Construction starts with pieces for the base plate (above left). These three pieces—W4, W5, W6—should be stacked this way (above center). In a few instances a number of ³⁄₃₂ drill bits are used to align parts (above right).
Accurate alignment is critical. A pliers helps drive home the slotted spring pins (below left). Here’s the top of the assembled drive (below center). Two planet gears on its bottom (below right) engage the drive gear on the large sun gear.
dius that allows a smooth mesh with its partner gears. There is no need for dressing the gears and each falls freely from the sheet that contains them.
Though the parts are not etched with an identifying mark, the instruction sheet has one page that identifies all the parts so it’s easy to identify what is what. Every part has a specific part number, even the identical pieces which caused some hesitation at first to make sure there wasn’t some very slight subtle variation in them. About the only, and very minor discrepan- cy in parts ID involved the thin polyethylene sheet that is used as spacers that provide some “lubricating” properties so wood doesn’t rub against wood. These plastic pieces are wafer thin. Two of the spacers,
PS5 and PS9, were repositioned from the side to the top of the sheet. Of all the parts it was the 3⁄32 diameter bamboo rod that caught my attention the most. It’s used for the pins in the drive gear and Mark chose it specifically for its excel- lent strength. It’s somewhere between a mu- sic wire pin and the more common pine dow- el stock.
For one thing I’ve never worked with bam-
boo, even though it still is used sparingly in some freeflight applications. In the second place I didn’t know how to cut it. My first at- tempts produced splintered parts. Good thing the single rod provided was long enough to provide enough excess length until I figured out how to do it right and accurately. Best tool to cut it is a Zona saw, using the
32-tooth razor saw blade. A homemade, poor man’s “miter box” was rigged up using some of the scrap 1⁄8-inch ply, or the Great Planes aluminum sanding bar. The length was marked, the bamboo rod placed against the ply plate or sanding bar, and held down with a thumb and forefinger. Then, I cut the rod pushing the saw across it, not sawing back and forth. With a good new blade the pins were easily and quickly cut. Before the very last stroke, a single edge razor blade cut the last strand.
It is important to make clean cuts in the bamboo because any splintering will inter- fere with the fit of the pin in the gears’ holes. As it is, the bamboo is ever so slightly over- size and any splinters will almost make it impossible to fit them. Also I found it a good
Before the output gear is assembled (above left) a groove has to be cut in the end of the brass tube sleeve. A Dremel cutoff wheel works really well for this. The
FLYING MODELS
output gear is assembled and the slot in the tube is then aligned (above center) with the slot in W12. Then it can be placed in the base plate (above right).
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