People laugh at me and call me a fool but I don’t care: the threat from China isn’t cheap Chinese junk - it’s top of the line, high quality stuff built at a fraction of the cost we can make it for. I am old enough to remember when Japan was cranking out junk. Back then it used to be that if you wanted the best steel you went to the Kippers or the Krauts. Ditto for optics and precision tooling. Today the best bearings and glass for optics are made in Japan. And lest they get complacent…the bloody Vietnamese are threatening to eat their lunch just as Japan ate ours back in the 80s. Now… Chinese QA/QC is going straight up on a lot of products. Whadda you do when they start producing real quality AND service at 1/3 of what you can do it for?
Awhile back Flapz and I bought some cheap chink gassser 2 cycle engines for our RC planes. I’m new to gas for RC engines so I slapped that test stand together so we can break in the engines and tune the carbs. So far these engines are running great. The stubfarts down at the airfield swear by them too. They come in at 1/3 the price of their Jap competitors. About the only advantage in going Japanese for these engines is better product support. The Achilles heel for the chinks is that they will steal anything that isn’t nailed down. Once you buy that engine… it’s YOUR engine and if you have any problems… “sclew you, Round Eye! HAL HAL HAL!!!” The chinks are horrible to deal with and they’ll give you the shaft in a heart beat! But… give them time. Once they realize there’s actual money in customer service… they’ll sing a different tune.
For now Flapz and I rolled the dice and came out smiling. Who knows? If these engines are junk and blow up prematurely… it’ll be a case of ya get what ya pay for I guess. We’ll see how all this works out.
I’m struggling with the wings on the new bird I’m building. The plans call for 3/8x1/2” spruce spars. Y’know… I can’t buy them anywhere? I’m going to have to rip my own and find someone that sells marine or aircraft grade spruce! I was gonna try ordering cap stripping from Aircraft Spruce & Specialty but the wanks are saying their wood is seldom cut to spec. The hobby shop theoretically sells it but in actuality… no. Arseholes. I’ve never run a table saw before so we’ll see how I do. Ike hate to cut off my fingers, but fortunately my feet have thumbs too…
The worst part of any build is always the wing ribs. They all gotta be exactly the same, and these ones have to be cut out one at a time to lighten them up. It’s monotonous, slog work that can’t be rushed or have any corners cut. Between shaping, cutting and final sand… each one of those ribs is going to take a half an hour. Thankfully my time is worth nothing…
So… a question for any old school builders out there? What does that shaded triangle in the middle of the aileron on the plans indicate? I know for a fact it isn’t to accommodate flaps - this design makes no allowance for them. If anyone has any ideas… could ya let me know? Your help is - as always - sincerely appreciated! If I can’t figure it out I’ll ignore it.
I’m kinda bummed out in the Reclusium these days. I am mourning the loss of a very dear friend:
That drill has to be about 20 ~ 25 years old now. I’ve got three batteries and they’re all pooched. The wife bought me a Porter-Cable for a spare but… to be honest … I like my old DeWalt better. I think everything is 18V now? I can still buy batteries for it… but I don’t need two drills. I should throw it out… but I just keep putting it back on the shelf where it sits and takes up space and collects dust. I dunno if I can re-home the old dinosaur either. Everyone round here wants Milwaukee tools now… DeWalt is passé and the cool kids want nothing to do with DeWalt.
In other news, I may not have to kill my dear old Mother now after all. She’s actually letting me help her now, a little bit. She’s been downright pleasant for close to a month … but who knows? Yesterday I dug up all her flower beds and turned them over for the fall, and she gave me a coffee. I think she really likes seeing me take some of Dad’s stuff and junk and seeing it put to work again.
Poasting will be light today I am going to an RC auction and if I’m lucky I might score a good 20cc engine that some old fart is wanting to get rid of. Wish me luck - and I hope you have a good Saturday planned as well.
Thanks for stopping in.
Filthie
😊👍
Shaded triangle: a cross section of the design profile?
ReplyDeleteThat’s what it is- what it should look like viewed end on.
DeleteYes!!! That is what it has to be! Thanks, A!!!
DeleteI’ve never seen that before on RC plans…
Based on the location just outside of a spar, maybe reinforcement for a control attachment point? I say this as a Materials Engineer, not a model airplane stubphart...YMMV, Good Luck !!!
ReplyDeleteWell that’s another odd thing, T… this plan doesn’t spell out the placement of the control horns. I think they’re implied by the presence of light ply rather than balsa in those areas.
DeleteI sympathize, i have the same drill and sawzall combo. Im down to one battery, and its on its last leg. I bought a new craftsmen drill and plenty of batteries as it works on a leaf blower, saw, etc...I guess Im gonna just toss mine, no one wants it and the batteries are too expensive to replace or rebuild. I wish someone would make a plug-in adapter for these, then Id keep it. Best of luck with yours.
ReplyDeleteY’know, Bob … you’re right. Later today I’m gonna march down there and just throw it out. It’s not going to get any easier, nobody is going to come round begging for an old drill with burnt out batteries… but … damn. There’s a lot a memories and good times tied up in that artifact…🥲
DeleteSave the Chuck. It may come in handy.
DeleteYeah… I had to dump my DeWalts… batteries completely fubar. Best bud had moved on from DeWalt to Makita, for commonality so did I. I like ‘em.
ReplyDeleteSmileyFtW
Yup. That’s the way it went around here too. The cool kids and pros were all on DeWalt when I bought mine. Then they all went to Makita and I bought one of their belt sanders. Then they all seemed to divide between Ryobi, Porter Cable, Rigid and some others…now they seem to be flocking to Milwaukee.
DeleteI am so far behind the times…I think I’m in front! 😂👍
You want a drill to last forever? Get one with a cord. I always keep a corded backup tool for whatever battery tools I use. Sometimes it's worth dragging out the extension cord and getting a real drill to do the work. And once the batteries go, toss the tool. The batteries are 90% of the freaking cost and replacement batteries always suck. I'm on my third drill/driver set just because the batteries always go to shit. Doesn't matter what brand. Hell, most of the brands are probably made under the same roof in China, just with different color handles.
ReplyDeleteYup. My old Black & Decker is up on the wall too… but… Hell’s bells, Don! There is just something evil, filthy and ungodly with the concept of “throw-away” tools! And (hork, spit) - “planned obsolescence”.
DeleteThe people responsible should be boiled in oil…😡
I am with you Filth, a horrible position, but some one has to do it. I have my old Makita 7.6V cordless, first one I bought and I still use it. I have had to have the battery pack rebuilt and couple of times. I have a Dewalt 14.4V cordless that I love more than my ex-wife and recently had the three battery packs I have rebuilt and cost me $120...USD. I like the feel and balance and it is torquey as hell, much better than the DeWalt 18V which gave up it's mortal coil and my newest DeWalt 20V drill driver and racquet driver combo pack. I still have a 3/8" corded and 1/2" corded drills and have not used them for 15 years, but keep them clean and bring them out and run them for a few minutes to keep the accumulator and brushes from corroding.
ReplyDeleteYep. It’ll be the third set of batteries for this thing if I keep it. And if the drill breaks down…I’m stuck with obsolete batteries…
DeleteWithout seeing the whole aileron drawing, I’d agree with Anon. Looks like the control surface is a solid piece of balsa. Either way, you’ll need to balance it somehow to prevent flutter. I’m guessing the rectangles are the hinge points?
ReplyDeleteYes - it’s a profiled piece, P2.
DeleteI’m going to deviate from the plans on the hinges…there’s some new ones out that are beefier and easier to work with.
Is flutter even a problem at low speeds?
I’ve never noticed it in my machines…
Doesn’t appear to be any provision for a balance weight forward of the hinge points on the elevators either so I’d have to say flutter isn’t an issue. I’m probably overthinking this…
DeleteSupply Chain, QC, Issues? Still?
ReplyDeleteHere in the states, everything is going to 20 volts. I have DeWalt stuff and love it. Back in the day we were Mikita fans, but they were eclipsed by better competition.
Cheap Chinese...yeah, a problem. A couple years ago I bought a Stevens/Savage 12 ga. pump for $167 after 10% sales tax and Background check. It's an improved Winchester 1300, with Speed Pump, they stretched the magazine to hold 5 rounds. The chewtube reviews are praising it as a great "entry level shotgun". I pattern tested it, patterns as it should. They've torture tested it, awesome shotgun. It uses standard chokes, Browning, Mossberg, I forget.
ANYWAY, I try not to buy new Chinesium, on principal. I got my gun reviews mixed up in my head and THOUGHT it was Turkish, which puts out excellent firearms, (I like THOSE Muslims more than Commies). After I figured out my screw up, I just accepted it.
Chinese pipe sucks. We try to not buy chinese pipe but in some diameters/ grades / schedules its nearly impossible. Do pmi and find out how much boron they tossed in and how little nickel there is vs the spec.
ReplyDeleteThey screw over there own people just as often
Exile1981
Yup. Those little bastards will lie through their teeth at you! I wouldn’t wipe my ass with a Chinese mill cert! You DONT involve chink suppliers on ANY critical industrial application either. ANSI, API, NACE… they don’t know what any of that means and they don’t care either!
DeleteBut…if all you’re looking for is a cheap dime store manual valve operator … they can do that as well as anyone.
3/8 x 1/2 is a mite tiny for a regular table saw. Try a Proxon. Much better precision at those sizes.
ReplyDeleteDear gawd…never heard of Proxxon before… what beautiful stuff!!! 👍
DeleteI started using Bosch with compact 12v. Spec'd by ME's at big airplane co. for craftsman to use. Very good stuff. The drillmotors with their clunky assed batts are like a pretty girl wearing orthopedic shoes.
ReplyDeleteI was in the same position. I had a DeWalt 18V drill that was perfectly viable, but batteries were unobtainium. I have a DeWalt sawzall and impact driver, both of which use the newer, and still available, 20V batteries. Guess what; THERE'S AN ADAPTER THAT PLUGS INTO THE 18V DRILL THAT ACCEPTS AND DOWNVOLTS THE 20V BATTERIES!!!
ReplyDeleteMy last post went out before I was finished. The adapter is cheap and it WORKS!
ReplyDeleteThis has ALWAYS been my beef with batt-op ANYHING. When the manufacturer decides to stop making replacement batteries and the Chinese get tired of making knockoffs that you can use, your drill, saw, ...or EV... is DONE.