Retro RC’s Winder Glue Caddies Stooge &
Practical tools you can use made from the practical material of wood!
PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK FANELLI T
he name of the company may be RetroRC but that doesn’t mean that Mark Freeland’s enterprise isn’t a friend of freeflight. Look through his catalog and you’ll find freeflight planes like the very unique P-30 model Kat’Ana, or the Phantom Flash in two sizes or the 1920 Dayton Wright Racer, not to mention a variety of gliders. All of these are wood, precision cut with a laser. So what are these three new wood prod- ucts of his? A 10:1 winder? Aren’t winders a
conglomeration of carefully fit precise metal and plastic parts? How can a wooden version possibly work—and with precision? And a stooge—guess if you have a winder a stooge should be part of the flight gear. Oh yeah, and then there are planes to be built and re- paired. That means glues of different per- suasions, so why not a glue caddy or two—or maybe even four?
Well Mark has well demonstrated his knack for precision laser-cut parts these past years since his young company first
started and if anything could be a real testa- ment to that engineering and artistry it is a winder.
So is it just a fascinating novelty, or is it a tool that can find a valued place in a flight box? First off I can absolutely vouch for the precision cutting of the parts. The teeth in all the gears are as perfectly cut as if each were machined from metal. That is an ac- complishment considering the teeth and al- most all the other parts are 1⁄8-inch Baltic birch ply. Each tooth has a very slight ra-
By Frank Fanelli
PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK FANELLI
All parts of the winder are ¹⁄₈ Baltic ply (at left) with the exception of the ¹⁄₃₂ ply shim and the polyethylene “lubricant” sheet. A Zona razor saw is perfect for cutting the bamboo pegs (above center), used with a homemade miter box like this sander bar. Planet gears (above right) are identified with the parts page.
34 JUNE 2013
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