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31 January 2024:

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Playing With Peanut Props

I’ve been printing Peanut Props for about two years now, I guess.  I offer them for specific models that I have built, and most come with a Spinner of appropriate size and shape for the specific model.  These spinners are separate from the prop and must be cut, ground or carved to fit on the prop.

Peanut Corsair 3- and 4-bladed props, printed in black (no spinner for the Corsair)

There are advantages to this:  I can print the spinner in a specific color, saving the modeler from having to color the spinner to match his model colors.

Peanut BF-109 with a printed 3-blade, wide-blade prop with a red printed spinner that had to be notched to clear the blades and the clutch.

The disadvantage is that you have to fit the spinner to the prop and figure out a way to center it and hold it on.  To be clear, these are problems that modelers face with nearly any prop and spinner combo, but what if there was a better way?

I’ve been kicking this around in my head for awhile, and discussions with modeling and printing pal, Archie Adamisin helped clarify one path forward.  I had been trying to “delete” the prop arms from the spinner.  This would work, but would still require a small amount of carving to get the spinner to snap on.  Archie suggested that I print the spinner and prop together (he had sent me some props that did exactly this a year or so ago, so I knew what he meant).

I have now done two of these.  One for the Bellanca Aries (which has a tiny spinner), and one for a soon-to-be-prototyped WWII fighter.  Here are the results:

Bellanca 5″ prop (top) and WWII fighter 4.5″ prop (bottom) with printed spinners; caps are off.

Bellanca (top) and WWII fighter (bottom) with spinner caps in place

Bellanca prop showing clutch installed. This is VERY small: the diameter at the spinner split is 3/8″ and the prop shaft is 1/32″ music wire. The prop shaft will still need to be trimmed to clear the spinner cap.

These have the spinner split in two and the top part has a little ridge on the base that snaps into the lower part of the spinner (that is actually part of the prop).  I am also putting in a hole through the base of the spinner to allow the insertion of a Garami-style clutch.  Carving around this on a separate spinner is always difficult and can lead to wobbly spinners, if you are not very careful.

I haven’t fully decided yet, but I could supply these for all of the Peanut Props I now offer, but the caution is that the spinners will be printed in the same color as the prop (black or silver, depending on the application), leaving the coloring of the spinner to the modeler.

Technically it IS possible for me to print the spinner in a different color, but this makes the print time about 10 times as long (3.5 hours vs 20 minutes) and the amount of plastic used is also about an order of magnitude greater.  This is because color-swapping during printing takes a LONG time and uses a LARGE amount of plastic.

As always, any thoughts or comments are welcome!

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VPS 10:1 Winder – Accepting Pre-Production Orders!

I was convinced to push this to Production and I will be offering two versions:

  • Completely assembled and ready-to-use  ($35 intro – $40 later)
  • Kit form with all parts and 5 pages of illustrated instructions required to assemble ($15 intro – $20 later)

These pre-order and pre-production prices will revert to normal prices on the morning of the 25th of January (that’s one week and the calendar alarm has already been set!).

We’ve built several and have tested them to over 15 inch-ounces without failure, but they are designed for the mid-range flyers:  try to keep the motors at a maximum of 2 loops of 3/16″ (3 loops of 1/8″) and we will all be happy!

Get yours HERE!

the VPS 10:1 Winder front side

the VPS 10:1 Winder back side

the VPS 10:1 Winder – kit version

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Winders – Always on My Mind

Winders – as a vendor (and a some-time manufacturer), I am well aware of the availability – and gaps – in winders for rubber motors.  Most of the popular winders are no longer available as new items of production.  Wilder Winders (large and small), Morrill Sidewinders, Gizmo Geezer winders, even the Rees Scalewinder* – all out of production and can only be found as used or estate items.

* – We stopped production of the Rees winder because of two factors:  1) the expense of buying the gears in bulk and 2) frankly, the quality of the winders we built was never the same as the originals built by Dave Rees.

Currently, K&P manufactures winders both large (a 10/4:1 combination winder) and small (hand-sized winders available in 5:1, 10:1, and 15:1).   AMA provides a 20:1 winder in some of their beginner rubber kits and IFFS sells two winders intended for the Indoor flyers:  the top-of-the-line Geauga winder and the very fine ORWI winder.  If you are looking for large-model winders, you can probably find the Andruikov or Blazhevich winder, if you have the proper connections (and plenty of dollars).  There may be others in Europe or Asia, but to my knowledge, these are the only winders available new in any volume.

So, I am always aware of the gaps in winders:  what is available for the mid-range motors:   2-loops of 1/8″ rubber up to 2- or 3- loops of 3/16″?  There is virtually nothing in this range.  Even the small K&P winders are size-limited and can be stressed and worn out by winding motors much larger than a loop of 3/16″  The good thing about these small K&Ps is the price:  $20 each.

What is the solution?  Well, how about designing some NEW winders?  Winders all have  multipliers – gears (except for the very smooth – and out of production – indoor winder, the Holtzman Chain-Gang winder).  And for me, the production of gears has been a limiting factor.  You can buy gears, but finding exactly what you need can be tricky.  The main gear for the Rees winder cost over $50 each, unless you bought bulk, over 25 at a time.  But recently, I discovered that I could generate gears in my 3D CAD program, so I laid out a set and designed a system to encase them and turn them.

The result is a 10:1 winder that is a bit larger than the K&P winder, that feels much like the K&P, but I think has a larger capacity than the K&P.  It is pretty smooth and only has two metal parts:  the 1/16″ music wire output shaft/hook and a 4-40 cap screw to hold the knob on the crank.

The orange one is the third one I printed.  I’ll use this at home for all my test flying.  I do not really intend for this to be a replacement for the K&P, but more of a test-bed, as in “can I design and make a winder?”  It is also really a stepping stone to a larger design to fill that mid-range gap.  I don’t think this winder is viable as a sales item; it takes over 5 hours to print the parts, and about 1 hour to clean up and assemble.  These times put the price well above the K&P winder.  But maybe I could provide the winder in kit form – you finish the pieces.  Or I can just give out the STL file.  To be determined…

Now, on to think about how a large winder might be designed and put together.

 

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A Week of Prop Design – Closing Out 2024

So, I have been designing and using 3D-Printed props for my aircraft for two or three years now.  To be clear, this work is all based on Archie Adamisin’s prop work that he has shared with me.  While I can do some designing stuff, laying out airfoils at specific radius stations is still beyond my personal capability and I am thankful for Archie’s help and generosity.

But I have taken his designs into a different direction.  For at least two years, I’ve been making “breakaway” props for my scale models.  These fold on contact with the ground and are perfectly legal for FAC flying as they do NOT fold before landing, a critical point for FAC acceptance.  The entire purpose of this was to avoid prop and model breakage on landing.

These utilize a rectangular hub, usually enclosed in a 3D-Printed spinner, and the plastic filament for printing used an hinge pins.  In addition, I use Larrabee profiles for the blade shapes.  These shapes are generated within a spreadsheet that has been online for years that calculates blade shapes based on Diameter, Pitch, and Blade Width for a quite efficient propeller design.

the breakaway prop, spinner and noseblock for my Aubert PA-20

the breakaway prop on my Comper Swift

one of my first successful breakaway props for a scale model on my Caudron C.460

I have been quite happy with these props on my scale ships and started to put some on my Old Timers.  Again, the FAC does not allow the props that fold before landing, so I never worried about “how” the props folded back.  I’ve used printed props on my HepCat, Holy Ike, and Miss Production and – again – I’ve been very pleased with their performance.

the breakaway prop on my Miss Production Old Time Stick – not meant to fold against the fuselage

This brings us up to date with development.  During the slow winter months (when I should be building) I tend to think back over the possible projects that I have thought about over the season or whenever.  With the delay (not cessation!) of the Superior Prop Factory, I know that people are not being served with folders for their Old Timers and I have thought about “could I print folders for non-FAC users, where they want and need folding action?”

The quick answer is “of course you can – you already do that!”  But in reality, there is a feature that is not part of my “breakaway” props and that is the blades do not fold back flat against the fuselage.  This has two reasons: 1) I have left the hinge action stiff since FAC models do not need to fold and 2) my hinges do not utilize the compound angle that is built-in to most Old Timer props to get them to fold flat against the fuselage.

the Miss Production breakaway – not meant for folding against the fuselage

showing how the Miss Production breakaway does NOT fold flat to the sides of the fuselage

Old Timer folders generally use a 15 degree and 15 degree compound offset for the hinge pin.  This sounds strange, but it has nothing to do with the power portion of the flight – the blades are held in their original pitch settings during power but when the power comes off, and the prop locks, the blades fold back against the fuselage for a more aerodynamic model (the spinning prop is no longer acting as a brake and forward rudder).  It is the integration of this 15-15 compound angle into the Hub design AND into the Prop design that is the tricky part.  A friend told me “you are thinking too much”.  As any designer or dreamer will tell you, the thinking is the easy part.  I can “see” the finished product, but converting those thoughts, ideas, and scenes into the drafting program and then into a physical product is the hard part.

Again, there are two parts – the prop blade and the prop hub.  I worked on the hub first.  It took some time, but I translated the vision into a functional prop hub.  The compound angle was integrated and it appeared to be functional. but I had no prop blade to test it with.  It took some time, but I got it integrated into the blade template that Archie had supplied a couple years ago (the same template I have used to make all my “breakaway” props).

I refined both the hub and the blades and – with a little post-printing clean-up and tweaking, I printed a fully functional Gollywock folder:  13″ diameter, 17″ pitch, 1.875″ blade width, with a proper Larrabee profile and a 1.5″ hub.  The blades flop easily and will lay flat against the fuselage side.  The assembly weighs in about 17 grams.  It could probably lose a little bit through scraping of the blades, but it will always be a little heavier than balsa.

the Gollywock Folder with a good, flat fold

the finished Gollywock Folder

This process took a full week of designing (well, in the downtime between all the holiday obligations!)  That week included plenty of moments of frustration as I wrestled with the 3D design program, trying to get it to do what I wanted.  The result is very satisfying, personally.

I will probably never use this prop and I don’t know if it is at all viable for production/sales.  It takes a bit of time to get it printed and assembled, but this amount of time is certainly less than a cut, assembled, and finished balsa prop.  And it is arguably more accurate, since the plastic holds the specifications as designed while the balsa prop needs to be hand carved and the hinges can go out of adjustment.  But, for me, it is mission accomplished.

 

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2 NEW KITS – Indoor NoCal BD-4 and OT Stick Super Flyer

Here are two short kits that I’ve been dragging my feet on.  These have been proven flyers and I have no excuse why I didn’t get them out sooner.

First is my Indoor NoCal BD-4.  This one should be a great flyer.  It has about 56 square inches and is a very simple high wing cabin with no wing struts.  My prototype flew a 2:52 last winter, but I know there is much more time to be had.  I am including a NoCal Pigtail Nose Bearing and laser-cut prop blades to build your indoor prop.

Find the Short Kit HERE

Next is a short kit for the 1940 Ace Whitman “Super Flyer” Old Time Stick model.  This is a small stick – smaller than the common term implies:  it has a 26″ span and only 60 square inches of wing area.  It is small, but mighty – Winn Moore built the short kit prototype and it was doing well over 2 minutes on its first day out.

Find the Short Kit HERE

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NEW KIT – the T.E.A.M. HiMax NoCal Short Kit

I’ve got this ready to go!  Last week, I flew it to an amazing 4:14 on its first day.  Now, you can get your own short kit.  Cut from 5-6# balsa to help you build in lightness!  And it includes 1/32″ sheet laser-cut Larrabee-profile prop blades just like I used (you will need to form them).

Get the Short Kit, including aluminum NoCal nose bearing, HERE

Read about my Day One Adventures HERE

 

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Flying a New NoCal – the T.E.A.M. HiMax

Did you ever have one of those days?  This will tell about Day One with my new T.E.A.M. HiMax NoCal.

The History

For some reason, the HiMax is one of my favorite planes to model.  This dates back to the early ’90s building and flying Peanuts with the Cleveland Free Flight Society.  As far as NoCal, I know I built one that flew “pretty well” at Akron back in 2013.  I may have built one before: I just can’t remember.  In any case, “pretty well” was just ok – probably around 2 minutes – not bad for an outdoor guy flying indoor, but never really competitive indoors.  I still have that one.

2013 version the wing markings were incorrect – there was no registration on the top of the wing

2013 version flying at Akron. A carved wood prop replaced the Ikara 6″ Indoor prop in the first picture.

The Build

Fast Forward to Fall 2024.  Last year, I built a BD-4 for indoor but it didn’t fly exactly as I wanted it to, so I thought, let’s build another HiMax.  I’ve learned a bit since 2013 about indoor building and flying.  I redesigned the model to what I considered “minimal” structure and built it from light wood (5#, I think).  I used a 7% Simplex airfoil at +2 degrees and the wing has 54 square inches of area.  I located the tail hook so the rubber would come close to balancing the model.  And I formed a 9″ diameter, 13.5″ pitch prop with a 1.375″ blade width.  I have struggled a little with 10″x15″ props so I reduced the diameter a little bit, hoping the reduction would make it easier to trim.

Building this delicate paid off in a way:  the model came out to just about 4.5 grams without rubber.  Of course, there had to be “problems”.  The HiMax has wing struts.  This will cause problems when winding.  Either I have to wind off the model (like I usually do with NoCals) or I have to wind with the rubber on the plane and the model on a stooge, much like any other Scale model.  I thought for a long time how to make a stick that would allow me to wind externally, transfer to a stick and load into the model.  But I felt this would be more trouble than it would be worth, so I decided to wind with the model on the stooge.  This meant winding with the rubber passing through the model between the fuselage and wing and wind struts.  If the rubber breaks, damage will be done.  I did have to mount a small piece of aluminum tubing just in back of the tail hook to mount the model on the stooge.

One of Those Days

So, I took the model to our first Indoor contest to test it out.  I had done nothing other than a small test glide in my living room to check the cg – it was close enough.  I loaded up an 18″ motor of 0.085″ rubber and wound in 1000 turns.  It was a little stall-y, so I adjusted the thrust and tossed again.  Pretty much the same.  More adjustments and a small bit of nose weight.  By the time the 1,000 turns ran out, I had a fairly decent trim.

I wound in 1,500 turns and let it go.  Ok, there it goes!  It was climbing well (maybe a bit fast) circling to the left.  Past advisors had told me to circle to the right and put is washin/washout to encourage that – but I think I got that wrong/opposite during strut installation, so I flew it left.  That first flight – it turned out well.  It flew to the rafters, but didn’t bump.  It landed at an impressive (for me and a first flight) 2:58!

the results of the first attempted flight on 1500 turns.

I decided that maybe 0.085″ was a little too strong, since I was at 1,500 turns and knew the motor could take several hundred more.  So I loaded a 20″ loop of 0.080″ and went again at 1,500.  This time I got 3:06 with much the same flight pattern – a fast (but stable) climb, very near the rafters, and landing with a pretty good time!  The next flight was just over 1,800 turns – 3:15 but with a couple of bangs on the rafters.

I decided to try something different.  These climbs were fast – and the flights need to be longer to be competitive.  I got out some 0.070″ rubber and made a 24″ loop.  This was a lot less power and a lot longer.  I cranked in 2,500 turns and watched the climb-out – it was a similar pattern, maybe not quite a quick to the roof.  In fact, it didn’t get quite as high.  It landed at a disappointing 2:44 with a bunch of turns left.  Unwinding on the stooge showed 1,200 turns remained in the motor!  So, while it would climb out well enough but it just couldn’t sustain the cruise.

I thought about finding some 0.075″ rubber, but wanted to try something first.  I decided to chop off part of the tail end of the motor.  The new motor ended up about 18″ long.  I wound it up to 1,975 and watched it go up faster than before and actually cruise around.  It landed at 3:25 – best of the day.  But it had turns still on the motor – 350 left.   One last attempt.  I opened up the left circle a little bit, thinking the tight circle was holding the model back.  With a wider circle on 2,000 turns, I was rewarded with a most unexpected 4:14!

I hadn’t expected flights like these on the first day.  And I was very surprised I was able to use 0.070″ rubber – that’s thinner than I expected!  So this little model has already surpassed my expectations!  (By the way, 4:14 was good for SECOND Place today; I lost to Don Tang flying a Turbo Cessna 195 – my design – to a 4:36.)

The drawing needs to be finished (several details need to be added) and I will get the Short Kit online soon!  I might even include laser-cut blades.

 

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Product Update – 2 styles of Dow 33 Lube!

I recently picked up some old-school Dow 33 Medium (pink) at a reasonable price.  When I got it I realized that I had been mis-identifying my stock of Dow 33 – I now have Dow 33 Medium (pink) and Dow 33 Light (white).  The “medium” and “light” refers to the lubricant’s viscosity – how thick it is.  So now you have two choices!

In addition the price on BOTH has been reduced to $27 a tube!

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Two More 3D Products! – Mini Nose Buttons and a Tracker Box

Two new 3D-Printed products are being released.

The first is VPS Mini Adjustable Nose Buttons.

These have been in development for a couple years.  With permission of Model Aviation Products, I have created a much smaller version of the Gizmo Geezer Adjustable Nose button.  These are KITS (you assemble) and are suitable for Peanuts, Pistachios, and NoCals (try to keep the power LESS THAN a loop of 1/8″ rubber).  They weight about 0.35 grams assembled.

Get them HERE.

The second is a Storage Box for your BMK Tracker.  This replaces the cardboard box, utilizes the original foam insert, and provides a nice hard shell for your equipment.

Get it HERE.

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NEW KIT – P-63 Short Kit for WWII NoCal

I bumped into this Short Kit this morning and wondered “why haven’t I posted it, this is from last year?”  Well, it looks like I had to finish the printed tissue templates.  I did that (minor editing), loaded that file onto the server, edited the Printed Tissue Template Page, and loaded the kit into the sales catalog.

Winn Moore requested the P-63 for our Indoor WWII NoCal Combat last season and proved the design, getting over 2 minutes in testing.

Now you can get all of the above (but the 2 minutes is up to you!)

Get the Short Kit (with nose bearing) HERE

Get the tissue template HERE

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