Hey guys,
After countless concepts designed in cad, researched and talked about, I thought that I would just design and make a semi normal carbon foil.
So being a poor uni student, the main foil was originally going to me made out of sh*t loads of 6mm mdf sheets. A 3 axis cnc would simply cut out the shapes out of a sheet of mdf, they would then be glued together to create a top surface and bottom surface, which would then be sanded and molds to be made from.
this had a few disadvantages in terms of what shape of foil could be made for instance curving down and backwards was impossible. I ended up finding a cnc shop with a 5 axis that had enough time to cut molds a few days before Christmas and let me pick up on boxing day
the profile is a modified eppler profile that had its top curve and bottom curves scaled differently.
~end result
Day 1:
~A few of us spent the day figuring out the best way to mold the main wing, since it is a 1 off, went for the normal method of molding 2 halfs, routering/grinding flat then joining.
final result is a bulletproof 10 layers of carbon. (various types). maybe a bit overkill considering we did a test with a offcut of nomex that had 1 layer each side that could support 90kg and only broke when jumped on.
~the carbon was laid up and other than the first 2 layers, cut perfectly to fit.
~went for a solid carbon fuselage quite a bit smaller than regular... max width is 16mm but is crazy solid!
Day 2:
~the main wing was vacuum bagged, mold didn't move or collapse on any of the corners which is a bonus.
~stabiliser will be shaped out of some nice 5mm solid carbon (also crazy stiff), just rough cut to shape.
fuselage was routed for join to fit in.
Day 3:
~not much happened, the hungover vacuum bagging actually turned out all right. Foil got a rough cut around the edges, then more carbon! cut carbon to shape and layered both sides then chucked in the mold. A layer of glad wrap was in between each half so that they can be separated after and all voids can be filled up, sanded then finally glued together.
quite heavy now but I don't think it will have any flex what so ever
Surface finish wasn't the best due to mold. MDF or a better foam would have been nice, but then that would have cost $1000 NZD
*update
Day 4:
~simply glued the 2 halves together and did some prep work on the stabilizer support
Will continue to update when anything happens!
Update*
has been a bit tidied up since these photos, but the general idea is there!
Stabiliser is roughly shaped by hand, no proper foil shape. )':