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Design Guidelines

Here is where we will discuss quick tips and hints for building the SPAD sloper of your dreams.

See also the excellent Hints and Tips section of the original SPAD site at: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/TipsTricksLinks/tip_index.htm. 

Gluing

We have had excellent success simply using a Hot Glue gun, especially one that has dual settings (Hot and Low, or Hi and Low).  The trick is to make sure the gun is heated up enough such that the glue comes out steaming (be VERY careful to NOT get the glue on your skin as you will end up with at LEAST 1st degree burns).  Also make sure that you have some type of jig, or piece of wood to place over the object to be glued so that you get a high pressure bond when pressing the two surfaces together.  This way, the hot glue actually smears and/or flattens out and then dries, rather than beading and then drying.  For some reason, when you get the hot glue to smear thin, it holds MUCH better than if it beads and then dries.

If you wish to use Cyanoacrylate (or CA) glues, then please see the excellent tips at: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/TipsTricksLinks/tip_index.htm. 

Heavy Duty Stapler:

A staple gun like the one pictured above is an excellent resource for stapling the trailing edges of wings so that the wing doesn't come apart:

The wing pictured above will have to be beat on a LOT before it will come apart.

Wing Jig

Here is a page devoted to building and using a wing jig.  Wing jigs not only hold the wing for you so you can easily fold the top over the spar and get everything glue correctly, but they make an excellent working surface for everything you need to do on a wing.

Cutting PVC Gutterpipe

We typically use a bandsaw, however, you could conceivably use a hacksaw or tin snips.  We use tin snips (and sometimes ordinary household scissors) to cut various parts out of the scrap PVC.

Cutting Coroplast

We typically use household scissors to cut Coroplast, however, we might try using a bandsaw for diagonal cuts as it will probably make a cleaner cut.

Materials

Coroplast comes in various colors and the 4-mil variety can usually be purchased at a local sign shop.  Make sure to tell them that you are using it for model airplane building so they won't think you are a competitor when you come asking for 4' x 8' sheets.  Costs vary, but in my particular neck of the woods I can get a 4-mil 4' x 8' sheet of Coroplast for about $11.

Some local shops will carry 2-mil, but I have had the most success by ordering it from Regal Plastics:

http://regal-plastics.com
Contact: Peter Spence (pspence@regal-plastics.com)
1-800-441-1553

They will usually sell you 2' x 4' sheets of 2-mil for a reasonable price.  Be sure to tell them the direction you want the flutes to go.  For building normal wings that go on ships like the U-Can-2, or the Mig7, you will want the flutes to run in the 2' direction.  For the Flik, if you want to use the 2-mil itself for the elevons, you will want the flutes to run in the 4' direction.  If you plan on cutting off the 2-mil elevons and using balsa or yardstick for the elevons, then 2-mil with the flutes running in the 2' direction is just fine.

Last Updated: 10.09.2006
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