Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks

From homemade fuel line barbs to an inventive storage space for wings, our team of editors and contributors has the answers you’re looking for. Here are 4 workshop tips that we hope will make your time in the shop more enjoyable and efficient. Enjoy!

 

HEAT SHRINK SECURITY
Use heat-shrink tubing to secure your receiver battery connector to your ignition or radio-power switch. It’s an inexpensive way to ensure that it never comes loose in flight to cause a crash. It’s easy to remove with a hobby knife and does not leave a sticky residue behind, like tape does.

Model Airplane News - RC Airplane News | Tips & Tricks

 

HOMEMADE FUEL-LINE BARBS

Don’t you hate it when the fuel line comes off inside the fuel tank? It usually causes a dead stick and damage to the model. To avoid this, wind copper wire onto the brass fuel tube and cut the wire with pliers to produce one ring of copper wire near the end. Clean the joint, and solder the ring to the tube. Use just enough solder to form a small fillet around the wire and ring, and let it cool off. Slide your silicone or Tygon gas fuel line in place, and secure with a tie wrap.

Model Airplane News - RC Airplane News | Tips & Tricks

 

SIMPLE BALANCER
Check out this simple, homemade device to find the center of gravity for your model. Use an old aluminum landing gear from your repair box, a 12-inch piece of scrap wood for the base, and a couple of bolts with large washers. It’s easy to make modifications to fit your needs, and it’s portable.

 

Model Airplane News - RC Airplane News | Tips & Tricks

 

GARAGE STORAGE SPACE

When you need more storage space for wings, the garage door can work nicely. Just fasten the wings to an individual door panel (the wing needs to fit within perimeter of panel) with a strap and foam padding. With the garage door closed or open, the wings stay out of the way.

Model Airplane News - RC Airplane News | Tips & Tricks

3 Comments

  1. You don’t FIND the C/G! You use the device to insure the model BALANCES on or near the designed C/G. Nose-heavy planes don’t fly well … tail-heavy planes don’t fly long.

  2. If you’re going to attach wings to your garage door, be sure to mount them high enough they won’t get smashed on your car, or the junk you have stored, when the door closes.

  3. I think what was meant by “find” was to help in achieving the correct cg by balancing the plane and shifting components until correct. In a sense thats what a cg balancer is fore. You mark where its supposed to balance and then you try and ‘find” a way to achieve it.

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