Recently I've been focussed on finishing off my radio controlled model SpeedTwin ST-2. This guy is not the biggest model I've built in terms of wingspan, but it wins in terms of chunkiness and complexity. I started it in 2012, but it stalled at some point because everything was blocked …
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CNC cut control horns
I was at a loose end during today's bank holiday so I decided to do a mini-project (with bonus recycling features) and make a set of control horns for my radio controlled SpeedTwin ST-2.
After deciding on a sensible size for the control horns I drew them up in DraftSight …
read moreHot Wire Cutter
While building my model SpeedTwin ST2 I needed to neatly cut some foam. Since I had a bunch of 6mm laser safe ply available and needed to cut some other bits the next day I decided to design my own hot wire cutter and cut the parts out at the …
read moreTricopter
I've been neglecting this blog recently due to various distractions but have several projects I want to write up. Around April I found myself with the urge to build a multicopter. In the end I settled on a tricopter design as it's a little unusual and because the wider angle …
read moreeShapeOko Part 3 - Tidying up
Having had the ShapeOko for over a year now I've used it for quite a few projects, but nowhere near as many as I intended. Part of the reason for this is that the controller for the machine was still rather jury rigged so setting it up was a hassle …
read moreSimple PCB drilling jig
Recently I've been making a lot of printed circuit boards. One of the common problems I run into is aligning holes correctly when hand drilling. This is especially troublesome on boards with large arrays of pins, such as my hexapod controller (I promise I'll write that up soon!). A misaligned …
read moreArcade Control Panels
Charlie's SuperGun had me inspired to build my own at some point, but I thought I'd start at the other end and build some appropriate controllers first. Partly as a birthday present to myself I decided to make a pair of arcade control panels.
After a long time reading SlagCoin …
read moreSTOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP
I've been a bit quiet on here for a while, and slacking on the PCB milling experiments I've been meaning to do, though I have made some progress on that front.
Anyway, here's what I got sidetracked by building:
This is a small budget hexapod, using 18 of the cheapest …
read moreeShapeOko Part 2 - Mechanicals
Building the mechanical parts of the eShapeOko was fairly straightforward, but there are some problems and modifications I made that are worth writing about.
The first task of the assembly was to tap the MakerSlide sections to add a screw thread. This was my first try at tapping anything, but …
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Unholy Chalupa MKIII
Beware: unreasonably long post ahead. I probably should've posted this in chunks, but was hoping to fly the model first. That always seemed to be just around the corner, but thanks to British weather and seasonal man-flu that still hasn't happened.
The original Chalupa is a model aircraft I designed …
read moreUpdate
I've had a sudden burst of motivation this morning, possibly due to a nice model flying day finally turning up (maybe the second this year!). I thought I'd use this to make a post since I've not updated in a while. I have a bunch of projects on the go …
read moreGlider Restoration Part 4 - Finishing touches
The weather today was unexpectedly awesome so it would have been a crime to not try and take the glider out for a flight. I had to quickly make a few finishing touches before it was ready to go.
First off the connectors were soldered to the motor and ESC …
read moreGlider Restoration Part 3 - Fuselage
With the wings complete I moved on to restoring the fuselage of the glider. I'd originally intended to use the existing fuselage and just straighten it up. Unfortunately, when I came to look at it closer the plywood construction had warped more than I thought. I started trying to disassemble …
read moreGlider Restoration Part 2 - Finishing the wings
To finish off the wingtips, I cut off the spars at an angle and cut some tip skins based on the plans. These were glued and pinned into place then sanded to provide a smooth finish and to blend in with the leading and trailing edges.
With the tips finished …
read moreSpace saving wall art
I seem to have too many model planes nowadays, and storage was fast becoming a problem. During a bout of boredom, I dug up some screws and hooks and attached them to the wall above my desk. Now they look cool, and I have loads of extra space!
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Model glider restoration
I've had a Precedent Hi-Fly model glider lying around waiting to be repaired for years now. I originally built it with my dad. Well, he did most of the building; I suspect my main contribution was nagging him to get it finished. Unfortunately, we didn't really know what we were …
read moreMittens and Snowdrop action figures
I got close to biting off more than I could chew recently in the process of making a Secret Santa gift. With Mata as my 'victim' I decided to make some little action figures of the Mittens and Snowdrop characters from one of his animations.
The initial plan was to …
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