Carl Baer How To Build RC Airplanes Videos and Building Tips

Build RC Model Plane Wing Center Section

At this point I am ready to build the center section and add the balsa sheeting to the wing of my radio control plane, making balsa sheeting is easy when you follow a few simple rules. You can see the steps for this in the balsa sheeting post. Creating proper balsa sheets is one of the most important steps when it comes to a professional looking sheeting job.

Completing Center Section

As you can see here, I begin with an important step with any rc model plane…setting up the structure and aligning the parts perfectly to the plans. As always, I use a magnetic building board to build all my rc airplanes from scratch. If you get the alignment and layout right for your wing center section, then you will be buildnig like a pro too. Using a square and magnetic vises, I hold the center section to my sheet metal board.

After confirming the alignment of the ribs, I can continue to add more magnets to hold the rest of the wing center section in place.

Filed Under: Latest Building Tutorial

How To Keep From Stabbing Your Foot With X-Acto Tools

You might be wondering, what in the world is this possibly about and how could it possibly be useful with building rc airplanes. Well, if you are like a few of us builders, you already know what I am talking about. If not, then congratulations on being clueless about this topic.

I am referring to your hobby knives/X-acto knives rolling off your work bench and into your foot. Yikes!

Yes, this happens more often than you would believe and I am here to stop it with a simple tool that will keep that from ever happening again (as long as you use it of course).

The good news is it does not require anything more than a few common household items to construct. Let’s begin….

Step 1. As you can see in the picture below, you will need the following items to build the tool that will forever save your toes.

Plastic Container – Don’t use your wife’s Tupperware, but instead use a plastic container from a food item. I used a plastic container from some kind of dip that was not memorable.
Bolts or other scrap metal – I used some stripped bolts that were no longer useful. In other words, use any scrap metal with some weight to it.
Styrofoam – Everyone gets packages or appliances, finally a use for that dense foam that insulates our landfills! Make sure your foam is thick enough and large enough for your container.
Glue – Foam friendly glue please. No CA glues. Either a white glue, or an all purpose glue, gorilla glue works very well.

Step 2. Using your plastic container as a template, lay it on your foam piece (as shown below) and draw around the container. Now you want to cut out around the line you made, remember that your line is larger than the inner diameter of your container, but it is always better to be a bit bigger than too small. It is always tougher to put material back than to take it off. You can use a hobby knife to cut it out, which may be a good idea as you won’t have Styrofoam bits flying around. Or you can use a saw (as I did) and cut out along the line.

Important note: If your container has tapered sides (like mine did), you need to take this into account when you get ready to shape it to fit.

Step 3. Sand and cut your foam piece to fit inside your container. If you do any sawing or cutting of foam, I recommend doing it away from your building area as bits of foam will stick to everything, gotta love that static electricity. You are looking for a snug fit (see picture below) so the foam will stay in place.

Step 4. Place the foam inside your rc airplane hobby tool holder and see if it fits. As you can see here, it still needs some trimming to fit better. Be aware that we do not want the foam to fit all the way to the bottom of the container as we will have the scrap metal in the bottom to weigh down our rc airplane tool holder.

Step 5. If you are sure of the fit, you can proceed with the last step, gluing it all together. As you can see in the picture below, you only need glue in the base of the container and there is a very good reason for this. The foam will eventually wear out from countless stabs from your X-acto knives, and you will want to replace the foam. You cannot do this easily if you glue the whole piece of foam in place. So remember to only glue the bottom of the foam and you will be able to remove it later.

Step 6. Poke a hole through the foam, either on the sides or through the middle. This will allow air to get to the glue and help it to cure faster. Now just wait a few hours and you are ready to start using your hobby knife holder, I mean foot saver.

This is what this hobby is all about, being resourceful with everyday items and creating useful tools from them. I have learned a lot of skills that I have found came in handy in other parts of my life. It is a great and rewarding hobby that always is exciting and teaching you something new.

I hope you found this post useful, and I would love to hear your thoughts. If you have an idea similar to this, please feel free to share it. In fact, I encourage it, so we can all spread the knowledge and share.

Filed Under: Home Made RC Plane Tools

Using Basswood To Build Your Entire RC Airplane?

Can You Use Basswood To Build Your Entire RC Airplane?

I had a great question from a fellow hobbyist. Can I scratch build a plane using basswood (he has an abundant supply)?

Many many years ago it was the accepted practice to build your model from basswood (most models were carved from it and most were control line model airplanes). The supply and options of different woods for model airplanes was not as varied as it is today, but as balsa woods were introduced the practices changed. Now bigger models were possible with the use of balsa and they still were a strong airframe, as is evident in the endless choices available today when it comes to balsa kits we can build just about anything. But if you are wondering…can I build a rc airplane with basswood? The answer is yes, yes you can. You can even go so far as to build with basswood and use an electric motor to power it, thanks to advancements in brushless motors, esc's, lithium polymer batteries and micro radio equipment. If you can build it, you probably can get it to fly with an electric motor. You might not get a 20 minute flight out of it, but it will certainly be fun.

It was more popular back in the good old days to build from a denser soft wood like basswood because most of the models in those days were control line models. There were not a lot of radio control airplanes back in the day. If you were one of the few, they were bulky (some of the first ones used radio tubes). They typically controlled one control surface, usually rudder control, but they were horrendously expensive and quirky, thus not many people used them. Instead most rc airplane hobbyists built control line planes, which fueled the use of basswood. Many control line model airplanes are still carved from a solid block of basswood, but balsa has sure had an impact on this.

Typically, you can use a combination of balsa and bass woods to build your rc model airplane, however most of a model is usually built with balsa to save on weight. You can build a model airplane from basswood, in fact I remember my old wood carving teacher who built models from basswood. They are certainly heavier, but if you are using a gas/nitro engine, then it is not as much a factor, but as I mentioned, you can feel confident about an electric motor installation for your rc airplane as well.

Basswood, is a denser fiber wood and stronger than balsa. It is primarily used for doublers, reinforcing blocks and sometimes for ribs in wings that require more strength. Typically in a rc airplane wood kit, you will have a variety of balsa woods, basswoods and plywood. What you will notice is that the overwhelming majority of wood is balsa (hence the kits being called balsa kits). If you bought a basswood rc airplane kit, it would also be much heavier, think of someone adding a hardwood board to the box and that would give you an idea of how heavy the rc airplane might be after construction.

So Yes, you can build a plane from basswood, just keep the weight factor in the equation when building your plane.

If you have anything else to add to this, I and other hobbyists would love to hear your thoughts too.

Things to consider…

Engine type – if you are going to use an electric motor, you might want to reconsider using too much basswood.

Airplane type – What aircraft are you thinking of building, a trainer made from basswood might not be a bad idea. It would certainly be rugged (and heavy)

Can You Cut Up The Wood – What sizes are the strips of basswood, can you cut them into planks, sheets, etc…

Cutting Basswood – remember it is a tougher wood than balsa.

Filed Under: RC Airplane Q&A Tagged With: balsa kits, basswood, build model airplane, build rc plane basswood, control line planes, make plane, model airplane, radio control airplanes, rc airplanes, rc building tips, u control planes

Your Questions About RC Airplanes Answered

I will be posting questions that fellow hobbyists sent me by email, to the blog as well. I get lots of great questions and I know a lot of them are questions others would like to know the answer to as well. I think this will be beneficial to all and help everyone that may have had a similar question but has not yet asked it.

Of course, if you still want to ask a question by email, that will be fine as well, but I am hoping that everyone will start posting the questions here. I will keep working on making the system as effecient as possible because I want to make sure all questions get answered quickly, and sometimes, I do not have the time I would like to get them answered.

Anyone that knows the answer to a question posted here can feel free to respond to it before I do, in fact I encourage you to answer the questions. This is how we keep our community of fellow hobbyists together and connected. We may be a dying breed when it comes to building RC Airplanes from scratch and from balsa kits, but we can keep it alive.

Thanks for your support and keep those questions coming.

Build With Confidence,

Carl Baer

Owner, howtomakercairplanes.com

Filed Under: RC Airplane Q&A

Creating Balsa Sheeting (sheeting wings and fuselage)

Creating the balsa planks necessary to sheet a rc airplane can be a challenge to many people, but if you have the right method, it really is quite simple and actually a lot of fun. I am going to show you the process I use to create the sheeting (planks) for my beechcraft bonanza from TopFlite. I think you will agree after looking over this process, that there really is nothing to it. Of course, I would recommend practicing with some scrap pieces before attempting to create them for your actual model airplane. So let's go ahead and look at the steps to create balsa sheeting for an radio control airplane.

Balsa Sheeting For RC Planes…Easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6

Step 1. Use a smooth even surface to lie your planks on before you begin. I like to use a glass table, but even a flat wood board will suffice, just make sure that it is large enough to accommodate your sheets of balsa wood. As you can see from the photo below, this is where I make my balsa sheeting.

Step 2. I used two 3 inch x 36 inch balsa sheets that will be glued together to make the final 6 inch wide planks that will be used to create the wing center section. When you are preparing to make sheeting, whether for the wing or the fuselage of your model airplane, you have to take the time to trim the edges of the balsa sheets that will be joined. You will never find any wood that you buy to be true and straight. So never assume you can just glue two pieces together and it will turn out just fine.

Step 3. Trimming the balsa sheets in preparation for your rc airplanes skin is an important step, don't skip it. Probably one of the easiest methods for creating straight and true edges is to use a straight edge and a hobby knife to trim the balsa straight. As you can see in the pictures, I like to use a metal yardstick and clamps to hold everhthing secure to my glass table (see the pictures below).

Step 4. Creating balsa sheets for an rc airplane is seen as a daunting task to many model airplane builders, but following these steps can make it really simple, just as easy as gluing two pieces of balsa together. But before we get to that step, we need to do this step. Now we use masking tape to pull and hold the two balsa sheets together. Building rc airplanes uses a lot of ordinary household items to build them and I say this because some people think you need to use fancy tools to build really amazing rc airplanes. You don't and I know this from building radio control airplanes for almost 30 years. So let's continue with taping the two balsa sheets together. You have to use a bit of pulling when you tape the sheets. What I mean by this is to place the tape on one sheet and pull the tape slightly as you put the tape onto the other balsa sheet. You will know you have done it correctly when you see the balsa sheets bow (as seen in the pictures).

Building rc airplanes requires a bag of tricks that you develop over time in order to finish a model, but the good news is that you can build a great model airplane even after your first attempt.

Filed Under: Building The Wing Center Section

Working Late On My Beechcraft Bonanza Equals Oops!

Well, I was working on the center section of my wing for my beechcraft bonanza and made a mistake. It was not caused by anything else but staying up too late when I should have called it quits hours ago. So, a lesson for any newbies. Stop working before it gets too late, or at least take a break. For me personally, I get into a groove and forget the time, but when it is getting past midnight, it is time to stop.

I was making good progress with the wing center section. I had finished securing the ribs and spars to the magnetic building board (as you can see here).

rc airplane spar webs, leading edge doubler and ribs glued together

I had temporaially glued the leading edge doubler to the front of the wing center section, but as I looked it over closely, I noticed that I forgot to glue the part together correctly. At this point, I had 2 choices to fix the leading edge doubler. I could try to pry the two plywood pieces apart, or I could go ahead and make 2 new parts from scrap wood that I had saved. Which, leads me to my next important point for all new builders of rc airplanes to get into the habit of, save your scrap wood from your building projects. You will amass a big pile of wood over time and it is worth it, becuase you never know when you are going to make a mistake.

Below is a video of how I fixed the parts using scrap plywood from a previous model airplane that I built. So remember, save your wood for future mistakes, because when you stay up late, be prepared for a mistake.

Filed Under: Latest Building Tutorial

Wing Ribs Glued To Main Spar

I am glad that I have the magnetic building board to build my model airplane with. It really make a difference when it comes to building accurately. I really believe that it makes the best building scenario for rc airplane building. You are essentially creating custom fixtures every time you build a new model. This is really cool.

So at present, I have finished up gluing the doublers

Filed Under: Building The Wing Center Section, Latest Building Tutorial

How To Fix A RC Plane Building Mistake

You hear about it and you read about it, and if you build enough rc airplanes, you will experience it too. Making mistakes when building a part for your model airplane is inevitable. As sure as CA glue will cure to your skin in less than a second, you can be assured that you will miss a step when building your next radio control airplane.

Now that we have established this, the real question is, what do we do about it?
Well, lucky for you, I just made a mistake while building the center section for my beechcraft bonanza’s wing and now you can see what not to do. I was moving along and making good progress and was not taking my time and thought that I could do no wrong. My clue should have been that it was one o’clock in the morning, never a good time to build, let this be a lesson to all of you out there (you know who you are ).
My mistake is your gain. Now if you encounter a similar prediciment, you will now how to solve the problem.

Here is what happened….
I have placed my ribs on top of the basswood main spar on my plans and slid the plywood spar web over them. They were laid out perfectly to the plans, so I proceeded to the next steps, gluing on the leading edge doubler and the trailing edge center spar web. I took the time to clamp all the parts down, aligned everything to the plans and began gluing it all together, feeling confident in my handiwork. This is where things went oops.

Soon after finishing gluing everything in, I found that I had not sanded the slots for the dowel doublers. Unfortunately, I couldn’t simply unglue everything and start over. Instead I needed a plan to make it work.

Here is the solution…
As with any rc airplane building project, you will come across an obstacle that no instruction manual will help you with, and most likely no book on building rc planes either. There are just too many circumstances that come about when building a rc plane (or anything for that matter). The best solution is…experience. When you have built enough model airplanes, you develop an arsenal of tricks to get yourself out of big messes (and you will get into some big messes).

Anyway, watch the video below to see how I figured out a simple way to get back on track with building my beechcraft bonanza rc plane.

Filed Under: Latest Building Tutorial

Reviewing The DU-BRO Tube Bending Tool

I like to review new tools that I get and this one is no different. Recently I received the DU-BRO tube bending tool for annealed brass tubing. At first I was a bit skeptical as I have seen many supposed tools for bending tubing, most require a bit of finesse to truly make them worthwhile.

I am happy to say that when it came time to bend some 1/8th inch brass tubing for my model airplanes fuel tank breather line, I was pleasantly surprised with the results. It made any bend that I required. I could even place the tubing back in the tool and bend it a little more to accommodate my needs. There were no kinks or caved in walls in the brass fuel tubing. It was a clean and smooth bend. This bending tool is a great addition to my arsenal of rc airplane building accessories.

How Does The RC Airplane Bending Tool Work?

It uses two handles (lever arms) that are hinged to a mounting plate that holds a machined brass roller (this is not hardened, so make sure your tubing is annealed before using it). Your tubing rests in a tube itself that rests your brass tubing on top of the roller. Now you simply push the handles together until you achieve the correct bend for your rc building project. The result, no more kinked tubes, caved in tubes or scrapped brass tubing. You can be a beginner rc hobbyist and still get it right the first time. Say goodbye to filling tubes with sand or attempting to bend it by hand (or one of my favorites, filling a tube with water and freezing it). Go forth fellow hobbyists and confidently bend tubing to your hearts content.

In the video below I review how the tool works and show some results of bent tubing that came out really perfect. I believe the best tools are the ones that take the simplest approach and the Dubro tube bending tool is no different. You cannot get much simpler than two levers and a pivot point around a brass roller. This simple design lends itself perfectly to making tube bending a breeze for any of your rc airplane projects requiring this product.

Filed Under: Latest Building Tutorial, Product Reviews

Building Center Section Of RC Plane Wing

Building any portion of an rc airplane requires a proper setup, as you have seen in the previous post (leveling rc plane building board). If you are not leveling your building surface before building your rc planes, then don’t be surprised when your plane is warped and difficult to fly…

Ok, back to the details of the construction of the wing center section. I began with laying the plans on the building board (remember that for constucting the wing center section of my rc plane, I am using a magnetic building board).

The following video details how to protect and cover your plans, like most modelers, when I started, I did not cover them. The first time that I glued the plans to my model, was when I realized that it was not such a good idea when building rc planes. Soon after that I started covering them with wax paper (thanks dad). Now, I know that many of you still like to use good ol’ wax paper, but keep an open mind and check out the video.

Building a straight and true center section for a rc airplane is all about proper preparation. Usually when I remove the ribs from the die cut sheets, I take the time to sand each one (of course do not alter the airfoil shape). In the early days I used to just remove them from the die cut sheet and just start building a part for one of my model planes. Now I know that just because they were die cut parts, doesn’t mean they are free from rough edges and what not. So clean up those edges first, alright.

As you can see in the picture set, I have the ribs removed and I am ready to glue on the doublers for added strength to the wing ribs that will be holding the wing to the fuselage in my beechcraft bonanza model plane.