nsrca.org/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20061218/dcb1e980/attachment.html